Proctoring...gone wrong.

Last week I proctored my first practice ACT exam at a high school on the south side (I have now become an expert on the various neighborhoods of southern Chicago).  Throughout the duration of the ACT course, the students are encouraged to take practice ACT exams on Saturday mornings, under real-life circumstances, in preparation for the real ACT in April.  I was given the what some may term as simple task of proctoring the exam; a task that I assumed would consist of me sitting at a desk towards the front of the room, keeping time while leisurely reading a book.

Boy, was I was wrong.

A handful of students took it upon themselves to devote the four hour testing period to catch up on weeks of sleep, while others decided to whip out their combs and nail files.

Most students selectively chose their favorite section and decided to throw small pieces of paper around during the rest of the test.  When a small piece of paper fight led to a dictionary being chucked across the room I realized that I had to take control.  So, I walked towards the back of the room and I did something that I have seldom done before; I raised my voice.  And I broke out the sarcasm.

"Seriously, do I need to actually separate you two?  Some students in the room actually want to go to college and don't need to be disrupted."

Surprisingly, it seemed to work and the students stopped throwing things at one another.

As I walked back towards the front of the classroom I heard one of the female students voices, "What the hell are you staring at?"

Luckily I had been facing the opposite direction so I knew she wasn't talking to me (those who know me know that I sometimes have a staring problem).

"I ain't staring at you, you b*tch," the girl to her left replied.
"You didn't just call me that.  You wh*re," she retorted.
"It's better to be a wh*re than a b*tch," the other student shot right back.
"Ohh," the class echoed in unison.

I marched towards the girls and took my place directly in between them.

"How about we argue about this after the test?" I suggested, slightly fearful that a fist fight was going to break out any moment.  "I am going to stand here for the rest of the test," I stated as I took my place.

A moment later I hear loud tapping, as I glance over and see a student forcefully tapping away on her cell phone.  I figured this was better than a dictionary being tossed, or a fist fight, so I pretended not to notice.

"Excuse me," a student in the back row called for my attention.
"Yes?"
She's distracting me," he stated.
"You don't seem to have opened your test booklet yet and we're on Section 3, so please tell me what she is distracting you from," I replied.

The boy quieted down and returned to gesturing with the girl outside the window.

I sure showed them.

Frost bitten.

So, this week I taught another day at Gage Prep, which went surprisingly well, based off how my first day went. Since I still don’t know most of the students’ names, I decided to pick out students at random and ask them to read. About halfway through the lesson one of the teachers in the room walked to the front and handed me a piece of paper which read, “Do NOT call on: the girl in the blue sweater to your left, the three boys and one girl in the back right corner.” This caught me a bit off guard, wondering exactly what might have happened if I had indeed called on them. After class the teacher informed me that those students had never learned to read. There I was trying to teach these students all about how to analyze science passages and understand charts and graphs, only to find out that some of the students didn’t even know how to read.

Thursday I began teaching at Bogan High School, a high school about twenty blocks south of Gage Prep. The former teacher had quit after just two sessions there, so I was a bit hesitant to begin. After making my way through the metal detector I found my way to the classroom. This was an after-school class, so it contained about fifteen students that had chosen to sign up for the class and seemed to be more encouraged to learn. About ten minutes into class a fight broke out in the hallway just outside my door and I became silent. “Am I supposed to go out there and handle this?” I asked my students. “No, you better stay inside,” Darius answered, “We don’t want you to get hurt.”

Thursday night I met up for drinks with Juan, a Mexican man I found on Craigslist who was looking to learn English. I am trying to learn Spanish, so I figured a language exchange with him would be ideal. It turned out Juan wasn’t as young as I anticipated, but our exchange went well and we decided to continue teaching one another once a week.




I am going to preface the remainder of this post by describing the current weather here in Chicago. The weather these past few days has averaged at a solid 10 degrees, with the wind chill making it feel like 1 degree. Despite wearing a bottom layer of spandex everywhere I go, I am constantly going numb in my toes, fingers and even my mouth. When a man asked me a question at the bus stop, it took all the energy I had to part my lips and respond. So, returning home on Thursday night to find that the heat in our apartment had broken wasn’t the best of surprises. As I sit here and write this, I am bundled up in layers upon layers with my winter coat, hat, scarf and gloves to top it off. I feel like I put a spell on myself from complaining so much about the cold. Let’s just say, I will never complain again…

Chi-town

So, I have officially moved to Chicago, Chi-town, the "Windy City," whatever you want to call it. And I can confirm that it does in fact live up to it's cold, windy reputation. I guess the residents here put up with the cold months of winter, for all that Chicago offers in the spring and summer.



My first two weeks have been spent applying for jobs, meeting all of Dan's friends, accepting the fact that I don't have any of my own, decorating the apartment with free things from alleyways and cheap things from Craigslist and surviving the un-shoveled streets while managing to avoid frost bitten toes. All in all, a success.

I am here until May when I depart with my friend Vikki on a one-month long bike trip. My goal until then is to use Craigslist to create a tutoring empire and work as many part-time jobs as possible, so that I don't feel guilty about leaving in a few months time.

Getting my first part-time job here seemed a bit too easy. By day two, I was at my first day of training to become a tutor for Revolution Prep, a company offering ACT and SAT test preparation classes all throughout the country. I had informed the coordinator while interviewing that I had never taken the ACT, since on the east coast the SAT is much more common. She eased my nerves and convinced me that even without taking the test, I would be able to teach a test prep class.

She assigned me to Gage Park High School, a high school on the south side of Chicago, where they were offering an ACT prep class for free, to underprivileged students who otherwise would have been unable to afford it.

I accepted.

I arrived to Gage Park High School for my first day of class a bit early, unsure of what to expect. As I placed my bag onto the moving scanning machine and walked through the metal detector, it hit me...I was in the ghetto.

I found my way to my classroom and introduced myself to the teacher who would be monitoring the class while I taught. I wrote my name on the board and took my place at the podium to wait for the students to arrive. Slowly, the students began to pile in. With iPods in their ears, cell phones in their hands and pants sweeping the floor, about forty students took their seats.

Here goes nothing.

Teacher: "Everyone sit down. This is Miss Gantenhammer, she is going to be taking over the class on Mondays and Wednesdays from now through April."

Students: "Woah, that's a long name."

Me: "You can call me Miss G."

Teacher: "No you can't, you can call her Miss Gantenhammer, because that is her name and you are old enough to say it."

Not off to a great start.

The remainder of the class time was spent introducing the students to the ACT, and explaining the importance of the exam if they plan to attend college. Most of my comments were met with blank stares, as the students threw things at one another and left the room to get water and returned with chips. Once in a while their teacher would cut me off to discipline the students.

Teacher: "Jamal, can you repeat what I just said?"

Jamal: "Hell yeah I can. Can you repeat what I just said?"

Teacher: "It's important for you all to go to college."

Student: "Damn right, I gotta support my child."

On Wednesday, we start Science review. It's going to be an interesting three months...