First Day at Hannibal

The first thing this morning, I started the day by walking into Hannibal high school by mistake. Fortunately, the middle school is practically next door.

I walk into the office and the receptionist tells me the head secretary wants to talk to me. She introduces herself, shakes my hand, gives me a badge and asks me if I have any questions. And this is in a clean, well lit and organized office in which students are talking to staff in a normal voice. Then I walk down the clean wide hallway with matching and well painted purple lockers. Yep, not in Blodgett anymore. I knew this is what it would be like, but it still took a moment. My teacher, Mrs. Jennifer Peters, is a bit of an old-school ELA teacher stereotype, though I believe she is a couple of years younger than me, she has the teacher look with the bangs and low ponytail, looking over glasses and suit coats. She is friendly but old fashioned and spent much of the day teaching from a podium. She does get snappy with the students, but she maintains control.

Of course, not five minutes after I walk in, the math teacher walks in and says what's your name? I say Butler. She said, no You're Chrissa Duttinger. Sigh. It was someone from high school, a year ahead of me, but she married someone from my grade. Jennifer Stoutenger Pitcher. The thing is, I am certainly heavier than I was in high school, but I look a lot the same. And I always stood out ...maybe it was dark looks or being in drama or whatever. I remembered her when she said it.

Speaking of dark looks, besides the token Asian girl adopted by white people and maybe two Italian looking kids, I was the darkest person in the grade. These kids couldn't have been whiter. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

My teacher, and my ex-classmate turned math teacher, are buddies. The like to vent to each other about how bad the kids behave and how low skill they are. When Mrs. Peters asked me about the city schools, I told her that they were low level and that violence was a problem. She said to me that I'd find it wasn't so different there. Not shocked. I have found that anyone who actually hasn't spent time in a school like Blodgett genuinely doesn't realize how bad it is. But as the day moved forward, I wasn't surprised to learn that yes, her students could read and write basic sentences.

She is right...they are low level. But they have begun higher thinking skills, something in Syracuse you couldn't get them to understand. She's doing Rikki Tikki Tavi. And by the way, they shut up when threatened with detention or the office. There are no students running through the halls during class. They do talk here and there and many of them aren't too interested in doing their work. But they sit in their seats and they don't hit each other. But, they struggle. Rural poverty has definitely influenced their vocabulary and comprehension. Progress reports were handed out and many of the grades were poor, mostly because they don't do their work, though they are allowed to hand it in.

Today, the period started with a vocabulary quiz and many of them had no idea what "cunning" meant though they had been told to study it. It seems at Hannibal, the students aren't pushed by their parents to do their work at all. I sat in a student teacher conference with a father who only gets his kid every other weekend and wants to help him not fail.

These kids are not on the right path and the schools' test scores were low enough where the state has done two audits and the district will have to implement their suggestions. But I see a lot of potential. These kids would start to get a spark here and there, whereas sometimes in the city you just felt like you could never get them where they need to be because they are so far behind.

My teacher has an 11 month old named Abigail, so it was nice to have that in common. She was a lot more approachable than my last teacher; easier to read. But she isn't giving me the classroom until November 14; she has a lot more structure she would like me to follow. I am teaching Tom Sawyer. Wish me luck.