Our first GED of the year!

E called today to tell me she had just found out online that she passed the GED exam--and not by just a little bit!  She had an average score of 530 which is good enough to enable her to enroll at IUSB.  She said she would come back to class to talk to everyone.

E is in her mid-twenties.  She has been a dedicated student and very involved in knowing and deciding what she needed to work on.  I asked her once if she would have had that kind of motivation when she was 17 or 18 like my younger students who have such poor work habits.  I wish I could remember what she said.  I know she said she always liked school and liked to read and that certainly helps.  She has a ten year old child but I think she said she tried to go to school again after she was born but it just didn't work.

In any case, this was her time to stick with it and do well.  And now she can go on with her life.

A miracle!

Over the years, I have sent several students to take the GED exam with pretty definite expectations of their passing.  Sometimes they don't and I am disappointed and of course, so are they!  Sometimes it's just one test that is below the minimum. But this time, the best possible outcome happened!

T has been in our classes off and on for three years.  We chatted in the spring almost four years ago and put her on the list for the fall.  At that point she was pregnant and caring for ten siblings because her mother had a stroke.  Over the summer, I recognized her name in the news when her newborn died under suspicious circumstances.  After investigation, it was determined that the baby died of SIDs.  T came to class the following fall with her 2 year old and three of her sisters of whom she had custody.  She has always been a class leader and an example to others.  One of the child care aides said "T is a gift."  She was the one who would be willing to speak on our behalf in public settings.  She even became trained in the Talk With Your Baby program and started leading sessions for others this fall at St. Margaret's House, a drop-in center in our city.

Last spring I applied for accommodations for T.  She passed the predictor tests without much to spare and only by taking them in the office by herself where she could read aloud, take her time, and use a calculator.  After months of waiting we were turned down by the official GED testing board because there was not enough discrepancy between her potential and her achievement.  This is no longer the definition of a learning disability in most assessments, but that was the reason given.  

T decided to go ahead and take the test anyway.  She felt terrible about her performance, saying she didn't have nearly enough time to do well.  I gave her credit for her courage in trying.

Meanwhile, I began to pursue other ways to get her accommodations.  I talked to the head of assessment of the school corporation and he advised I talk to the head of special education which I planned to do after Christmas break. 

Yesterday I was in the GED examiner's office working on attendance records.  I asked hesitantly if T's scores were in and learned that she had passed the exam!  I could not believe it, but I saw the numbers on the paper.  Every test was at least 20 points over the minimum and one was well over so she had a passing average--barely over the average, but barely is good enough!  

I called her and told her to check the documents online site where she could learn her scores.  She said she didn't have internet access, so I told her the good news.  She asked if I was happy!  Of course!  I was so happy that I have been telling everyone since then-- everyone in the adult education office, our small group that prayed for her, our church council that met last night, and all those who worked with her over the years in Family Literacy.  

Passing the GED demands a certain amount of ability including abstract thinking and skill in doing multi-step math problems.  It's not easy.  But she did it.  She has worked hard, but it takes more than hard work.  I am so grateful that she achieved this first step in opening doors for her.  Now we'll see what is next!

The Gospel According to St. Luke

I heard the Christmas story afresh yesterday and I was grateful.

It was our last day of classes so we had a brunch for the first class and a lunch for the second class.  I put a few activities on the whiteboard asking them to estimate the distance from South Bend to the North Pole, to do a Christmas calculator activity and word search, and to find the Christmas story in the Bible.  I found several Bibles of various sorts on the shelf upstairs where Granger Community Church stores books.

In the first class, I think E was the only one who could find the story in Luke 2.  When he told us the story was in Luke, several were able to find it in the table of contents of their Bibles.  Many had no idea of where to start.  When someone opens the Bible and reads Psalms, pronouncing both the "p" and the "s" and then reads Job with a short vowel, you know that Bibles are not familiar books to him or her.  I asked E to read us the story and he did so slowly and beautifully with his Kenyan accent.  We were all perfectly quiet, following along in our own Bibles.  I felt as if I were hearing it for the first time as possibly some of the students were doing so.   We also found the story of the wise men in Matthew and then others read that aloud.

The second class had a couple of students who knew the story was found in Luke.  There were others who expressed surprise that there was a Christmas story in the Bible.  Were they thinking the Christmas story was about Santa or Rudolf?  I don't know.

B had called in the morning and said she wanted to come back.  She said she had gotten into trouble which I knew.   I said it was our last day and we would meet again in January.  Later I called her and invited her to come today to eat and work.  I was thinking that she would be able to hear the Christmas story too.

In typical fashion, students in the first class brought food to share--soda, donuts, a chicken dish, an egg dish.  We had a feast!  Students in the afternoon class brought nothing but did enjoy the food immensely!  One woman called her mother to tell her about the spread--saying it was "fire!"

Shoplifting

Tuesday Tara subbed for me.  The plan was to give a cumulative math quiz and then use her computer expertise to check on the students' use of the  ITTS online program.  She emailed me that the class sessions went well, but the problem came after class.  She was kind enough to give B a ride to Walmart so she could get some posterboard for a presentation for her probation officer.  When B did not return to the car, she went in after her and found her in police custody for shoplifting.  I am curious about what this will do to her probation status.  Surely she was not shoplifting the posterboard.  She must have seen something else that appealed to her.  I wonder if she'll be back in class.  She must have received my warning letter and still returned last Tuesday.  The saga will continue!  Or possibly my role in it will end.

Who am I? The AM teacher or the PM teacher?

I'm flying from South Bend to San Francisco.  We're near Casper, Wyoming right now.  It's a long flight.  

Earlier this week I said I couldn't wait to get away.  It has been a week of contrasts—and I feel as if I have two different teacher personalities as I meet my two classes.  Today I met the morning class only so I am able to leave with a warm feeling about work.  

This morning was an exceptionally cohesive morning with only five students.   I don't know why there were so few.   It was very cold and windy outside.  Attendance always seems lower on Thursdays. Four of the five who came are really adults and test at middle school level or above.  

They wondered where C was because she is always there.  I said that she was in trouble and when I had asked her foster mother how we could help, she said pray for her.  W asked immediately if she was locked up and I did not say—but that is exactly where she is.  Their concern is an example of the positive classroom climate that is beginning to occur.

Our group lesson was on the Pythagorian Theorem and they were really engaged in learning how it worked.  E's reaction was to  call being in class “sweet.”   He was concerned about how one could find a square root without a calculator because after all, in the old days, we didn't have calculators.  I really couldn't remember how we did it, but suggested trial and error or guess and check.  M went to the computer and found a you-tube video in Spanish, unfortunately, that showed how to do it.  The lesson went so well that I pulled out an example of a problem from the GED predictor and they were all able to solve it easily.  N said he was really learning things. When he did make a mistake, he quickly admitted he had not read carefully. He said that he knew this was the place to make mistakes.  N left today saying “Thank you for being the way you are!”  

So that's the morning class.  Yesterday's afternoon class went well enough too—mostly because A and D and B were absent.  I wrote up warnings for both A and B and mailed them this morning.  It was so clear that those three are the culprits behind making that such a difficult class to manage.  I was able to handle the very low-skilled students with patience when I was not distracted by the talking and inability to work that they demonstrate daily.  I contrast their rudeness with E's calling me “Madam" in the morning! 

Have I written about B's using J's lighter to melt her hair extensions—in class?  Did I say that A refused to move to a private place to test and to stop talking while testing?  For good measure, I added B's inability to make any gains in two months on post-tests and A's unexcused absences twice in the last two weeks on my written warnings. 

At one point, I really raised my voice in the afternoon class.  I don't want to be that way.  I can't seem to figure out a way to coax mature behavior and concentration and respect from those three in particular.  It will be better for all of us if they drop out, but it makes me sad.

So I will concentrate on the progress the morning students are making and the positive feedback they give me.  And I will be glad to have a week—almost two weeks away from class.  

It is definitely a new job!

A follow up on B is that she made absolutely no gains on the post-test she took.  She did work quietly on the test and took a long time to do it.  She told me of a friend who got a GED in just 20 days when she was locked up.  She said she was going to take the test herself in December.  I told her it was very hard and she needed at least a 9th grade level in her work to pass.  I asked her if she wanted to try a practice test.

She spent probably two or three times the time limit in taking the reading predictor test and still failed it by quite a bit.  When I showed her the score, she said she'd have to try another one.  The idea of actually learning something in order to improve a score doesn't seem to be a part of her outlook!

On Tuesday I lost patience with D who had failed to take notes on my presentation on something last week and then refused to write an essay this week.  I gave her a topic of writing about a person she admired and she said she didn't admire anyone.  I told her she would not have options for the real GED, but eventually I gave in and gave her a topic of a job she would like to have.  Getting her to write one paragraph and then two paragraphs was so difficult.  She was defiant about not working.  So I wrote out a warning for her,  had her sign it and gave her a copy.  She was angry and said she would transfer to Bendix.  I asked her if she wanted to make the call right then!

I was very frustrated with the immaturity of the afternoon class and was really unsure of how to turn it around.  Maybe I am not the person to teach young black low-skilled teenagers.  At 9:30 pm I had the idea of writing a letter for a proofreading exercise, but in it I would express my thoughts about what adult education needs to be and how it is not worth showing up if you are not ready to work.

Much to my surprise, D and her sister A showed up the next day.  D worked pretty well although A needed reminders to stop singing and talking.  We proofread the letter, but I didn't comment any further on it.

The following day, I gave D a note praising her for coming back and working.  She proofread her essay which was pretty minimal in content and had numerous errors, but I determined could be passing.  She actually had a smile on her face when we finished working on it.

Maybe it will be a turnaround for her.  I know that when I show students that they are worth my high expectations,  they can begin to meet them.  We'll see.  The street is powerful and there are so many bad habits of distractions and noise and frustrations to overcome.

The point about this really being a "new job" is that I do feel I am starting over in many ways.  In Family Literacy, I usually had students from the previous year who knew me and trusted me and helped me set the classroom climate.  Now I have students from Miss Sally's class and they tend to be some of the hardest ones to get to work.  Plus I have these very immature teenagers who were kicked out of school, are in trouble with the law, and have low skills--but expect to get GEDs by their presence in class, not by the hard work of learning to read and write and  do math.

I am not one bit sorry I made the change, but there are definitely new challenges!

"What can you do with a problem like Maria?" or B?

I don't know.  I asked B if she had to be in class because her probation officer said so.  She said she was there because she wanted to be.  I told her I was not sure it was the right place for her because she gets so little done.

Today she came in with her bosom almost completely showing.  I pulled her aside to ask her to cover up.  She pulled up her shirt but it didn't  help much.  I asked her to keep her jacket closed.

Then she wrote a letter and filled out some application instead of doing the assignment on the board or the quiz she missed yesterday.    I  left her alone for quite a while.  When I did ask her to do some work, it was done only after much insistence on my part.  She texted during my instructions to the group and then asked how to do the work.  She began a reading test and even though she had done this on at least three occasions, she wrote in the book instead of the answer sheet.  Then she had to erase and ended up with just a few answers completed in about 20 minutes.

I would find my life much easier if I told her not to come back.  I may have to do that.  I would like  a post-test gain from her but didn't get it on the language test.  I'll try for the reading test tomorrow again.

   She has had almost perfect attendance and has called to be excused when she couldn't come.  I have praised her for that and even wrote an article in the newsletter congratulating her.  But her accomplishments in class have been very little.

  I looked up her IEP and noted that her mother was incarcerated at the time of the case conference and her grandfather acted as her guardian--which was spelled "gaurdian."  Her attendance at that time was very poor and was blamed for her lack of progress in high school.

I have prayed about her tonight.  Maybe there will be an answer tomorrow.  One answer will be that I will allow no cellphones tomorrow.   Maybe I will assign seats again too.

A thank you from 1998!

LeRoy received a response to a blog post for MC3 in which a student from many years ago gave me credit for getting her through the GED class and encouraging her to enter college and the Welfare to Work program.  I do remember her name--but am not sure I remember much else.  I'll have to look up her file which is probably in our basement storage room.  It was a wonderful affirmation!

Patience!

Our afternoon class has too many young, immature and very social students.  It is hard to keep them busy and working.  They are a bit fresh.  D said today in a complaining voice, "I should have stayed in school." I said I agreed.  She said she didn't have any choice because she was kicked out.

R questioned much of what we did today.  He claimed he needed to work on fractions when I had given him a decimal packet.  I showed him how he had missed 3 out of 6 decimal problems on his test.  He said I did things all different than he had learned it before.  I wanted to say, "But you never learned it before!"

  A told him that I had a "smart mouth" but I think she said that with a bit of appreciation.  She made a gain on her reading level as shown on a post-test today.  Suddenly she was willing to try the Social Studies predictor again.  A little success goes a long way.

When I have just five or six in that afternoon class, I can keep it going with out too many distractions.  Today was a good enough day.  My job is to teach these young ones how to work and that work pays off. But it is hard not to get irritated at attitudes and lack of skills.  How can they have gotten this far and not know that you start to measure something with the end of the ruler!

Are you "still..."?

We have noted that after one reaches a certain age, many questions are phrased with the word "still."  Are you still working?  still running?  still living on your own?  still driving?  And today D asked me if I was married and then if my husband was still alive!  I couldn't help but laugh and I kept giggling to myself for the next hour--until I could tell Jim what I was asked!

The world of foster care

It was C's 17th birthday on Monday.  I baked her a cake for Tuesday and then left it on the kitchen counter!  So we enjoyed it today.  Everyone thought my cake (made from a cake mix with purchased frosting) was so moist and wonderful.  C had two pieces.

While standing over the cake, C chatted some.  She told me of the wonderful Kitty cake her foster mother had made for her.  I commented that her foster mother was quite a woman and asked if she was the first foster child for the family.  She said that the family had had foster children for 11 years, as long as they had had biological children.  She said, however, that she was the oldest foster child they have had.

Along that line, she said that when she goes to a "respite" family, her 1 1/2 year old daughter is the youngest foster child that family has had.  She mentioned both of these facts with some pride, I thought.

I don't know why she cannot be with her own family.  Her brother is in jail now.  She was in jail herself for two months before she was in foster care.  I asked if she was pregnant in jail.  I'm not sure of her response, but she did say that she was scheduled for an abortion but had reason to think her baby's daddy would come back to her.  He didn't, but she still continued her pregnancy.

I told her she had sure done a lot of living in her 17 years.

Group work vs. individual work

The afternoon class has too many needy students who cannot work well independently.  This was true even before we added four more low-level students this week.  The classroom was absolutely quiet when we were working together on a lesson on equivalents for fractions, decimals, and percents.  They were busy drawing their 10 by 10 grids, coloring in squares, and recording equivalents.

I think I can handle things better by teaching more as a group--even if it is not perfect for everyone.  I can let the better students work on the computers or on their own and then switch and have the lower level ones work on computers while I help the better students.  There still will be some activities for everyone I hope.

There was far too much chatter today.  The new students are loud and talkative and need to be taught how to work in an adult setting.  I am exhausted, but not discouraged.  It's a challenge!  At least I feel that way today!

The environment makes a difference

In the middle of the night a few weeks ago, I suddenly had an idea of how to reconfigure the tables and chairs in our classroom.  Instead of a big S, we could take those arc-shaped tables and form a big C.  Leroy changed them overnight and it worked!   Now we are centered around the whiteboard which everyone can see.  There is more of a group feeling.

I am also trying to sit more and, maybe for that reason, am less exhausted at the end of the day.  Although with five new students today, I am very tired.

Our poet

I have mentioned J previously, our "by-poler" student.  J gave me a packet of poems he had written.  His poems consist of dense paragraphs on topics of love, the last days, and despair.  They are almost unreadable because of the lack of structure.  He asks how I like them and says he wonders if he should self-publish.

I have tried to encourage him to use the word processor to write the poetry in lines--and to use spell check.  He has difficulty telling where a line should start and end.

We are doing a class newsletter so I thought it would please him to publish one of his poems.  Maybe we could find one that was a bit more understandable than the others.  He turned that idea down quickly saying he didn't want anyone to steal his work!

At the top of the attendance honor roll

B is at the top of the attendance honor roll which will be posted in our October newsletter.  She has not missed even one day since August 30.  Today she came in her Jimmy John's uniform.

B would be at the very bottom of the "on task" honor roll.  She spends a fair amount of time in the bathroom, chatting, on her cell phone (is it always her probation officer?), on Facebook if she can get away with it,  or just asking what she should do next.  We post-tested in language because she had spent a fair amount of what I thought was productive time on a computer program.  Her post-test score did not go up even one point.

Today she did work steadily writing an essay for her probation officer.  She didn't want to show me but I noticed it was about the folly of shoplifting.

What is it that keeps her coming to class?  How can I turn that into productive work?

Threats

Nothing to write about for two weeks?  Maybe.  We are beginning to post-test and students are demonstrating progress.  Usually the morning class is the harder-working one with more mature students.  The afternoon class has three or four young ladies that have a hard time concentrating and would like to chat, use cell phones, and even sneak a look at Facebook!

Today, however, the morning class had a blow-up between two students.  R was helping E with her math and the sounds of their voices bothered S who told them to be quiet.  They didn't hear her, so she pounded on the table and spoke rudely, calling R "Joe" (urban slang says it is a Chicago way of referring to someone you don't know--it seemed more insulting).  He responded in kind.  She thought he was saying he would beat her.  E told her that was not what he said, but he did admit to saying something to the effect that his wife would whup her a...

I insisted they both drop it and they did, but it came up at the end when S wanted to write about it in her journal.  She wrote that he probably beat his baby's mother and went to jail for it.  It's not impossible.  I know he is a convicted felon. There was more discussion outside in which E said that S was from Chicago and that is the way people from Chicago acted--as if that was just expected. I tried to joke and say that we were in South Bend and this was not the way we did!  And R did apologize.

 The most troublesome part was that one of them asked about the other's gang affiliation and both gave their gang names.  I wasn't sure what I was hearing, so I asked E about it after they left.  She said that indeed those were gang names.  I called S afterwards and said there could be no response to any provocation or nor any mention of gangs or she would be kicked out of class.  I tried to call R as well, but he did not call back.

So what will happen tomorrow?  I would regret either one of them having to leave class, but especially if R would have to leave.  He and his wife were in my class many years ago when they were young and unmarried.  But I will not put up with ugliness in the class.  I don't really feel threatened by it--just a bit angry and disappointed that all this hostility can come out so easily.  R was not in class last week and when asked about it, first thing this morning,  said it was a long story.  I let it go and was just glad to have him back.

Our man from Kenya

When we were labeling continents on a world map, E drew in his home country of Kenya.  He told us about Lake Victoria and how it was the source of the Nile.  He found Madagascar off the coast of Kenya.  The students asked him what it was like there.  "Were the homes like ours?" they wondered.  He told them the cities looked like ours, but the villages had mud homes.  I asked him if he had any photos to bring us.

The following day he wore a shirt covered with many colorful animals.  He showed us several carvings of animals, including a pair of giraffes and a zebra.  He opened a large cloth also covered with animal drawings in black and white.  He told us about the acacia tree pictured with the animals and how its gum could be used for toothaches.  He had some beaded jewelry which impressed the young ladies.

I had brought in some New York Times today to do a lesson on finding places in the news and labeling their latitude and longitude.  E asked me if he could have our used New York Times because he missed being able to hear news about Africa since our local newspaper has gone really local and rarely has any national, let alone international news.  It will be a pleasure to recycle our newspaper in that way!

By poler?

A new student in class wrote on his registration form that he was "by poler".  He is definitely unusual and his skills are quite uneven.  He certainly doesn't spell very well. 

My problem student and her friends

On Thursday, B once again asked one of her questions:  "How come you put the board where I can't see it?"   I suggested she move to a different chair and then asked "How come you ask so many questions?" Her friend A got on me and told me I was rude and if I didn't want students to ask questions, I shouldn't be a teacher and should find another profession.  Wow!  I decided to let it all go and not respond in kind! 

That was the right thing to do.  Later in the hour, she referred to her sister as retarded for not knowing something.  I said that was hurtful even when kidding and that she had hurt my feelings earlier.  She actually apologized and all was well. 

I do think I will talk about what kind of questions are always appropriate and what kinds are not.

And one more thing I have to do today before tomorrow's class is to call B and tell her to dress appropriately for class.  No more cleavage.  No more breasts bulging out of tight tank tops.  She won't like it but it needs to be done!

Who is that fellow reading magazines during class?

Last week Monday I assisted two new teachers at a site across town.  I did a group lesson on large numbers asking the students to estimate the population of their city, state, country--and then the earth.  I tried to get one older fellow sitting at a table all by himself involved, but he said that he was just there waiting for someone.  As the lesson progressed, he got involved in spite of himself because he had an idea for the population of earth and no one else was eager to guess.  I sent him to the board and he correctly wrote his 6.9 billion. 

Later, I learned that he was a police officer there to guard one of the young men in the class!  I have been amused all week that he became a part of the class even if he was just there to wait for someone!

Two weeks feels good

We've had six sessions in each class.  I have a total of 12 students but I am not enrolling two of them until I see them show up a few more times.  I am physically tired at the end of six hours of contact time (lunch time disappears quickly with early arrivals), but I think I can learn to manage that better if I change the configuration of the classroom.  I need to sit more for my sake and also for a calmer atmosphere in which students come up to me for help--or I call them up to me for help. 

My morning class is easier and more varied than the afternoon class.  C is a 16 year old mother of a 1 1/2 year old child who lives in foster care.  E is a 68 year old immigrant from Kenya.  He is proud that of his ten children, eight are college graduates and says now it is his turn to get an education.  In Kenya he was a primary school teacher.  His mother, at age 98, is still running a curio shop in Nairobi--so he thinks he has many years ahead of him as well!  I think that four of the five students have jobs which is amazing to me. 

The afternoon class is all young women including my problem child B!  I hope I can keep a sense of humor in dealing with her.  Yesterday, after going over three definitions contributed by the class, she asked when we were going to tell her what those words on the board meant.  Where was she?  Physically present, but obviously not mentally there.  She is often physically absent as well--many trips to the bathroom--for phone calls?  Maybe.  She calls me Miss and sometimes Miss Sally (her teacher last year) while E, our gentleman from Kenya, calls me Madam. 

I wonder if better students pick a morning class and those who can't get up early choose the afternoon.  In that way there is self-selection going on.  I am learning that I can't keep the classes together in the skills I teach.  My plan book is now split down the middle! 

There are rewards!

HEY MARY,

YOU KNOW I HAVE TO CHECK IN WITH YOU EVERY NOW AND THEN. JUST WANTING TO KNOW HOW THINGS ARE GOING FOR YOU NOW DAYS.

MY SON CAMERON AND I ARE DOING WELL. HE STARTED FIRST GRADE THIS YEAR AND LOVES IT! I'M DOING A LOT IN MY CHURCH AS WELL AS WORKING FOR OUR CHURCH DAYCARE.

ALSO I'LL BE MARRIED 3 YEARS IN OCTOBER!! THAT'S EXCITING! MY HUSBAND AND I ARE DOING WELL. I FOUND ME A GOOD MAN AND I THANK GOD FOR HIM.

WELL I HOPE TO HEAR FROM YOU SOON,  D

This was an email I received earlier this week.  Wonderful to hear good news like this.  

I want to show this to my parole office

L was in the Family Literacy class last year.  He was always very open about having spent time in prison. I wanted him to take the GED exam in June, but he lost his nerve and is back in class.  When he saw the two or more years of improvement in his math score, he said he believed me that he could take the GED exam.    He asked me to copy his test scores to show his parole officer.  I forgot but he reminded me before he left class yesterday.  It was definitely important to him!

 Testing is a good thing when it shows gains (and even when it doesn't because then we need to rethink our procedures!).  I can tell a student he or she is doing well but it is so good to see the numbers!

How come you didn't bring gum today?

B asks "how come you didn't...." questions several times each day. " How come you didn't bring gum today?"  "How come there are different people here each day?" And then there are questions like "When is break?"  and "Can you give me a ride home?"  Sometimes the complaints are phrased more directly using "you" language.  "You didn't put the pencils out."  "You didn't give me a purple folder."

B is 17 and dropped out of school when she got pregnant but lost her baby.    She is heavy and wears tight clothes that do not cover her ample bosom.  She made several calls to the Juvenile Justice Center when she first arrived on Tuesday.  I think she is in class because she has to be in class!  She needs reminders to take notes during group time and today her testing went better when I gave her feedback after each row of questions.  Her attention span is not long!

Shortly before leaving today, I chuckled and said she sure gave me a hard time with all her questions.  She had the grace to smile back.  Maybe when I was first teaching, her attitude might have made me defensive.  Now it just amuses me--and it didn't become an issue.  If she keeps it up however, it might get to me! 

Easiest First Day Ever!

Yesterday was the first day to meet students.  I had only two in the morning and three in the afternoon.  We did some introductions and one group math lesson, but otherwise a lot of time was spent in completing TABE pre-tests. (Tests of Basic Adult Education)  I even got a little bored and watched the clock--something I almost never did when working in Family Literacy.

The only situation that had anything to do with transportation was one 17 year old wondering how to get a student ID so she could get a free bus pass.  That was easily solved when another student drove her to the adult education office to get an photo ID made.  It was nothing like last year's problems of students waiting for buses that didn't come, and then when they did come, bringing them to the wrong site.

The students are young.  Two are 16 and one is 17.  At least two have been in foster homes and at least two have "legal guardians."  At least four are on probation.  I think as always there will be many stories.

Today because most testing was finished, there was more time for group lessons and individual interaction.  I was tired at 2:30 and the time went faster.  Next week there should be double the amount of students.  So far, I am convinced I made the right decision--to give up directing Family Literacy and just do the teaching. 

Downstairs, not Upstairs

After a long day of meetings yesterday, I was eager to get into my classroom and prepare for students next week.  My goal was to go through old files and sort materials in order to pass some of them on to S, my replacement upstairs at Family Literacy.  The former teacher downstairs left me a wealth of materials and a very organized system of test booklets, answer sheets, and other necessary forms.  At some point, I need to decide what I can use from all of those files. 

I made phone calls to potential students.  I had a stack of student files from orientation and from last years' class.  As always, I hit dead ends.  "This number is no longer in service" was a phrase I heard at least four times out of the ten calls I made. Over the years, we have learned to ask for "message" numbers.  Sometimes it's a grandma, or a mother at work, or in one case the fiance of someone's brother.  I think I was able to reach just one or two students on my first try.  However, within a half hour, I received four returned calls with someone asking, "Did you call this number?"  Two of the students are just 16.  I know I talked to at least two mothers. 

My cell phone was not giving good reception so I unlocked the front door and stepped out on the sidewalk.  Immediately I was asked by a passer-by if the church that owns our building had any clothing to give away.  "I've just gotten out of jail and I have no clothes.  I need a hoodie or sweatshirt."   I said that there were no clothes there and suggested Hope Ministries or the Salvation Army--both of which I guess said they could see him next week.  Another pedestrian appeared and offered to take him to Goodwill.  That was a good thing because I was quite unsure of what else to recommend.  I could have given him a few dollars to buy something at Goodwill.

In any case, it's a good idea to keep our building doors locked.  So that was my first day preparing for my new class.  In two ways,  I encountered the poverty that is not a part of my life over the summer in my comfortable neighborhood.