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.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
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!
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!
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
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.
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!
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?
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?
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
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.
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.
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