Collaboration

My supervisor asked me to join him as a "learning partner" in the Teaching and Learning Initiative of our school corporation.  We meet with about two dozen educators, administrators and teachers, every two weeks.  There are six such groups.  We are working on a framework for evaluation and developing skills in collegial collaboration.

As a result, I have sent out two emails to my colleagues presenting  problems I am dealing with and asking for advice.  I have gotten great feedback and I think it is a way we can collaborate even if we are not in the same building.

Yesterday I asked for advice about a new student BD, a young man who came in last week smelling like alcohol and mouthwash.  His language was pretty bad with repeated use of a variation on the "f" word.  I warned him and he struggled with compliance.  He came two more times without the odor, but still needed warning about the language.  When he came out with a "GD it" yesterday, I had to write him up.  At that point I asked him if he had been drinking.  He said he had to do so before coming to class because he was so anxious.  I said he could not come in that condition and we could not tolerate his language.

Three colleagues responded and I hope to take their advice.  However, to my relief and to the relief of the other students, he wasn't in class today.  I think I will call him and help him find a medical clinic where he can get treated for his anxiety.  

It was tense yesterday with two lovely new students, both thirty some year old mothers who must have been appalled at the behavior of BD and a few other young'uns.  I also wrote up K for continued cell phone use.  There is plenty of flirting going on in the class and exchange of phone numbers, and it can get to be distracting!  

A postscript to the saga of B

After being assured that she would leave her cell phone home, I told B she could come back.  Her probation depended on it.  She returned, but the cell phone was back.  She had forgotten it in her pocket. She managed to leave it out of sight for a few days, but then it was back again--and she said she had to take a call from her probation officer.  A little bit of sleuthing determined her PO was out of the office that day.

She asked me if I could drop her off after class.  I assumed that meant at home which was not out of my way very far.  When we started out, she told me to bring her to her aunt's house which was a few miles in the opposite direction.  She was very rude about my objecting to this and never said thank you for the ride.

At that point, maybe because I was so tired of her behavior, I decided the cell phone business was the last straw and that she needed to be suspended.  I wrote it up for the PO and faxed it over the weekend.  I was able to talk to him before her court hearing.  I stressed that it is unfair to demand that someone be in adult education classes when it is not a good placement for them.  She could not work independently and had made no progress.

 I don't know the end of the story.  She may be back incarcerated at the Juvenile Justice Center.  There are successes--many of them.  I'll write more about one later.  But she is not and it makes me sad.  However, my life is easier without her.

Follow up a few months later:  I have heard from others that B is pregnant.  She had been pregnant before and had a miscarriage.  It is possible that this will give her a reason to grow up some!

A new student with a story

H began class last week.  He was there before I got there--which is always a good sign!  His math scores were terrific; his reading scores less so.  He said something to me about having lost 18 years of his life and knowing nothing about computers and those phones people have.  I figured that meant he had been in prison.  The next day he mentioned that he had been on Fox News in Chicago and something about his being in prison for something he had not done.  I don't believe everything I am told any more--not like I used to--so when I got home, I checked it out.  There he was, being interviewed on Fox News, earlier this month.  There was also a series of articles in the Chicago Tribune.

Eighteen years ago, when he was 15, he and three other young black men confessed to a rape and murder of a young woman.  Last fall, the Innocence Project in Chicago took up their case and linked DNA results to a serial rapist and killer who died himself of gunshot wounds in 2008.  The men were released and just a few weeks ago, it was determined that they would not be retried.

H has been in class every day.  He stays into the afternoon hours and works on his own.  He had to be shown how to use a mouse and a cursor on a computer, a skill I haven't had to work on with anyone for years.  He said education in prison was limited due to lockdowns.

He told me today he is in no hurry to go on with his life because he is adjusting to being out.  At some point he wants to go to college.  I am overwhelmed by the opportunity given to me to work with him.

Miss Mary, you changed my life

How can I despair when I get a phone call like the one I just got?  I am in tears.  It's been a rough day in some respects. Sometimes when that happens, I get a phone call from someone that shows me I need to keep going and can't get discouraged by my own problems or by difficult students or by general malaise in the form of clock-watching.

N couldn't come to class because his wife was ill and he needed to take care of the baby.  He called last night but I never called back because I neglected to pick up voice mail.  He called at MC3 to make sure I got his message and then he just called now to make sure he had the right home number for me.  He said, "Miss Mary, you changed my life."  He said he loves to come to class.  He doesn't need his GED for his own job because it is a good one, but he wants it for himself and for his kids.  He does think about what if his plant closed down and how would he support his wife and four kids?

G also called and had his 5 year old daughter say thank you for the Junie B. Jones book I found for her in the MC3 Pantry box.  Good for him for having her do that!

And then there's B who I suspended today because she used her cell phone several times in spite of warnings.  She called tonight and said she would leave it at home and could I please take her back?  She said she has to get a GED.  I tried to tell her it was going to take a long time.  How can I say I don't think she can do it?  Maybe she could if she learned how to learn.  So tomorrow, she is going to sit by herself so she is not distracted by her classmates.  She is my biggest challenge and has been all year--and she's always there except for that period of incarceration.  I asked her if anyone had ever said she had ADHD? She said her IEP was for being emotionally disturbed.  I really think it is the impulsiveness with the low skills that holds her back.

So my tears have stopped.  It is good to write.  I am thankful for the opportunities that are put before me and pray for the strength to meet the challenges.

Don't despair!

A postscript to the last post:  our morning class had a pretty good sense of those population numbers.  Except for two young'uns, they are mature students.  All of them have decent skills--and most probably have a chance to get a GED.  What a difference in the two classes.

I look at the clock more this year than last.  I wonder why that is.  Last year it never seemed as if there never was enough time to do what I had scheduled.  Of course, we had Parent and Child Together time at the beginning and end of the morning and with a break, there really wasn't that much more academic time available.  This year I especially look at the clock in the afternoon.  The day is longer for me and those afternoon students have so little zeal for learning.

So I will try not to despair about the fact that the lesson I had on equivalents with decimals, fractions, and percents was totally lost in 24 hours with two of the afternoon students.  It was as if we had never done the lesson the day before.  I had pulled out coins both days to "contextualize instruction."   Me:  "B, how would you write nine cents as money?"  Written answer: 9, then .9.  Me:  "How would you write one dollar and nine cents?"  Written answer: $1.09.   Me:  "So there is your answer!"  But I really am not sure that the generalization took place.  We'll see next week on the weekly review quiz!

So let me try to hang on to the positives.  N, in the morning class, has passed three predictor tests and is thrilled.  He is a community builder in class and very supportive to me.  He works 12 hour shifts and is tired when he comes to class.  Yesterday he apologized for taking a few calls from work (in Spanish, I noticed) and had to leave early.  I think he has a position of responsibility at his factory--even without a diploma.

J, in the afternoon class, has very low math skills and language skills, but can read at about a 6th grade level.  She has been very shy and reluctant to participate in any way.  I have tried to encourage her to join in and not be afraid to be wrong.  Her new year's resolution was to develop self-confidence and I already see evidence of that!  So I can seize on the positives and encourage her.  She was eager to share the population of the USA which she found on her cell phone.  She has volunteered to read answers aloud.  And maybe most significantly, she told me that the next time I do a newsletter, she would like to have me take her photo and include it!

Getting D,  in the afternoon class,  to write essays has been torture for me and her.  She wrote one introductory paragraph on new year's resolutions last week. Yesterday I said she had 30 minutes to finish it and I would score whatever she wrote.  She had only one more sentence written in the first seven minutes.  I bit my tongue but did look at the clock and her paper--maybe obviously.  She managed to write three more paragraphs with five minutes to spare.  I asked for a concluding paragraph which she wrote.  Then I asked for proofreading.  She gave her essay a cursory look and made no changes.  I scored her higher than I might have just to be encouraging.  Her essay used the black state-of-being verb "be" instead of "am" or "was".  One of her resolutions was not to leave the house after 11:30 pm because that was when people got killed in the neighborhood.  Another was not to talk to people--which seemed to be code for not getting involved with any boys this year.  The third one was the only positive one--to be nice to others.  The essay was a glimpse into her negative attitude and her world.

The despairing part for me is that three students in the afternoon class are always there but probably will never have the skills to pass the GED exam.  Yet they are determined and say they will if they try hard enough.  In one case, B doesn't know how to try hard enough.  The others mean well, but the ability isn't there.   Sometimes I talk about how hard it is to get a GED and how you need to have at least 9th grade skills and how there are other options, but I don't say to them that it isn't going to happen.  Is that dishonest?  Sometimes I feel it is.

Where do I start? How can you not know that?

I don't say those words aloud to any student, but sometimes I think them!

One of my goals is to work on more real life math skills--contextualized instruction as the jargon has it.    I have several students who cannot do even two digit multiplication without a calculator.  There isn't much point in teaching them to divide fractions or subtract integers, but there are many ways they should be able to use numbers in their lives.

Today I asked the afternoon class to estimate the number of people in South Bend.  Numbers ranged from 100 on each side of town to 5000 in all.  The actual number is about 105,000.  I then asked how many lived in Indiana.  How is it that two of the students guessed 50,000--fewer than the number in South Bend?  What are they thinking?  or not thinking?  One said something about guessing that would include Gary.  Right!  And a whole lot more!

J quickly checked the population of the USA on her cell phone.  She was unable to read the number correctly, but she found the information easily.

B said "Why do we need to learn this stuff?"  She thought there were about 4-500 living in South Bend.  It's a small town and she knew almost everybody, she said.

It is a very limited view of life, a life is limited to the "hood" and to the present time.  And there is very little interest in extending knowledge much farther than that.   That's the story in my afternoon class of 17-20 year olds.  They don't motivate each other and it is pretty hard for me to find a way to do so.

Happy New Year!

I made a few calls on Monday to remind students that we began on Wednesday, but I didn't call all that many of them.  I was counting on their being motivated to come back and if not, we were better off without them.  It was a very disappointing day.  Seven students came out of a potential 24 maybe; only one called to be excused.  I made a few calls today to hear "Oh, did school start today?"  from a couple of them.  Others were not home or didn't answer.

I had worked on all the files on Monday and gone in to prepare for an hour on Tuesday.  I was ready for the new year.  Only seven students were ready.  It is discouraging and yet I have done this long enough to know that this is why these students didn't make a go of it earlier in their lives.  Tomorrow should be better.

B was back and said she wanted to come both morning and afternoon!   I said that wasn't a very good idea because the morning class was full--which it is if folks show up!  I don't think double time in our class is the answer, but maybe another setting would be.  She is looking into Work One where she could get 12 hours a week.  With 5th grade scores and no gains in post-testing so far due to her lack of focus and skills, she has a long way to go to that GED she says she has to have. She said she needed to take the GED exam by January 27 when she goes to court.  At age 17, she cannot do that without passing predictor tests and thus my permission.  To her credit, she worked pretty hard today.