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.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Friday, January 13, 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
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.
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.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
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.
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.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
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.
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.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
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!
Friday, December 16, 2011
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!"
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!"
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