It was written hastily.
21 April 08
Today was a very mellow day. Most of the students were very involved and the teachers had minimal trouble with getting them involved. I was only there, really, to give them that extra push. My favorite part of tutoring a stubborn student is convincing them that I hurt inside if they don’t try. They know it’s a joke but they appreciate the gesture of giving them a motivation. I was tutoring Terry but “tutor” seems to have a broad definition. My only role was to encourage them to do work. Rather than explaining the significance behind each historical event in America’s back-story, I was there just to feed names and dates into a “flow map.” The other tutor roamed throughout the class while I was assisting the same two rows of students. After Ms. W walked them through the process, each student was assigned a partner to complete the flow map.
One issue arose from this: some students without a partner and the motivation to complete the assignment continued to fall further behind. This perpetuation of slacking seems unstoppable without constant surveillance, insistence and assistance.
Almost impossible to cater to all the students’ needs.
These individuals drag the class tempo down but they are not wholly to blame. We can circle the issue and blame former teachers, the parents, peers but past is past. They are still learning basic writing skills which make it pointless to critique their abilities. If my memory was better, I could compare my history with their current level, but I have no concept of what I was learning. Math is the same issue. I can only study their behaviors and their ability to grasp the concepts and material presented to them at present. Language arts is a very difficult class to follow for someone not willing to greet it with open arms because it allows so much room for variation. This is painfully obvious in poetry which requires immense creativity.
Students regurgitate whatever phrases are fed to them by the teacher or popular music. As I inspected several students’ poetry journals, the passages in their poetry varied greatly: violent, idolizing gangster life, or written in their native languages. One girl had written about her neighborhood as dangerous because of the gangs occupying the area. The volume of school’s threat to her life must be turned down and a poor grade has no comparison to the risk she has to put up with just walking or being bussed home.
Mr. C’s class was much improved in behavior. I can only gather it was because the WASL preparation had been winding down. The class was much more involved in the work because they were completing it on their own. The WASL’s frustration possibly derives from its lack of exercise. Each problem and its very specific use is only applied once and another frustrating problem comes along with another ten minute explanation. Today, each student was given one worksheet with algebra problems with only slight variations. Most students grasped the straight forward equations and only took a short period of adjustment with the variations. Every student was attempting the work and a few copied off of the completed assignments by other students. No real disciplinary action was taken in this matter and Mr. C ignored the dishonesty.
After class, I spoke with Mr. C about the students and what sort of discipline is required to maintain this sort of classroom. He told me calling the parents in front of classroom works as a form of negative association with bad behavior. This further emphasizes my belief that embarrassment works wonders as a learning tool. In this early stage of socialization, students place their relationships with their peers in high regard and embarrassment comes with after class teasing, after school lectures from parents, and a higher likelihood of being yelled at by their parents in front of class again. Psychologically, it makes sense when looking at a middle school student. Mr. C said that sort of punishment is not necessary anymore because he believes there is a bond growing between them. I also asked him if he has grown wary of teaching classes like this. He said this sort of stress is minimal and he knows when the day is all open road after his fourth period class is over. He smiled for a long time after I asked if his love for teaching as waned at all. Like he was remembering when he began. He was interrupted pretty quickly by students trying to leave the classroom early.