School Days

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Due to special request of my father, here is an entry about school.

There's not all the much to tell really. I have one student who I am about 60% sure that he is going to fail the year. He doesn't do any of his classwork, or homework. He does poorly on all of his tests. He doesn't listen in class. He doesn't seem to care. This is the student whose Father I had a meeting with about a month back. Things have not improved. He missed the ENTIRE week of school last week so is even more behind than before.

I have another student who I am constantly having to discipline. He talks in class, is always out of his seat, and is never prepared for class. I had a meeting with his Mother yesterday morning. She was not aware of the extent of his behaviour. We are going to both try to get him back on track. I think he's a smart child, he just needs to apply himself.

Other than that, my students are pretty good. There are some problems with behaviour though. All the teachers have been talking about it. It's a different mentality down here. The students don't seem to respect the english teachers as much. I'm implementing as many possitive and negative reinforcement strategies as I can.

I do have a lot of fun with my students as well. They LOVE to joke around. I've already talked about the chant they made up for Chris and I. They love bugging me about having a boyfriend, although I've told them many times that I do not.

Language is funny. I've learned that a train does not say "Chugga-Chugga-Choo-Choo". It says "Chica-Chica-Poo-Poo". Also, saying "stupid" is like saying the F-Word. I said it in class one day in reference to a character in our story saying "dumb". They all gasped and couldn't believe I had said it. I had to explain that it's not a nice word, but it's not a bad word. They also thought I was saying "shit" every time I said "shoot". I had to explain that "shoot" is like "puchica" in Spanish.

This morning our head administrative staff's mother died. Tomorrow is the funeral. School is cancelled so that all the staff and the 11th grade (seniors) can go to the funeral. They originally wanted all the staff to be there ALL day until Art spoke up and said the thought of being in a funeral home for 8 hours was not appealing to him. They're making up a schedule for us instead.

Teaching is very different than I thought it would be. We're teaching out of specific textbooks and workbooks. I'm trying to come up with cool ways to do it, or activities to add to the material, but it's very dull. Learning is not very hands on or interactive, which is the way I learn and the way I like to teach.

Not really much else to tell. If you have specific questions, ask away and I'd be happy to answer.

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