Time to go back to work

I have been very glad to have had two weeks plus off from work.  I am ready to go back.

While we were on vacation and I could do nothing about it, I received a notice from our very good and kind record keeper saying that my attendance report was overdue.  I totally forgot to send it in and felt terrible.  I had taken pride in handling the new technology for this on my own when many others of our aging staff could not do so.  And now I just let everything go out of my mind after that last day of a Christmas party.  I sent it in last night. After unpacking and eating supper, it was next on my to-do list. 

Another email I received while on vacation stated that the laptops were found when they were sold or given to two young ladies by a certain MW.  We were asked if MW was a student in our classes.  Not in mine.  I even checked to see if he was a Facebook friend of one of the women who last used the laptop in my class.  He wasn't.  They will be questioned by the police however.  I gave their names to the building representative.  How I hope they have nothing to do with it.  But if they don't, it will be someone from Sally's class and that too is sad.  It is an ugly thing to lose trust.

I never take my purse into class or take money with me.  I just don't tempt anyone in that way.  The laptops must just be too tempting.

My Name in Print

I like to blog.  I like to keep journals.  And I like doing our bi-monthly Family Literacy newsletter.  I won't attach it here, but may add it to my Facebook page.  I do have permission to use students' names and photos for publicity.

Yesterday the students looked eagerly for their own names in the December newsletter.  Many had written short articles; others had their names listed in the Attendance Honor Roll or Congratulations for Academic Gains sections.  I had told O that I would write about her GED in this newsletter.  She said that her mother had framed the previous one with her article in it about shopping at "Once Upon a Child." That really tells me about the value of putting names and work in print!

Bah! Humbug!

I did not have a good attitude going into today's Christmas party.  I slept restlessly, I accidentally left my potato casserole in the refrigerator at home (although I remembered the crock pot and the meatball ingredients), and I have just done this so many times and it takes so much energy.

The reality is that the party went very well.  Santa, a long time resident of our housing for the elderly and handicapped, was wonderful in spite of my misgivings.  He looked great and was right on time to take up his responsibilities.  Almost all of the students brought food and lots of it.  I always say a prayer for food safety, but I'm not sick yet, five hours later in spite of eating reheated shrimp, flautas, and macaroni and cheese--all made in kitchens far and near.  The staff really pitched in to make food, to get gifts ready for parents and children, and to clean up. 

But I found myself in the kitchen, wanting to serve and clean up, and not wanting to mingle.  I got very irritated with the children who began running wildly at the end and whose mothers were too busy making plates to take home to supervise them.  In fact I told one dear mother that it was time she went home with her kids.  How could I have been so rude?

This is when I think I need to ask my supervisor to find someone else to run Family Literacy next year and just give me an ordinary ABE-GED class that meets a few hours every week.  It's all the other aspects that overwhelm me--the bus, the child care, the food, the parties.  Family Literacy is such a worthwhile program.  I know we help parents become their children's teachers and the children to be better prepared for school.  But it is pretty all-consuming and as my sister has said, it might be better to stop when I am still doing a good job of it.  And today I didn't feel had my best efforts!

Two and one half weeks to get over my attitude and to start over in 2011. 

The downside

Two laptop computers are missing.  Two of my students used them in Sally's classroom with minimal supervision from me.  Sally had checked one of them out and neither one of us checked the other out-probably because we were pulling it out together. 

  I called both students. One student said she left her laptop on the counter; the other said she put it in the computer chest.  Sally had students present in the room and was not in the room every minute.  It makes me sick to think that someone took them when we were close at hand.  Sally called our man from the church that owns the building and equipment.  The police will be called and there are tracers on the computers.  But I feel such a presence of evil and I know I was not careful enough and too trusting.

The other sense I have of the downside is looking at O's wall on Facebook last night hoping to find the photo of her son and her diploma.  Instead I found a posting about her eagerness to hit a hotel and really get drunk after two years of no drinking because of pregnancies. This is part of it:

ONLY GOT 1 MONTH UNTILL I HAVE THIS BABY!!!!  THE WEEKEND AFTER I HAVE HIM ITS A HOTEL PARTY 2 GET AS DRUNK AS U CAN!!!!! LET'S GET WASTED!!!!!

  What a stupid thing to look forward to after delivering a child--and how stupid to put it on public display on Facebook.   This kind of posting is why I am reluctant to "friend" students on FB and why I have hidden almost every one of the former students who are my "friends."  Actually I am not even her "friend", but her Wall must be open to public view.

Another GED and why I need a new cell phone

O sent me a message on Facebook saying she wanted to send me a photo.  Apparently she tried to send it to my home phone and that didn't work, of course!   I rarely give out my cell phone number and would not really want to receive a photo on it with our reduced plan.

The photo was of her 11 month old son holding her GED diploma!  She knew as soon as she saw the words "Do not bend" on the envelope that it was going to be good news!  She said she couldn't have done it without me--which may mean, we agreed, that I would not accept oversleeping as an excuse--even for a woman who was 7 months pregnant and had a 9 month old baby. 

It's a "snow day" today and there has been almost no snow.  Apparently a few miles west of here, still in the same school district, there is plenty of snow.  I have been a bit bored although it has been a pleasant, lazy day.  Again, signs that it is not yet time to retire--a happy phone call has made my day!

Frustrations!

Several of our present students were in special education classes in school--or should have been.  They will never pass the GED exam without accommodations and may not even do so with the extra time and calculators that could be allowed.  I can't ask for accommodations until they have been tested and that is quite a process through Vocational Rehabilitation services. Then they have to prove to me that they can pass with those accommodations and I process the request.  

Usually math is the greatest difficulty for students, although those who can't read well are really handicapped on the other four GED subtests. 

Sometimes I just want to yell  "THINK!" when students can't seem to solve anything in math but simple computation.  Poor reading skills do not test my patience like poor math skills do.  I'm not sure why that is.  I try to get students to read the question and not just do any old thing with the numbers.  Some do not seem to have the ability to do multi-step problems.  I try to stress that there is not only one way to do a problem, but they want steps they can memorize. Generalization to a new problem--that is the problem in itself! 

Hands-on work, manipulatives, real-life examples, drawing pictures, using money, working with partners, frequent review--I try many strategies.  It is hard to overcome the attitude many have when they say "I hate math" or "I never was any good at math."  And sometimes I think it is true that there really is no number line in their heads--when even the concept that the part of something is smaller than the whole seem difficult. 

Amanda Serenevy has asked me to be on the expanded board of the Riverbend Math Center.  She is doing good work here in South Bend to promote math education.  I am honored to be asked to be on her board and will probably say Yes. 

Back to posting

This is the longest I have gone without posting.  I'm not sure why that is.  Christmas is a busy season and we had a wonderful, but exhausting trip to NJ and NYC last weekend. 

Leaving the class for such a weekend involves much planning.  Another staff member took six students to IVY Tech for a meeting with the admissions director and a tour on Thursday so I could catch a late morning flight.   Two students were excused from class because they had gone on the tour last spring.  I made sure all plans and files were ready for Monday morning just in case we were delayed.  And we were delayed but ending up driving a rental car from Cincinnati and arriving home at 3:01 am!  It's that kind of weekend that tempts me to consider retiring and to have the freedom to come and go more easily. 

Right now I have just two students who are able to learn easily.  And one of them has had a crisis at home and is moving out to live with a brother in Indianapolis.  The other one could probably pass the GED tomorrow, but is happy enough to take a few weeks to prepare and be sure.  And the rest--I think I'll separate this and write about my frustrations in the next posting.

Our first GED this year!

R said she tried to call me to let me know, but I think she was put off by the voice mail.  When I called her, she said the GED was a "piece of cake" and she passed it  with a 550 average. She is working as a dietary aide and has already enrolled in our community college in a nursing program.  She said she wants to take me out to celebrate.  I suggested lunch on some Friday.  We'll see.  In any case, I am so pleased that she not only passed (I was sure she would), but that she is using the GED as a first step towards other goals.   I can check off four primary goals on our National Reporting Service list:  improving a level in basic skills, passing the GED, gaining employment, and entering post-secondary education.  Hurray for her and hurray for us!

A Thanksgiving essay

With some hesitation, I assigned the topics "I am thankful for..." or "A Perfect  Thanksgiving Day" as essay topics when I was gone on Monday.  I am aware that not all Thanksgivings are ideal and in some cases, they may be very sad and stressful for  students.

To my surprise, D. wrote her first essay since joining the class and it was excellent.  It was well organized and written with detail and emotion about a perfect Thanksgiving Day.  It talked about family time playing games, the aroma from the kitchen, and meeting new family members and how it made her happy.  I praised her and said how nice it was that it was like that for her.  She said she wrote the essay with difficulty and in fact, made up a lot of it.  In some ways, that makes it even a greater accomplishment.  But it also seems sad that she needed to do that.  I wonder what her day really will be like tomorrow. 

If I were retired....

If I were retired, I could stay in Atlanta another day.  As it is, I am taking one precious personal day to be here with my husband as he attends his annual convention.  I have loved being here--just being out of South Bend, enjoying the colors of fall a second time,  eating fantastic meals in new restaurants, going to the High Museum of Art, attending North Park Presbyterian Church.  But I need to get an early flight alone tomorrow so that I don't miss a second day of work.  I do like my work and I know it is worth doing.  But I would love the freedom to travel without making complicated arrangements.

"You Can't Sing It for Them"

A few weeks ago I went to a Notre Dame Saturday Scholar lecture.  Margot Fassler of the Sacred Music program presented "You Can't Sing It for Them", a documentary she and a colleague at Yale produced.   The video follows a young musician who attempts to combine several dying choirs in a mainline African-American Baptist Church in Bridgeport, Connecticut into a "massed" choir--a word which was anathema to some. Excerpts of the video were very compelling and I was able to get one to use with my class.  I felt using it during our precious class time could be justified because a theme of the video was Black music from slave days to the present and I thought it fit right into my goal of broadening my students' lives.  Plus I am trying to learn to use more technology.

Well, we never did get the video hooked up to the big screen TV in the building.  We had to watch it on my little Mac laptop.  But the 25 minutes we spent watching it were a time of blessing for me.  It had been a morning of some frustration.  A group lesson on using formulas for circles seemed so confusing to students even though I did my best to make it concrete and to break it down into parts.  I found myself losing patience when so much careless guessing was occuring.

So it was so nice to end the morning with a time when it seemed that the teacher-student barriers were eased and we all watched with interest as a dilemma in a black church unfolded.  It led to some discussion of how different churches praised God--by being "caught by the Spirit" and jumping around or with hands raised or in a much more sedate style.

It would have been easy to have let my sub continue the video with the students on Monday when I will be absent, but the experience was giving me so much joy that I wanted to claim that for myself.

Working as a team

Several years ago, we had four childcare aides working every day.  One was college educated or at least trained in early childhood.  The other three were paid a lower wage and were required to have a high school diploma.  We almost always had a good person in charge, but the other workers ranged in motivation and ability.  At one point, there was a real crisis with threats and racial overtones.   I sent one woman home and my supervisors came in and out to keep peace until we could finish the school year.  We had to make changes!

Now we have three on staff and all are educated and are paid accordingly.  What a difference!  Not only are they real teachers with even the littlest ones, but they are able to work as a team so much better.  But with three, there still is the problem of who gets the "roamer".  The babies cry and demand attention, but then the older children who come to class with behavior and learning problems of their own don't get the help they need.  And then there is my perspective--eager to enroll more families to keep up the numbers and to include those who call persistently from the wait list. 

We have volunteers on some days, but not every day.  And volunteers are just that--they are not obligated to be there. 

I hope we have settled on a solution.  The default position is that the "roamer" will help with the older children.  If there are too many very little ones and no volunteer, we will ask parents to take 30-40 minute shifts to help out in the nursery.  We do have permission to call in one sub if we are really over our limits.  This week has gone better.

It also helps that little one-year-old C (the toddler tyrant) is adjusting and not crying all morning.  He even says good-by to his mother and she is very grateful for the change.  We all are.

Starting Over

Three new students this week, maybe four.  It's never easy to incorporate new families--both adults and children--and yet it lifts my spirits in some ways.  One mother is 31 and has three children, ages 12, 13, and 2.  The other one is 41 and has eight children ranging in age from 22 to 1.  She has been in class several years ago.  The third student comes from a home in which  the phone is answered with a "Bueno."  It took a while to get her in class because I was not communicating with those who answered the phone.  The fourth is a father whose baby's mom is ready to take the GED exam.  I'm not convinced he will stick with us.  So each one is atypical in a way.  All four can read fairly well so that helps with three of the GED exams, but all four are a lot weaker in math. 

That's OK.  In many ways, it's easier to pull up those math scores.  Although when someone comes into the class without being able to do basic whole number subtraction, multiplication, and division, it's a pretty big gap from that to passing the GED exam. 

Thinking through the act of writing

Over the years during pre-blogging days,  when I despaired about my work, I kept a journal for a week or so.  I would call it "A Week in the Life of Family Literacy."    This often helped me overcome my feeling of being overwhelmed.  I realize now that this blog does the same thing although now it is easier to share my thoughts with others and I am doing this over a longer period of time. 

Sometimes friends would say that I should write a book.  There are plenty of stories to tell.  But my daughter, the writer, says that you really need to focus on one story and follow it through.  There have been some individual students whose stories would be good candidates for that.  In fact, one GED graduate from last spring says she is writing her autobiography and wants me to edit it someday.  She called me last summer on my cell phone as I was shopping at a strip mall.  She said she didn't want me to be shocked when I read her story because it was a story of sexual abuse, early pregnancy, abortion, jail time, and more.  I told her that very little shocked me, but I did sit down on that mall bench with tears in my eyes.  At this point she has passed the GED, she continues to work a 40 hour week, she has enrolled at IVY Tech, she is the mother of two little girls and has married a man who loves and protects them even though he is not their father.  I hope her story can continue to be a positive one.

No GED--you're fired!

I asked D this morning why Family Literacy seemed to be working for her now when it didn't three years ago.  I said I couldn't remember why she left us and she said she couldn't either.  During those years, she worked fast food and a nursing home job, but eventually began working as an aide to handicapped adults.  This was a job she really liked.  However, she had lied on her application blank and said she had a GED.  Six months later, she was fired.  She asked her employer if she had been honest, would she have been hired?  He said that if he thought she were working on a GED, he would have hired her.  She would like to go back to that job, but we need to get that certificate for her first!

The tyranny of a toddler

We need to incorporate more students from our wait list into the class.  I have been hesitating because of little one year old C, who has taken our program hostage with his extreme separation anxiety from his mom. Ah, the tyranny of a toddler!  I don't dare take on new students until we get him a bit more settled.   The staff might declare mutiny!  We have all been brainstorming and things begin to go better and then his usually faithful mom took a day off to go to St. Vincent's to sign up for a Christmas basket--so tomorrow may be difficult again.

Hanging up on me!

After a week of no calls for ride requests and no calls to be excused, I sent K a letter saying how sorry we were that she was no longer interested in Family Literacy.  If she wished, she could call and get  back on the wait list.  I knew she had a doctor's appointment and a court date last week, but that would excuse her only two of the days.  She had given me a phone number, so I assumed her phone was connected, but I didn't call her this time.  I had done that enough.

After she got the letter, she did manage to find a phone and call me to complain about how I kicked her out of the program.  She said she had waited for me to pick her up on Monday.  Of course, when I had showed up the week before when she hadn't called, I was greeted rudely.  I explained our rules and she said she didn't care and hung up. 

I felt very badly and yet know that I need to enforce absences needing to be excused.  We are probably generous with three unexcused absences.  We are teaching these so-called "21st century skills"--and I sure one of them is reliability--as it always has been!

I have done this long enough to know that K may come back next year or the year after that with a greater level of maturity and ready to work.  Right now we have one student who refused to sing in circle with her toddler three years ago because it was too babyish for her sophisticated 17 year old self.   I don't remember why she left the program then, but she is back with her second son and I saw that although she doesn't always sing, she does participate on the more familiar tunes.  And her attitude is so much better about her work and her attendance.

I asked my husband if any of his Notre Dame students had ever hung up on him.  In the first place, his students never call him at home.  And they certainly never hang up on him.  They rarely miss an 8 am class so there is no need to be excused.  What a difference in our educational worlds!

Bits and pieces

My husband and I drove five students to the County-City building to vote early today.  Actually, only two of them voted.  Two forgot or couldn't find their ID cards and one wanted to vote on Election Day.  The two that were without IDs had never voted before.  I insisted they come along with us anyway, hoping that they would see it wasn't all that scary to vote. 

A bit of follow-up on last week's posts:  K, the student I was picking up, never called this week.  I will send her a note saying we are sorry we have lost her from the program. I am sorry.   T, the student I felt was not getting enough done, has passed three predictor tests and has worked much harder this week.  She told another staff member that she sees now how little she knew when she started and how much she has learned.

Two students took the GED exam this week and will be waiting for at least a month for their results.  Two others are close to being ready to take it.

Three others are weaker students .   I have tried  having them work as partners or in a small group and this seems to promote accountability.  You can't just skip over the hard questions or look at the answers in the back first if you are working with someone else.  The students struggle together and I hear them teaching and correcting each other.  When they are all stuck, they call on me.  One of these young ladies has been rather sullen, but when working with someone else, she seems to be blossoming a bit.

Maybe this is one of those "21st Century Skills"  my supervisor and others keep talking about--working as a team.  In any case, I think it is more fun and probably promotes learning through more modalities--seeing, hearing, writing, and talking.

We have one new Hispanic student.  She has not been in school for maybe four years--since she was 15 years old.   Her children speak Spanish only.  I have been impressed with her ability to learn quickly--even in just two days of class.  I hope she will stick with us--she is a minority in our class where African-Americans are a majority.  In fact, she's the only non-African-American.

Teaching graciousness or at least civility

Because I don't want to send the school bus to all corners of our district, I have been giving a student who recently moved a ride in the morning.   Her idea was that she would call me if she was coming; I assume she is coming because attendance is required and went to pick her up.  She answered the door sleepily and just stood there.  I asked if she was coming to class and she said, "No, I didn't call you."   I stood there waiting for an excuse or an apology or at least a thank you for trying and I got nothing at all.  I walked away, looked back to see if she might still say something and there was nothing.

That night I got a voice mail message saying, "Me and D are coming to school tomorrow."  Nothing like, "Can you please pick us up?"  I did go to get them and greeted her with a "Hello, K, How are you?"  Her response:  "Fine."  No reciprocal "How are you?"

I did tell her I felt badly that she hadn't said she was sorry we had miscommunicated or thanked me for going out of my way.  She did thank me at that point.  Then she said she had been at her mom's until 2 a.m. waiting for someone to give her a ride back to her own place.  Her mom had no milk for the baby so they had to go home.  He was crying with hunger.

Again, I am aware that I need to have a sense of compassion for lives that are lived on the edge for whatever reason.  But I also know that someone has to teach this young lady to act graciously and politely or she'll never get ahead--GED or not.  So maybe I'll be so bold as to teach her to return a greeting of "How are you" in kind.  Or maybe I'll ask one of my colleagues to work on that with her.  I may have done enough at this point!

Learning inner locus of control

I thought about titling this post "Learned Helplessness" or "Teaching Initiative."  It has been a week in which this idea has been a theme.  Tuesday was a particularly frustrating day in which students seemed helpless to do anything without my guidance.  Maybe my biggest frustration with students is their wasting time--doing nothing, chatting, or now, texting.  But from their perspective, doing nothing is waiting for me to tell them what to do.  I heard statements like, "I'm waiting for you to help me" or " You didn't give me the answer sheet" or "You never taught me this stuff" or "I don't have anything to do" or "I can't find my book, notebook, packet, etc.".

Each student has a list of goals and materials in front of her folder.  They don't need me to get started.  But there are so many distractions--the opportunity to chat with other young moms, the cell phone, snacks, and maybe just exhaustion from sick babies--or partying.

T had a particularly rough day on Tuesday.  She chatted with her sister through Parent and Child Together time.  She was the last one in class, she got stuck on one problem and couldn't do anything else while waiting for help, she was the last one back from break, and she has to take additional time later  to get a child to the Head Start bus.  She got almost nothing done all morning and it frustrated me a lot.  She has an enormous amount of responsiblity in her life as the custodian of nine siblings ranging from 2 to 18.  I don't know how she stays sane.  But if I take the attitude of "Poor T, I need to give her a break", she'll never get a GED.  I called her after class and tried to use I language, not You language.  "I need you to be a leader in the class", not "You never get anything done!".  She was not happy with me, but Wednesday was so much better in every way. 

I also tried to have individual, short conferences with each student on Wednesday to make sure her goals were clear and she knew what to do on her own.  I try to say, "What do you think you should work on?"  We had a much better day on Wednesday.

"(or Not)" is winning!

I am having too much fun to quit.  Last week I sent out a request for "book club" sponsors on our church's email.  I asked for ten copies of one book that we could read every day in circle and then send home with families on Thursday.  I invited sponsors to read with us on Thursday.    Within a few days, I had six sponsors and two others who could contribute individual books.  I really like getting others involved in our program and I love telling our students (and my supervisor) that our church gives us this kind of support.

There are many rewards and affirmations daily or weekly, but sometimes there are some that come from way in the past.  Yesterday a student in the sixth grade I taught in 1971 found me on Facebook.  After making sure that she had the right person, she said that she had gone back to college at age 50 plus to become an elementary education teacher and that I had been somewhat of an influence in that decision!  Almost 40 years later!  I remember her as a fun-loving, creative 12 year old and it will be great to get to know her now as an adult. 

Then today a gentleman from Catholic Charities who mans the control desk at the Housing Authority site where we are located greeted me by name.  I asked his name and wondered how he knew mine.  He said that in 1997 he had toured the Oliver Mansion with my class--it must have been a GED class from the Hope Rescue Mission.  Whether he was a student or just came along, I don't remember.  Copsaholm, the historic home of the Oliver family in South Bend,  is memorable and I felt warmed that it must have meant something to him.

Sometimes I feel privileged to have such easy opportunities to help others.  It makes up for the fact that there is a new substitute bus driver who couldn't find the students' homes this morning and that the playground is closed for weeks due to major renovations at the Housing Authority and  everyone might not make it to the Talk with your Baby celebration tomorrow and that we have a three hour "professional development" staff meeting for adult education teachers on Thursday.

Contextualized instruction

Contextualized instruction are two of the latest buzz words.  I guess it means that the math we teach should relate to the student's life.  Or that writing and reading need to involve real life documents.

I  think one of my goals should be to  broaden that context of a student's life.  In the last week, however, I have been amused and delighted to hear how different the context of some words can be for me and for my students.  And so the context of my own life gets broadened!

For example, a student mentioned the word "coalition" as heard in someone's hip hop song.  I can't remember the phrase, but a woman needed to be approved by the singer's "coalition"--his bros or dudes.  Then there was the word "contemporary" which a student thought meant relaxed--in the way you could describe most contemporary jazz, I guess.  I remember one student defining "decline" as what happens when your credit card gets maxed out.   I enjoyed reading the word "donor" on someone's Facebook page to describe an absent "baby daddy."

Talk With Your Baby

Last year we were a pilot program for the TWYB initiative.  The idea is that the more words an infant and toddler hear, the more literate they will become.  Children of families with lower educational levels  hear only functional language--Come here, Eat your supper, Stop hitting your brother, etc.  Other children hear language that responds to their needs, that elaborates on what they say, and that introduces lots of vocabulary and concepts.

One staff member did two eight week sessions last year, one in the fall and one in the spring.  We are now beginning another session with a new staff member leading it.  The Parenting Counts curriculum is great.  I have observed two different early childhood educators use the same curriculum with the stamp of their own experiences and personalities.  And it works!  The students listen and respond--and don't argue too much even when they are told that you can't spoil an infant!   One said that she had seen too many teen-age moms think that all you needed to do was to feed and change a baby and a baby needs so much more.

Next week Wednesday we are invited to be at a celebration of a grant that will finance TWYB for two more years.  The media will be there.  Our children will be given t-shirts and goodie bags.  One student may speak about what she has learned.  Her own daughter was given early admission to kindergarten this year.  It will be interesting.  I hope everyone remembers to dress appropriately and that we don't have to keep the children quiet for too long!  Apparently we will have valet parking.  At this point I am not even sure how we will get rides for everyone with the requisite number of car seats.

Post-testing

Seven students post-tested today using an alternate form of the Test of Adult Basic Education that they took when they registered for class.  One student did not show improvement which was very surprising because she used a calculator on this second testing as permitted by the accommodations on her IEP.  I try to use each test as a diagnostic tool.  It was telling that she filled in the wrong bubbles at least three or four times.  She did not use the calculator at times when it could have helped her--and she did use it to divide whole numbers, but entered the numbers incorrectly.  So there was much to learn.  It was frustrating for her however.

All the others showed improvement of at least 1 1/2 grade levels after five weeks of instruction.  One went up four grade levels.  This was very affirming for them and for me!  We should send two students off to take the GED exam in the next two weeks.  Two more are getting closer.  But there are at least six families ready to take the place of these families.

Ripple effects

Sometimes it seems hard to think of a title.  But I have been pondering the sad effects of one crime.  A student called after two weeks of intermittent excuses of no phone and sick children to say that she would like a leave of absence for a few weeks.  She did not say why except to say it wasn't fair to take someone else's place.  But the local paper reported the next day that the trial of her brother along with six others for murder had begun with jury selection.   I am thinking of the sad ramifications of this crime.  Not only is one young man dead, but six others will probably spend years in prison. And then think of all the sisters and mothers and children who are also affected.  P needed to drop out of class.  Her own 2 1/2 year old is out of control and needs to be in a structured and loving situation like our preschool.  (However our lives are easier without him there!)  We sent her a card today to say we would miss her and hoped she could come back soon.

The bus situation continues to be difficult.  The students say the driver "has an attitude."  She has driven for us for years off and on and is not pleasant to the students.  Some of them have memories of her that go back to elementary school days.  One of our staff, an attractive and very professional looking young black woman,  was helping the students get on the bus one day.   The driver (who is also black) snapped at her, "What are you doing here? Who are you?"  I have asked the students to greet her pleasantly and to thank her for the ride.  This morning it occurred to me that even though I pray for much at  Family Literacy, I had never prayed for this bus driver.  I told the students this and said that if they were praying women, and I knew some of them were, they could also pray for her.  How does prayer work?  I'm not sure it will change the bus driver, but it might change the students' attitudes toward her.  And maybe it will change her as well.  (Oh, ye of little faith!)

Tough love

The young mother who loves to go out clubbing on Ladies' Night did not go out last night.  She was on time and worked hard all morning.  She made her initial call to register for the GED exam, but is going to hold off a few weeks to pull up her math score.  She asked if she had to quit once she took the exam.  I told her most students stopped coming, but she did not have to leave us.  She recognizes that our program is also a great place for her children and that they love coming to class.  This pleases me immensely.  Our program is not a GED class with daycare; it really is a family program with great opportunities for the children as well as the parents.

The last few days all students have been accounted for.  Either they are in class or they have called with excuses although a few students have had sick children for quite a while!  Do I make liars out of them by requiring excuses?  One of those students with sick children did not call for two days because she had no minutes left on her phone.  I happen to know from others that her father has just gone to jail and her brother is on trial this week.  I have offered students a "leave of absence" if personal problems get too much for them, but she may not want to talk about all of that yet.  At least I don't think she is angry at me because last Thursday  I asked her to show a little less cleavage in her school dress.

Now, a request for any readers--please leave a comment here and there.  I really have enjoyed this process of blogging but I would enjoy it even more with your feedback!

Ladies' Night

It's Wednesday night and I have learned that Wednesday night is when ladies are admitted free at the clubs in our town.  Maybe that is why attendance has been low on Thursdays!  One honest student told me  she overslept the last two Thursdays.  Apparently her preschoolers also sleep in.  I went into my teacher mode and said that if you had a job,  you would not last long with that kind of excuse.  She said she knows that but when her friends text her to join them, it is so hard to say No.  She assured me she'll be in class tomorrow.  I hope she is.  She actually is our best student and should be the first to take the GED exam this fall.

An "integrated lesson"

I am so pleased with the ways we were able to use the Met Artwork of the Day this week.  The object was a set of gold jewelry from the 17th-18th c. BC that was found in Mesopotamia.  I knew the students would like seeing it--a bit of "bling-bling" as they used to call it from a long time ago!   Here are the activities we did based on that presentation:

1.  Read the description and noted unfamiliar words:  emanate, deity, personages, talisman, millenium, etc.

2.  Determined the age of the jewelry which meant figuring the difference between 1800 BC and 2010 AD.

3.  Found Mesopotamia on the globe in present-day Iraq.

4.  Drew the actual size of the largest pendant on paper using 1 3/8 inches as a diameter.  This introduced the word "diameter" and reviewed the work we had done earlier in the week with rulers.

5.  Reread the description and tried to determine the meaning of the vocabulary words from context.

6.  Discussed talismans in our own lives.  One student said she brought her ultrasound photo to Bingo as a good luck charm!

Professional Development

Professional development is a good thing.  Of course!  I have set several goals for myself since last year and am working on finding ways to meet those goals.  I want to do more integrated math and hands-on math.  (I wish I could say this without jargon!)   I want to continue to emphasize vocabulary and reading for fun.  I want to find ways to broaden the experiences of my students.  I have pursued ways through listservs and a summer class to meet my own goals. 

But when I am told I need to participate in several three hour "warm-up workshops" in October and November,  all on Friday mornings and Thursday afternoons which are not my work hours, I rebel.  I would like to know that these would be very productive in order to give up any personal time for them.  I am not optimistic.  In fact, I am very frustrated.  I carefully drafted an email to my supervisor laying out my concerns and apologizing for my unpleasantness.  He wrote back saying I was never unpleasant and thanked me for being me.  I was relieved at his listening attitude and we will see what will come of it.

I need to be open to learn new things.  I guess I just want to choose the new things I want to learn and that I feel will be useful to me and my students.

Picture this!

It's 11 am and break time.  Four young ladies are leaning on the rail of the second story porch smoking cigarettes.  Below them is a young African-American man.  One of the ladies asks him for a song.  He stands in the parking lot and sings to them--and to me!  I stop and listen and postpone my usual visit to the child care area.  The song is beautiful and delivered in great style! 

I played a CD called "Bach for Breakfast" for the last two mornings.    So I shared my music.  And later in the morning they shared their music.  We all wondered if he could come by and serenade us daily at break time.

So I will hang on to that visual image--the five of us, four young and black, one old and white, listening to a "dude" singing as if he were on a stage at a nightclub.

That will try to wipe out the image of my being on the phone for 15 minutes yesterday and again today wondering why students were not picked up by the bus.  Apparently it is a time of transition between the temporary bus driver and the permanent one who bid on the route.  Meanwhile no one picks up the waiting families.  One young lady said that she was going back to bed.  I said no, she wasn't and the bus was on its way for her.  Once again two families got started over an hour late, but we did get them there and work was accomplished.  It just takes so much effort. 

Another joy for today was looking at the Met Artwork of the Day site and seeing gold jewelry from Mesopotamia and 18th century BC.  I knew the students would think it looked like something they would be willing to wear today.  We gleaned six vocabulary words from the description.  We worked on what was essentially a subtraction of negative numbers problem--how long ago was 18th century BC?  And we found the present day site of Mesopotamia in Iraq on the globe.    All of this took time as I worked with two students at a time and my volunteer kept the others going in the classroom,  But one of my goals is to give the students a sense of other times and places and this was an enjoyable way to do just that.

Wisdom from others

"No Old Dogs..Just New Tricks"  This is what my supervisor suggested I post on my door!  

A quotation found in my 2010 Engagement Calendar:    "Journal writing is a voyage to the interior."  (Christina Baldwin)  Apparently Ms. Baldwin has written many books about "journaling."  Why do I not like that word?  I like to write in journals.   And this blog is a good way to reflect on my work and my attitude.

Advice from my sister who retired from teaching 2nd grade four years ago:  It is better to quit while you are still enjoying your work and you have the energy to do it.  It is better to quit on a positive note.  I know she is right.  But I also know it takes far more energy to teach 2nd grade full time than it takes to do what I am doing.  

B (a student from last year) passed the GED exam with a great score of 530--way above the average needed.  She called last weekend.  M is back in class because she did not pass the exam and did particularly poorly in Social Studies.  That is the difference between a student who reads for fun and one who doesn't.  I think I remember that B watched documentaries on TV--she just had more depth of  knowledge.

  I can teach students to use commas correctly and to write a five paragraph essay and to solve problems with percents.  But it is so much harder to fill in gaps in background knowledge.  So many students seem to have no sense of a world much bigger than their neighborhood and their lifetime.  

Maybe our "artwork of the day" will help.  I need to start playing music when they walk in.  And I need to find a way to keep up with the daily news.  

Then there is also the need to teach responsibility.  I stopped at S's house to pick her and her daughter up for class.  She lives right on my way and far out of the path of the bus route.  Her sister said she had overslept and couldn't come.  I said that oversleeping was not an excusable absence.  You can't oversleep and keep a job and the same holds true for a place in our class.  Ah, tough love!

Something old; something new

I'm old.  I've done this for years.  But today was a day of firsts:  yoga, the Met artwork of the day, fraction circles, reading aloud to the students and sustained silent reading (known as SSR in the jargon I learned this summer.)

Yesterday our childcare room was so busy and we had no extra help.   Today we had extra staff and volunteers and half of the families called in with illnesses.  So we were "flexible" (our mantra) and we took advantage of the opportunity for Jessica, a trained yoga instructor and one of our children's teachers) to do 15 minutes of yoga with us.  What fun to be in a circle with four students trying to breathe correctly and to do a few poses.  The smoker among us struggled and that was good for her to know.

I have enjoyed the Metropolitan Museum artwork of the day at home for several months.  If I pull it up daily on our laptop in class, it can enrich all of our lives.  Today's work was a Roman plate from 300 AD inscribed with a menorah, torah, ark, and a shofar.  One student recognized the menorah without knowing its name.  She was the one who wondered how anyone could know how old the plate was.  Good question.

Later in the morning I pulled out the fraction circles that I got from the Math Academy class I took at IVY Tech this summer.  We compared fractions, added unlike fractions, and subtracted with borrowing--all with the students demonstrating our work with the circles.

When I taught sixth grade years ago, we always began the afternoon session by my reading aloud to the students.  Those were good times of reading classic children's books.  A listserv I've been on this summer suggested doing the same with adults.  This morning I read the first chapter of Hatchet--hoping to leave the students with the cliff-hanger of the 13 year old boy 7000 feet in the air in a bush plane with a pilot stricken with a heart attack.  We followed that with ten minutes of silent reading.  The students all chose other books with titles like "Sister to Sister",  "I Never Thought It Could Happen to Me", and "Surviving Abuse."  Not one of them said that they ever read for pleasure.  We'll see if we can start some good habits.  I need to buy more books of the same genre.

My heart sinks when I know that so many students will be absent.  I have to fight discouragement as each call comes in.   But I have done this long enough that I can change plans and take advantage of the opportunities of a small group.  It was a good morning. 

Week two, day two

The buses were early and on time respectively.  Progress!  Seven families were present and one excused.  Progress!  Testing is finished for half the class and goals are being set.  If we had more space and children's teachers, we could take the four families on our wait list. 

There are at least three or four students who seem to have a real sense of enjoyment in learning.  They contribute ideas for new words to learn, they are willing to suggest alternatives for solutions to problems, and they say things like "the morning went by so fast."  That is always a good sign. 

Others are quiet and I am having to work at getting to know them.  All are doing well with reading and interacting with their children at PACT time.  One little fellow is pretty wild, but did better today.  If he doesn't settle down, we'll need to think about a referral.  It is always good to remember that this is a family program, not just a GED program with childcare.  Our goals are for the adults and the children.

So...at this point, I think how could I give up a good thing--and a needed thing? 

Sometimes it's fun!

The bus was a problem again.  This time two buses went to one housing project to pick up the same two families.   Again, this delayed the arrival of three students.   However, all seven families returned today in spite of dreary, rainy weather. 

I get my joy in little ways:  when S. says she had seen the word "cognitive" before but never knew what it meant,   when O. was full of ideas about the patterns in the tables of nines and, in fact, said she better let someone else take a turn, when S. said she would go right home and share those nines tricks with her ten-year-old daughter,  when the babies were so obviously delighted with the singing at circle time,  when a very wild 2 1/2 year old D. stopped his constant movement and tried to sing the alphabet song at circle.   Those are the rewards I would miss greatly.

A comment was made about my husband and retirement.  I always say I cannot even get him to retire from church softball, let alone his work as a professor.  He used to say he would quit and let the younger academics have a job, but now that he could do so, he thinks differently.  He has a major project that he never has time to work on.  Retirement would give him that time.  I wonder why he has such a hard time even contemplating the thought of that change in our lives. 

A long weekend ahead.  No posting for a few days.

A fiasco was not a failure

I had worried about the bus situation for today.  My expectations were low, but not low enough!  When I called the coordinator this morning to cancel one student, I was told that we could not possibly have a bus today.  I just couldn't say that was OK.  We had five young ladies with little children waiting for the buses.  I had already had one call asking for the number of the bus so she wouldn't miss it.  So I objected as firmly and nicely as I could.  And we got buses.

However, one of the buses brought two young ladies and their three children to the wrong school almost at the Michigan border and just dropped them off there.  That took even more phone calls and requests to get them back into the downtown area where we are located.

The students were stressed at arrival, but not angry.  And we had a great morning--even if it started 90 minutes late for some. Introductions were made, forms signed, and testing began.  Notes written for me at the end of the morning recognized the stress, but were positive. 

But this is the frustration of the job.  I knew there could be a problem and tried to prepare for it by emails, faxes and direct phone contact.  But the confusion still happened.

I like working with the students and the staff.  It is frustrations like this one and the ones we have with maintenance that make me think I would like to retire.  But these frustrations are nothing new; they have always been there and I have gotten over it.

Time to begin

I went to Macri's bakery this morning as I have done for years--maybe ten or more--on the day before we have classes.  I bought five of their wonderful muffins to share while we went through policies and procedures as a staff.  As I walked from the car to the store, I wondered if this would be the last time I did this--and then I wondered how many times I would be thinking that this year.  It made me feel a little sad.  Jim said what if I had thought I would be doing that routine for the next 15 years.  I guess that would make me feel even worse!

It was a good meeting and everything is mostly ready for tomorrow.  Tonight I had the usual phone calls:  The first:  "I have a referral to Christ Child  Society tomorrow--is it OK if I come in late?"   The second:  "My mother didn't make it to do her laundry today at my house.  Is it OK if I start on Thursday instead?"  I gave permission to the first student and said no to the second one. 

A Facebook friend said she would like to read this blog.  I am not ready to post on FB, but I was flattered and will email it to her.  Another friend wrote that she was wondering when I would think about retiring.  And somehow I didn't find that affirming at all!

Day 2

Both of my blogging children called last night and said they had seen my blog.  Dan said he had read it to two friends from his I-phone.  He said most people who started blogs stopped after two entries.  Well, here is my second one. 

What are my goals in doing this blog?  My immediate inspiration is reading The Happiness Project and Gretchen Rubin's joy in doing a blog.  I like to write and I learn and think things through by writing.  So am I doing this for me or for some imagined audience?  I am not sure.  I'd like to be read and to have comments.  But how far I can share my thoughts and reactions, some of which will be negative, I am not sure either. 

Our staff meetings and setting up time went well this morning.  The child-care staff is fun, involved, and enthusiastic.  We enjoyed  Jimmy John's subs before we finished up for the morning.

But not all went smoothly.  But I expect that after so many years.  There were frustrations with internet access.  There was the surprise resignation of our previous custodian but I know the new one and like him.  I am his "amigo."  There was the one word reaction of the bus coordinator when she asked when we started up this year and I told her Wednesday (two days from now.)  "Lord," she muttered.  I had sent her two emails and three faxes, but this was my first phone call.  I have learned over the years to confirm everything.   When we called a few new students, the result was "this person is not accepting any calls at this time"--the usual response when someone has run out of minutes.   The table in my classroom was covered with boards and nails from a construction project in the next room.  I was planning on two students coming in for individual evaluation, but neither one showed up. 

None of this feels very discouraging right now.  I am eager to start!

64 and counting

I'm 64 years old and will turn 65 during this school year.  I need to renew my teaching license by November 2011.  We set up our classrooms tomorrow and the students come on Wednesday.  Will this be the last time for this for me?

The decision may be made for me.  Funding is changing and adult education may no longer be under the auspices of the school corporations next year.  But the emphases have changed many times over the years from life skills to academics and now to work force development.

I have done lots of reading over the summer and have several ideas for improving our time in class.  This is a good thing.  I have met three of the new students and was encouraged by their eagerness to be a part of our class.  That too is a good thing.

It is hard for me to imagine a life without the challenge and rewards of teaching.  One former student called me a "legend in South Bend."  That could be good or bad!  But I am very comfortable in my classroom and that makes students comfortable.

I guess I will use this blog to record the good and the not so good and maybe that will help me decide if I can give this up or if giving it up would be a big mistake.