A brief lesson on a pharoah on the Met Museum Art of the Day provoked the comment "Why do people study this old stuff? " Because that is my husband's work, studying the Dead Sea Scrolls, I invited him to create a simpler power point presentation and come to our class. Today was the day. There were eight students present and one volunteer. The volunteer showed me yesterday how to connect the powerpoint to the TV so that was one challenge and accomplishment.
Maybe two of the students asked questions and they were good questions. Most of the others listened politely. One had her head down and barely made eye contact with Jim or the slides. I know he made every attempt to explain clearly and yet I was so struck with how far removed most of my students are from academic discourse. Jim referred to a "quill" and "ritual baths" and "nineteen hundred years ago." I quickly translated that as 2000 and asked if they knew what a quill was. He referred to "Jordanian occupation" and the "Gaza Strip" and the "West Bank" and they barely know where Israel is.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
A tsunami? an earthquake?
This morning I asked the students to name a few places in the news and then find them on the globe. Maybe two or three out of the eight present seemed aware that a horrible earthquake had taken place in Japan with 10,000 dead or more. Two of those students turn on the TV news in the morning. The third one thought she had seen something posted on Facebook.
No one seemed aware of the revolutions taking place in Egypt and Tunisia and the fighting in Libya.
Tomorrow, I begin taking in the newspaper from home or picking one up en route. Or we look at a news source on the web. I know there is often little awareness of other times and places, but this disaster is not a small thing. How can they be unaware of it?
One of the students who turns on the TV every morning at 6 am has received some of the best GED predictor scores in science and social studies this year. No wonder she has done well.
No one seemed aware of the revolutions taking place in Egypt and Tunisia and the fighting in Libya.
Tomorrow, I begin taking in the newspaper from home or picking one up en route. Or we look at a news source on the web. I know there is often little awareness of other times and places, but this disaster is not a small thing. How can they be unaware of it?
One of the students who turns on the TV every morning at 6 am has received some of the best GED predictor scores in science and social studies this year. No wonder she has done well.
Friday, March 11, 2011
No power!
Yesterday at 8:15 am I got a call on my cell phone from S, the resident liason at Housing Authority. She informed me that there would be no electricity in the child care rooms from 9 to 11 am. We had hints that this might happen, but had not been told directly. We had called and emailed the previous day to confirm this possibility, but had not gotten any response until it was too late. By 8:15 the buses were running to pick up students. This has been typical of my experience with the Housing Authority. We have been there for 20 years with two years elsewhere during that time. And we are still forgotten when things like this happen. We were informed the last time that the "lights" were going to be off--and we canceled class and then they never were turned off at all. So I might not have canceled anyway.
The child care staff coped with a pretty dark classroom for two hours. We turned the heat way up before anyone came so it didn't get cold. We still had water. We are flexible! We had seven families and the adult students accomplished quite a bit. So I am glad we had class. The child care staff does not get paid if we cancel so that is another reason to keep going no matter what!
It's this kind of thing that strengthens my resolve to leave this program. It's all the extra hassles besides teaching. It occured to me recently that someone else will need to be a part of the hiring of childcare staff for next year. One of our aides will leave for sure; I hope the other two will stay. But that will be someone else's problem in August--not mine! The best possible scenario would be to hire in May however so that we can see someone in action in the classroom. Last time we hired we talked to someone who came across just fine in her interview and then was a dud in the classroom. She didn't interact with the children and worst of all, she never said how cute our babies were! The woman we did hire was a stark contrast to that. The others on staff just knew she was the one we needed when they saw her in the classroom.
The child care staff coped with a pretty dark classroom for two hours. We turned the heat way up before anyone came so it didn't get cold. We still had water. We are flexible! We had seven families and the adult students accomplished quite a bit. So I am glad we had class. The child care staff does not get paid if we cancel so that is another reason to keep going no matter what!
It's this kind of thing that strengthens my resolve to leave this program. It's all the extra hassles besides teaching. It occured to me recently that someone else will need to be a part of the hiring of childcare staff for next year. One of our aides will leave for sure; I hope the other two will stay. But that will be someone else's problem in August--not mine! The best possible scenario would be to hire in May however so that we can see someone in action in the classroom. Last time we hired we talked to someone who came across just fine in her interview and then was a dud in the classroom. She didn't interact with the children and worst of all, she never said how cute our babies were! The woman we did hire was a stark contrast to that. The others on staff just knew she was the one we needed when they saw her in the classroom.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
So close to trouble
It takes very little to set some sparks going. Today J went back to the childcare room because her granny was coming to pick up her baby. One of our child care teachers told her that a new 2 year old in class had scratched her daughter. The students are to be told if there is an incident; they are not to be told who the culprit was. I don't think this has come up this year and I am not sure we clarified that policy at the beginning of the year. The teacher was not defensive when I asked her to refrain from naming names if it happened again.
J came back to the classroom and informed the mother of the 2 year old what had happened--in front of the class. The mother said she was sorry but of course it wasn't her fault. I hated for this incident to have happened on someone's first day in class. I hope it does not upset her enough to stay away.
I told J I was unhappy that she pointed this out in front of everyone and that it took so little to make trouble in a class. She said she really was upset and did feel like fighting because now her baby would go to her daddy's house and everyone would think she was a bad mother because she had a scratch.
It really has been a good year in that there have been few incidents of this nature. There often have been biters in the nursery or preschool and that took lots of supervision and created much anger on the part of mothers. And last year there was trouble more often because of one student who said she was a lesbian and then another one who obviously had gender issues and flirted with one of the other students often. Lots of "she said... and then she said... and it's my own business...no one has to be in my business...etc."
J came back to the classroom and informed the mother of the 2 year old what had happened--in front of the class. The mother said she was sorry but of course it wasn't her fault. I hated for this incident to have happened on someone's first day in class. I hope it does not upset her enough to stay away.
I told J I was unhappy that she pointed this out in front of everyone and that it took so little to make trouble in a class. She said she really was upset and did feel like fighting because now her baby would go to her daddy's house and everyone would think she was a bad mother because she had a scratch.
It really has been a good year in that there have been few incidents of this nature. There often have been biters in the nursery or preschool and that took lots of supervision and created much anger on the part of mothers. And last year there was trouble more often because of one student who said she was a lesbian and then another one who obviously had gender issues and flirted with one of the other students often. Lots of "she said... and then she said... and it's my own business...no one has to be in my business...etc."
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