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Edublog AwardsDec
23
What a Surprise
Filed Under "At-risk" students, Learning Strategies | Leave a Comment
My classroom was packed with kids. It was the last class before the winter break, and kids had been coming and going all during period 5 wishing me and each other a happy holiday. At one point, I look up towards the door, and in they both walked. What a surprise! I hadn’t seen them since last June when they’d come to visit and tell me that their first year after graduating from high school had gone well. Now, they had come to visit again.
I was so pleased. I remember them fondly. When I first met them in my grade nine Learning Strategies Class they were two little round pegs that did not fit well into the square holes of high school. I can’t begin to tell you how many “talks” we had in the hall over the years outside my classroom about making better choices for better consequences, about how they needed to grit their teeth and hang in there because it really wasn’t that much longer, about how their learning disabilities made it difficult for them in high school because high school values strengths they don’t have and ignores the strengths they do have. Yes, we had many talks. I would talk; they would listen. They would talk; I would listen. They learned. I learned. It was quite a journey.
After a few moments of chit-chatting, I introduced the two of them to my grade nine students. Then, what a surprise! They started to give my grade nine students advice:
- Stay in school. You need to graduate if you want to get anywhere. (This, from kids who hated school and talked about quiting all through grade 9, 10 and 11)
- Take co-op, it’s the best. ( I had talked one of them into going into co-op because he hated school so much. I told him that co-op was perfect for kids who hated school. He loved co-op and started an apprenticeship which he is still pursuing. He told me he got his second raise.)
- Don’t complain about doing all that writing in class. Doing all that writing in class really helps with the writing you’ll have to do at work. (All that writing? I had them write eight sentences into their journal every day. They complained constantly. That little bit of writing made that much difference. Who was to know?)
- Don’t quit until your finish. (That’s actually quite funny now. I remember that they often didn’t even want to start the work I gave, let alone mind finish it. I talked and talked and talked about perseverance being one of the characteristics of succesful people. I even had posters up saying that. I never gave up.)
- Make sure you’re organized. (Are they kidding. They used to come to my class like rock stars expecting to find personal assistants to take care of all the little details like pencils, pens, erasers etc.)
My grade nine students were sitting there quietly listening and asking them questions. It was great to watch. These nineteen year olds were mentoring and giving back some of what they had gotten. I told them that they had an obligation to help the younger kids because they had gotten help. They agreed and offered to come and speak to the other grade nine students. Their voices will be more readily heard than mine. That’s, not a surprise!
Dec
20
“Make me want to come to school,” a student once told me when I asked him how I could help him learn. Make me want to come to school. That’s exactly what two of the basketball coaches at my school have done. They have made some of my at risk students want to come to school.
When Doug Armstrong first told me about the P.A.S.S. program ( Promoting Athletics and Student Success) that he and Kent Sykes were instituting this semester to try to motivate kids to do well in school through basketball, I thought it was great. What a wonderful idea. The motto of the program is “you have to pass before you play”.
It’s really very simple, but ingenious. How well the players do in the classroom determines how much time they get on the basketball court. Notice, the kids aren’t kicked off the team if they are failing any courses. Instead, Doug and Kent use the kids’ love of basketball to motivate them to improve their performance in the classroom. If the kids pass all their courses, they get more time on the court. If they are at risk of failing or are actually failing a course, they’re still on the team, but they don’t get as much time on the court. To be able to get more playing time, they have to attend study hall and raise their marks until they’re no longer at risk of failing any of their classes. The deal is, if their marks are in the 50′s, they attend study hall for two hours a week until they are no longer at risk of failing. If their mark is below 50, then they have to attend study hall three hours a week until they are no longer at risk of failing. Simple. Nice and simple.
Doug and Kent spend hours and hours of their time coaching these kids on and off the court. They talk to the kids, and they talk to their parents. They talk to teachers, and they talk to administrators. They supervise and organize the study hall and keep detailed attendance records. Doug and Kent do a lot. I’ve seen how much time and effort they spend mentoring these kids, and I’ve seen how it works. I teach some of these kids, and I’ve seen positive changes in their behaviour and attitude. Doug and Kent are making a huge difference. They are making these kids want to come to school.
Dec
20
Make The Shoe Fit
Filed Under "At-risk" students, The Way I See It | Leave a Comment
Previously I commented here about Ontario’s new law that threatens to take away the driver’s licence of students who quit school before they are 18 and have earned their high school diploma. It was with special interest that I read Monday’s Toronto Star. Marg Clarke, the principal of Sutton District High School, stated that she wasn’t interested in this punitive approach and has taken a positive step implemented a program that makes the kids want to come to school.
Last summer when I taught Camp I Can, I asked my students what I could do to help them learn. One student told me that I should make him want to come to school. Principal Clarke has done just that. She has made students want to come to her school. Erik Christensen told Tess Kalinowksi, the education reporter for the Toronto Star, that the new program is the only reason he came back to school in the fall. The shoe finally fits.
The shoe or program that finally fits students like Christenson consists of half a day spent earning academic credits and the other half of the day “breathing sawdust in the woodworking shop”. The combination of school and work is the motivating factor. It’s not that kids aren’t motivated to do things. It’s that they want to do things other than sitting on their butts in a desk all day. I can see that shoe fitting some of the kids I teach. It’s definitely something to consider.
Dec
18
Whoa! Let’s Rethink This Whole Homework Thing.
Filed Under "At-risk" students, The Way I See It | 12 Comments
Homework- “To be or not to be. That is the question.”
(Sorry Will- little did you know who would quote you for what reason.)
The question used to be how much homework should teachers give their students. Now, the question seems to be should teachers give homework at all. I’ve been asked many times about the appropriate amount of homework a teacher should assign. It is a perplexing question. We all know being a student means doing homework. One parent told me her child, a grade three student, gets three hours of homework a night. Yikes!!! Another parent told me his child, a grade nine student, doesn’t seem to get homework at all. Ok, so what’s the answer to the homework question?
Personally, I don’t give homework anymore. I found that most of my students won’t do school work at home. Igave detentions for not doing homework and then have to chase many of them because they don’t come for detentions. Then I got the office involved. I called home and parents tell me they are frustrated because their kid avoids doing or refuses to do home work. The whole thing turned into a great kafuffle. So, I have decided the prudent thing to do is to use the time in class to the best advantage. Over the years, I’ve learned many ways of keeping my students on task during class time so that they complete the work during my class. Not everyone agrees with my homework philosophy, but hey I can live with that. I look at the big picture, and I like what I see: my students usually do well; the classroom is a happy place, and my health is excellent. I can’t ask for more.
Recently, Kathryn, Head of Alternative programs at my school, brought this article about homework to my attention. It’s well worth looking at. In an interview with Kenneth Whyte of MacLeans magazine, Alfie Kohn author of “The Homework Myth” challenges our assumptions about the value of homework. Kohn tell us that research suggests:
- Doing homework does not make kids smarter..
- Doing homework does not improve their marks.
- Doing homework does not teach good study skills.
- Doing homework does not lead to parent and children spending quality time together.
- Doing homework does not prepare students for the competitive world.
- Doing homework does not improve standardized test scores.
Ok! Ok! OK! I ‘m sure you get the picture. Homework isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. (What it’s cracked up to be- that’s a weird expression now that I think about it) Does that mean there’s no point in giving homework? No. Kohn tells Whyte there is useful homework:
First, (homework) chosen by the students so that kids have some role in a democratic classroom community of deciding what is so vital that it ought to spill over into the after school hours. Second, it might simply involve free-choice reading rather than writing those gawd awful book reports that could destroy anyone’s love of books. Third, it might take the form of activities that logically ought to be done at home, like replicating a science experiment in one’s own kitchen, or interviewing one’s parents about family history, rather than the kind of stuff that could be and should be done at school. I guess my overall point is not, let’s get rid of homework altogether, but that we should change the default state. Right now, the default is to make kids do school work at home almost every day, regardless of whether it’s necessary. If the burden of proof, so to speak, was on educators to say that a given assignment is so useful that we’re going to presume to interrupt family time to ask you to do it, that’s a very different situation.
Homework- “To be or not to be. That is the question.” I like the answer Alfie Kohn gives- it depends on what you want the outcome to be.
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