After School Mentor

I've found myself staying later and later after school. Everyday, I have intentions of getting ahead (or catching up, depending on the day of the week) on grading, lesson planning, or filing papers, but something always seems to come up that cuts into my time. Today, I found myself playing the mentor. I find the timing somewhat appropriate because on Thursday night, I'm playing "father" to one of my students at a "Father-Son/Mentor-Son Night Out" at the local Presbyterian church. I imagine I'll look more out of place than usual (assuming I'm the only white person there) as I play father to an African-American student who is about 3 inches taller than I am. But getting back to today's episode, I had a former student, JC, get into a fight after school Something I've been really impressed with so far is that this is the second fight we've had at our school the entire year. Now as I said, JC is a FORMER student. The first two weeks of class he refused to do any work, the next three weeks he was suspended (for an episode with another teacher, not me), the next three I tried my best to get him to even pretend like he was doing work, but he was finally moved out of my class after I told my principal I was having problems controlling some students' behavior in this particular class (I was under the impression I would get a meeting with the three students I specifically mentioned, but to my shock they were simply moved out of my class the next day without my input -- I'm not going to lie and say I wasn't a little relieved). Anyways, because JC was in a fight after he's already been suspended and moved out of my class, he most likely will be expelled, which means he goes to Capital City (the alternative school) for the second consecutive year. After the fight was over (which I didn't get to witness, by the way), one of my current students, RG, walked by my classroom. I asked him what he was doing, received the standard "chillin'," and invited him in. Recently, I've noticed RG has been hanging out a lot with JC -- at lunch, in the halls, at the football games, etc. I began my lecture by asking RG how close he was with JC, explaining that I'd seen them together on several occasions. After I was informed that they were in fact "boys," I proceeded to explain to RG that the persons he chooses to associate with can seriously affect the outcome of his life and that I would hate to see him do something detrimental to his future because he was being influenced by someone else's choices or decisions. It's really scary how much I sounded like my parents. At this point, Robert knew exactly to what I was referring, and attempted to defend his and JC's actions. I couldn't really tell how seriously he was taking the conversation until it began to take a turn into discussing backgrounds and futures. He explained to me that he was from "the bad hood," along with JC, but that he, unlike JC and most of the other people from "the bad hood," was not a thug. He didn't have tattoos, earrings, grills, etc. All this is true -- RG is one of the most well-spoken, likeable students I have. However, I was informed that, to him, it is unacceptable to let someone take his back, as JC was apparently doing, and not physically respond. Also, RG told me that he had been letting things slide with the other assailant in the fight, and that he was intending to "finish" the fight that JC had started. I again started in on my lecture about how one cannot control what others do to him, but only what his reaction is. I was obviously not getting through, as RG kept defending his actions and thoughts, claiming "I'm gonna take that boy DOWN tomorrow." In his rambling, RG mentioned how he wanted to get out of his neighborhood. I seized the opportunity and pulled RG over to my desk to show him his grade: a 58%. 69% is passing. He stammered, "Is that going on my report card?" I informed him that it was, and showed him the four assignments that he never turned in. I then took it a step further and pulled out the Reading Comprehension results that each student took about 4 weeks ago. RG, along with about 6 or 7 other Honors 11th graders that I taught, scored higher than a 13th grade reading level. According to the standardized test, he was one of the 6 or 7 smartest students I had, and these are out of Honors students. I then showed him the selected list of 25 11th graders that are taking the PSAT tomorrow -- his name was on the list. I explained that I handpicked those students based on who I thought had the most potential to score well, and that if he does really well on this test, colleges will pay him to go there. He was shocked. I then explained to him that he has the potential to have an A in my class, but because he's lazy (those were my words) and comes into class late, doesn't turn in work, sleeps, and hits on girls, he is failing my class. And it's not close. He's miserably failing. He didn't say anything for about 30 seconds, and just started nodded his head. "I'm gonna do better Mr. P... thanks. We need to have another one of these talks." He left me wondering what is going to happen tomorrow.

Learning Styles Inventory

I gave a learning styles inventory to 4 of my 6 classes (the other two I rarely see because of assemblies that ALWAYS fall during this class period). Considering that this survey only had three options for the students to select (Visual, Auditory, or Kinesthetic), I fully anticpated my students to be overwhelmingly visual learners. Why did I expect this? Because they completely tune me out. I automatically assumed that because I say things over and over again (give instructions, discuss literary terms, assign homework due dates) and the students hardly respond to what I say, that they must not be auditory learners. Nope. I was wrong. According to the survey, they were mostly auditory learners. This surprised me a little. I'm a little disappointed in the fact that my auditory instruction is apparently falling on deaf ears if this is the way they learn the best. Granted, the results were not overwhelmingly auditory; however, it was a clear leader. I was trying to think of ways that, had the results been different, I would implement more visual or kinesthetic tactics, and I have to admit I'm a little relieved I don't need to do as much. Although I feel like my best days are when I'm extremely well-prepared with a strong set, I'm finding it harder and harder to stay creative and original. So I must say it's somewhat of a comfort to know that I'm not as accountable for always being creative and novel.