I really don't know whether to feel relieved or more frustrated. I have 3 weeks' worth of evidence to show that my kids (mostly afternoon class) don't listen to ME. But now it's obviously not just ME that they don't listen to.
When a co-worker came by this morning to ask if I wanted to take the kids to the auditorium in the afternoon to watch a DVD of Obama's speech from Tuesday morning, I said heck yeah! A chance for the kids to hear the leader of the free world tell them that education is important and that they should pay attention and do their homework?? Yes, please!
So we went down there at 2 and watched the speech. Or, more accurately, I watched my kids shift, look around listlessly, play with their hands, and steal glances at me every 6 seconds.
There were a few that were paying attention. One of my top students asked afterwards, "So, I should not give up? I just need to ask you for help?" Well, yeah!
Now if only Mr. Obama could talk to my kids about number sense. Oh wait, they wouldn't listen to him. But still, I could use some help. Especially with the kid today who could not show me what three hundred eighty-four looks like in standard form. He sat and stared, and so I finally asked him to write three hundred and then add eighty-four to it. The kid could not write 300...
Man.
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6 comments:
Were most of these kids at your school last year (and before?) or are they mostly new arrivals from other places? If they've been at your school for a while, I wonder what their previous teachers did all day? Did they teach them anything? Did they have any classroom management skills?
Most of them were here last year I believe. Not sure about the answers to your questions. I know that some of them certainly taught them a lot. Unfortunately, the kids at our school tend to go home and forget nearly everything over the summer, so they come back blank slates.
I believe you are being too kind in your assessment of the other teachers...I don't see how a child would forget everything over the summer if they actually learned it (there's a difference between being "taught" something and actually learning it)...I guess since there's a lot of your colleagues who read your blog you have to be careful in your criticism of them.
Sorry, but I'm a lurker. Long time reader, first time poster ;). I can top you on the 300 thing. Today, in my 8th grade class (EIGHTH GRADE), while being prompted to look at the clock, a student could not tell me how many hours were in a day. My question was how many days is 24 hours? Her answers: a week, (after a little prompting) 6, (more prompting) 2. Well, then I just had to tell her.
I think there's something in the water that makes their brains idle too high.
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