The next decade....what's in store?

Mr T has to do penance

Remember he didn't secure his books, and his sister threw them away? Well I called his mother yesterday and told her I was getting him some replacements, and that he would have to come to my office for them, where he would do some work for about an hour. Payback.

Before I got to work, I got a message that "2 pickney waiting under the tree for you." Two? Yes, a boy and a girl. Hmmmmm.....who could the girl be?

When I got here (yes, I am being bad and blogging from work.....eeeegad!), they were not in sight. I walked around, didn't see them. Then I remembered. Aha! In the Kids Club. I glared....gave them "The Look". Both of them were looking very sheepish when they came into my office.

"What were you doing in there?" Mr T shrugged his shoulders and continued to bite his fingernails (his nails are bitten quite far down). "Didn't I tell you not to go in there?" He started to say no, but I reminded him when I had told him (two previous occasions).

Next. Who are you? "That's my sister." Oh. Two is a crowd. So I spoke with her for a little bit. She passed Common Entrance on her third attempt. We spoke about high school and I told her to go and introduce herself to the Guidance Counsellor, who I know. Then, I sent her home (nicely). Afterall, Mr T had to work to earn those replacement books!

So it was on to his favourite exericse. Shredding. We went and collected some more paper which another colleague wanted to be shredded. But some of them had one usable side. I asked Mr T to separate the ones which had one side free and put the others in the box for shredding later. I asked him to repeat what he had to do. No problem with comprehension.

I asked him to recall what warnings I had given to him the first time, about the shredder. He again looked on the symbols and said "no hair, no tie, no fingers." This was a new shredder we were using today, which was different from the last time. So I showed him the lid of the old one, and he continued "no paper clips."

I got on witih some work while he shredded, giving commentary ever so often. I reminded him that he shouldnt run it continuously for more than a minute. He spotted my timer and asked to set it for a minute.

Then he spotted the name badges I had made for the 5th Kid and Mr D. I told him that if he 1) does his homework, 2) brings his book and 3) comes on time next week, he will get a badge. Immediately, he was fiddling with them to see which one he wanted. He took up one from the back and said he wanted it, then turned it over to see the 5th Kid's name already on it. He kissed his teeth.

Me: "that's the boy you can't stand.".
Mr T: "ah can't stand him you see."
Me: "why?"
Mr T: "Because he's too fat."
Me: "I'm fat too, so you can't stand me too?"
Mr T: "No, you're not fat"
Me: "Yes I am. The doctor told me I have to lose 40 pounds."
Mr T: "What?????????? 40 pounds?????????? How much you weigh? Go for the scale"
Me: "well let's go to the classroom where the scale is."

So we go. I weigh. He laughs in amazement. Right, so don't say you can't stand somebody because he's fat.

Back to shredding. He remembered more safety things from last time. One time when I was going to check the shredder, I had only turned off the power. But then he quickly said "you have to plug it out too." Then, one time I smelt as if it was hot, so I told him not to shred any more paper because it's better to be safe than sorry. He had never heard that expression before, so he asked me to repeat it. Then he said "type it on a paper and print it out for me....please." He was remembering his "please" and "thank you's" throughout our session today.

I asked him if he wanted to type it. Eyes lit up with glee. So he sat in my chair, while I directed him. He has used a computer before at his mother's workplace, but he hadn't done all of what I showed him to do. Type, enlargen the font, change the colour of the font, outline the text, print and save. Who says you can't teach someone something new in 15 minutes? He took to it like a duck to water.

When we were doing up the name badge, you could see how interested he was in how things work. Same thing while using the shredder. He said me if the shredder can see the paper. I was confused, then through more questions I realized he wanted to know how the shredder knew paper was in the slot to be shredded. I explained that there is a sensor which makes the machine feel when a paper has been inserted. Then he tore small strips of paper, put it at different entry points along the point of insertion, to try and figure out where the sensor was.

When I looked at the time, it was way past the hour I had told his Mum. Time to go son. "No, I don't want to leave yet. We not having lunch? You not hungry?" I told him his mother would have cooked today, and that I was having lunch a little later. Reluctantly, he followed me to the car. While driving him home, he waved to several older men. When he called out to one, I asked him who was that, and he said "one of my partners." I said "partners? that fella is much older than you!"

So you see the dilmena. He is hanging around with older guys. God only knows what they are teaching him, unconciously of course. When I called his mother yesterday, she said she had just reached home. I asked to speak with Mr T and she said she didn't know where he was! He told me today that he was by some friends who had come from abroad for holidays.

I made like I was going to drop him at the bottom of the hill. He asked me to drop him up. I waited. The 'please' came. I passed his house about to turn around, when he asked me to go further up to the shop...please. He had 25 cents and wanted to buy something. I told him he would have to walk back down the hill to his house, jokingly. He protested, and ran quickly in to the shop. I didnt see anything in his hand when he returned. Then he produces two mints. He gives me one. Then I introduced some Maths. If two mints cost 25 cents, how much for one. "11 cents". How did you get that? Then he says "12 cents." Guessing. I asked him how much is 12 + 12. He says 14. "How can it be 14, when 14 is only two more than 12?" I asked. *sigh*. The concept of division is definitely not understood. I know too that they don't know their times tables. So I will have to get them to study that. I bought one Math book yesterday and will photocopy and adapt as necessary.

We got to his house and I saw two men outside. One was his step father. I told Mr T to call him. Looking petrified, he asked me why. I told him I wanted to introduce myself to his step father. He again asked why....puzzled. I told him "so that he would know who you are coming to when you leave here every week." He probably didn't tell him the correct thing because the step father continued cutting the bush after smiling hello. Eventually he came, I introduced myself and told him that they come to me once a week. He asked if the mother knows. So clearly, he's not so involved in Mr T's life if he doesn't know that his step son has been to Summer School, and before that, on a separate occasion.

I wanted to say to him "please don't shout at him." But instead I just told him that Mr T is very bright, so I just was trying to help to keep him on the straight and narrow path. "That's very good," was his response.

Posted by yamfoot at August 6, 2011 03:27 PM