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

Summer School: Session 4 - The Kids Disappoint Me

I will really need that day off I have tomorrow...after the day I had today with the kids. They really tested my patience, and I had to have a one-on-one with Mr T. *sigh* One day one day, he will get better. He has to, or else he will end up in jail, there's no question about it.....

10:00am was roll call time today. I got a call at 9:30am to say Mr Kf was there! Success! He's the one who is always late. By the time I got down, Mr Prime Minister was also there. Then came The 5th Kid, and with two minutes to spare before 10:00am, Mr D came in.

I had promised them name badges if they met the conditions I had set (be on time, do homework and bring all the books). I was able to give out name badges to everyone. Everyone except Mr T. He is never late, but this morning he waltzed in at around 10:15. I don't remember if I asked him why he was late.

Anyway, we had started to test their spelling. That was one of the things on their homework sheets. Mr Prime Minister scored on the board. He likes to keep score. They didn't do too badly in spelling.

Next on the home work sheet was sums with pounds and ounces....inches and feet. This island was supposed to have gone metric, but no one uses grams and centimetres. One sum was "if 1 pound = 16 ounces, how many ounces is 1/2 pound". They got most of that right. I fear though, that they may have got help.

Mr PM said that if his grandmother wasn't there, he wouldn't have got all his words right. She helped him with the spelling. Mr KF said his father helped him with the sums. Good. The parents are getting involved. Incidentally, I had called each of them a few days ago to say what time to come today. I asked Mr D's mum if he talked about what we did here and she said "who? Mr D? No sah". Hmmm....so there is little of that kind of communication at home. Makes me appreciate those meal time conversations with the parents even more!

I was leading up to multiplication, so when we got to the sum which asked "If 12 inches = 1 feet, and 1/2 foot = 6 inches, how many inches is 2 1/2 feet", I was able to lead into that. Again they were guessing. So I explained to them that Math is a very logical subject. If you know values, then you can work out anything. So we went through multiplication, explanation of what it is, and they had to write it in their book.

Next, I had to leave them to attend our daily briefing, which is held just outside the office where class is held. So I gave each of them a sheet with several multiplication questions. At least 20 for each. The first thing Mr T said was "I can't do all of that." I immediately heard my Mother speaking when I said to him "why do you say 'I can't' first before you try? All I want you to do is to try."

I left them, closed the door, and attended the meeting. But during the briefing, I had to open the door and poke my head in several times, to get them to focus on their work and stop talking.

When I went back in after the meeting, I corrected each of their sheets. You could see that some concepts of multiplication escaped them. I had answers such as 7 x 7 = 14. Mr PM was very diligently adding the numbers, which was ok until he learns his times tables. He showed the working out for all the sums. Very diligent. Someone said the others may have looked on the times table at the back of the exercise book. In other words, cheated.

It was time to write in the double line book. "I can be trusted." But Mr T had other lines to write because he was behaving badly. So he had to write "Sorry miss for behaving bad in class." His form of apology. I know it should have been "badly"

It was now lunch time. Today, we would not have our private lunch as usual. I need to teach them how to integrate with other people, so we went to the Canteen. Mr T stopped at the door, hissed his teeth and said he didn't want to eat there. He wanted to go up in the Restaurant. I told him he can have two options 1) Eat in the canteen 2) Don't eat any lunch. He came in, still not pleased.

I had to leave them to go check on a few things. I checked upon them by telephone. An employee said they had been given juice. I don't give them in the beginning because I want them to get accustomed to not eating and drinking.

At 1pm, after they had been there about 30 minutes, I went to tell them that I had some people checking in and I wouldn't be able to leave and drop them, so they had two options 1) find their own way home or 2) stay in the "classroom" while I went to the Front Office. They all chose the latter. I asked them what they would do while I was away. Play games on the phone. Sure. "Miss you have cards?" Sure. So I took Mr D and The 5th Kid to get the cards, and they made their way back to the office.

Next I get a call from NPH saying she was going to have to put them in a Time Out because they were creating havoc. She also said she went over twice to ask them to be quiet, and one of them was mocking everything she said. I didnt have to ask who it was. Mr D. The Insolent One. While on my way back to the "classroom" the bellman asked me where the kids were. He said he saw Sales come up on the phone when his phone rang. That's the office we are using as the classroom.

I burst into the room, disappointed look on my face and asked why I had to get a call saying they were doing these things. Then they ratted Mr T out.

"Miss, see Mr T go to the Kids Club and asked the lady to come in and she tell him no and he only begging." I was not pleased. So I started to question him. He denied it. So in all of their presence, I called the Kids Club and the attendant confirmed everything. How could he be so bold face?

So it was time for him to take the stand. But that didnt work, because he just said nothing. He stared at me and said nothing. Nothing. Not one thing. I realized I wasn't going to get anything out of him, so I took him into my office.

Why did you do that Mr T, especially after you did the same thing on Saturday and I told you not to go there? Do you know why I spend time each week with you boys? No answer. Nothing coming. Then after more questioning, something. A nod. Recognition in his eyes that he knew I was not pleased.

I then asked him about his dreams for when he gets older, about what he wants to be, about getting married, having kids maybe. He said he didn't think about the future. That made me sad.

I asked him about the sleeping arrangements at home. He sleeps in the same bedroom with his 13 year old sister and 16 year old brother. He has his own bed. I told him he needs to see that he is fortunate because in that same situation, other children would have to share a bed with each other.

Then I told him about someone who grew up with 10 other children, who didn't have running water, who had to fetch water from a few miles away. That same person, is a manager now, earning a good salary. The point I was making to Mr T was that he didn't have to make his conditions now determine what his future would be. I told him that I see how good he is with his hands, and that as Ms P said, there is no reason why he can't be an engineer. Or he could work on a cruise ship, learn to mix drinks and travel all over the world. I explained to him that the only way that will happen is if he gets a good education, and for that, he has to listen to his teachers, of which I am one.

There was a litter glimmer in his eyes which told me that he realizes that he has the potential to do something good with his life.

The drive home was another matter....so I will blog about that later.

They sapped my energy today, but when I saw Mr Prime Minister write on the board "I love Summer School," I know I have to press on.

Posted by yamfoot at August 10, 2011 05:23 PM