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

Summer School: Session 5.....Driven to tears

Long day at work.....and another emotional day with the kids. So pardon me if there are typos, cause mi not going to re-read this before posting:)

Those of us who have had good parental upbringing and family structure, adequate finances to give us at least the basic things we need to be comfortable, and a good education, really have a LOT to be thankful for. Thanks parents!

Yet sometimes, we complain about things which less fortunate people would consider a molehill.....more on that later.

This is how the day turned out.

Last Tuesday, I did not have time to do the homework card. So on Friday, Yamfoot's Homework Delivery Jallopy drove around the neighbourhood and delivered the homework card. Like last week, there were words to be written out and memorized, words to look up the meaning for, calculations (multiplication), and instrucctions to write in the Journal. Because they had been very active last week, I also wrote out a list of promises.

For example....
- I promise to stop talking and listen to others when they are talking.
- I promise to make my parents proud of me.
- I promise to eat more vegetables.

They had to study them.

I called all the parents yesterday, to remind them of the time for today (9am), and asked about the progress of the homework. Everyone was finished, except Mr T, who was just doing his. Why? "Ah don't know Miss." Then I asked to speak with his mother. She said she told him to go and do it before Monday and that now, his older brother would help him. I told her I didn't really want that, because he would just be given the answers and like last week, couldn't give me the explanation of how he worked out the sums. She said she would ask him to call out the words. Mr T had earlier told me he didn't have a dictionary to look up the words, which were Discipline, Opportunity and Appreciate. I told him some child in his community must have a dictionary, so he should find one.

This morning, The 5th Kid and Mr T were the only punctual ones. I picked up Mr D on my way in. Yes.....I was late too. Bad example!

I had enlisted my GM to be the guest this morning at 9am. At 9:20, we decided that he would do it after our morning meeting, because Mr KF had still not arrived. So much for last week's progress with his punctuality.

Mr KF did not touch his homework. I asked why. No good enough reason except he was busy and had to help his mother. I told him that was not a good enough reason. His classmates also asked him what happened to Saturday, when he said he was at church from 10am to 4pm. (What church is that/)

I gave them a spelling test. I read out the words, and they had to write it in their books. Mr T quarrelled. But before he quarrelled, he got into a fight.

Uh huh. AGAIN. Here's what happened. (It happened before the spelling test).

Mr D took a watch out of his bag and rested it on the desk in front of him. Mr T reached over past The 5th Kid and grabbed it up. Mr D said "'ey bwoy, gi mi back mi watch." Mr T ignored him and continued to look at it. Now Mr D was mad. He stood up, advanced towards Mr T (with the 5th Kid in the middle of both of them) and grabbed the watch. It fell on the floor behind Mr T. Next came the right hook. But it missed Mr T and landed in The 5th Kid's face. Good thing it wasn't too hard. Mr D was seething and by now, Mr T had stood up as if to say "hit me again if yuh bad." My mind went into fast forward and I saw Mr D and Mr T crashing into the glass mirrors which line the wall. Back to the present, I grabbed Mr D's hand, led him out of that office and took him into the GM's office.

Help! I need help! So boss went through the scenario with him and asked what he might have done differently, in order not to get that reaction. I left him there and went for Mr T and marched him into the boss's office too. There, he got quiet. Then he started to peer at the images on the security camera screen. I had to ask him to stop looking at the camera and focus on what the GM was saying. Mr T was as usual denying any wrong doing. But the boss got him to apologize, which was really a half hearted one.

Ok, so we get to normal and do the spelling test. Mr Prime Minister gets 8 out of 10! He was quite confident in his ability. He got INSTRUCTIONS and CALCULATE wrong. But he got WRONG right, and also APPRECIATE, OPPORTUNITY and DISCIPLINE. He was very thrilled with his results. So was The 5th Kid, who got 7. The others got 5, except Mr T who got 4. Of course, he rubbished the spelling test, cause he didn't come first.

Next, it was time to recite the Times Tables. As soon as I said it, Mr T said "I don't want to do my times tables. I can't do it." There is that word CAN'T again. He was at one end of the chairs, so I started at the other end. Mr KF was asked to do 4 times. He said he couldn't, so I skipped him to

Mr PM. 6 times tables. All right.
Mr D. 7 times tables. All right with a little help.
The 5th Kid. 8 times tables. All right with a little help.

So Mr T knows he is going to get 9 times....the hardest. But then I asked him to do 6 times. I somehow thought I had given Mr PM a different one, but they all upped and reminded me he had done 6 times. So, 9 times for you Mr T. He started to get miserable and said his brain was old. I said to him "all I want you to do is try." He joked around with the answers to 9 x 1. I was patient, but asked him to please be serious. After he left 9 x 2, he was sticking. So I introduced the "beat the chest" method.

Beat your chest and say "18", then count 9 fingers added to that. Isn't that how everyone learnt how to add? So we went through that all the way up to 10. So I said "very good", to which he replied 'I want to go up to 12." Eh eh!

Lunch time in the Canteen. Like last week, Mr T quarrelled. He didn't want to go into the Canteen. Mr D said "let's take a vote and see who wants to eat in the Canteen or restaurant." But see here doh! I reminded him that I was the adult (a nice card to pull sometimes!) and today, they didn't have an option.

Curry chicken was the dish they all chose. But Mr PM and The 5th Kid did not ask for any vegetables! What! Remember the promise, I said. They could choose from Okra, Beans, White Cabbage and Red Cabbage. Mr PM said he would only eat raw carrots. There is none son. Ok well ah don't want any then. That's not an option. So he told me he would have the beans and asked me to go for it. Sure. I sat between him and Mr KF. Mr KF was busy eating his Okras and sucking his bones. They all asked for knives by the way.

They wanted juice at the start of their meal. Nope. When you are finished, you can have juice. Mr PM pretended like he was choking. And what did he start to do? Best his chest. Mimicking what we did in the math lesson. I didn't take him on. He had one piece of green banana, which he said he took because he thought it counted as vegetables. Nope. So he asked for ketchup, saying he couldn't eat "fig" without ketchup. Nope, we don't have, and besides, it's not good for you. So he looked over in my plate and asked me for a piece of my fish, which he then put with each slice of fig which I had cut up for him, and got it down. When he was brakesing from eating the beans, I divided the portion in half and said he had to eat half. He was the last to leave the table.

Now usually after we eat, it's straight home to avoid the Doosey Line for the toilet. But I hadn't done the homework cards yet, and I sure don't have time to drive around. So they said they would come to my office and help me to do it. Oh Oh. That was not going to work. So I remembered Mr T had not got a chance to finish all the separation of the used paper, so they were supplied with staple removers and a recycling bin. There was cooperation, and because Mr T has done that with me alone already, he declared "I'm in charge of this."

There wasn't space for all of them so I put Mr KF beside me. He was going to help me set the homework (and I did that purposely to ensure that he would be motivated to do it....which he normally does). He chose some of the word for the spelling. I had given him the dictionary and told him to pick out some which were not a 'thing'. Next, he told me what the multiplication questions should be. Apart from the journal entry, I did some Verb Conjugations. Mr KF saw the word and asked "Miss, what is that word?" So I had to change the wording.

On the back of the homework card, I had three tables with the conjugation of three verbs (To Be, Go and Play). I wrote out all the subjects (and I was there thinking I hope 'subject' is the write thing!) and the conjugation for each. While typing it I was asking them what they were. "We goes". They gotta study. While I was typing, Mr KF was fascinated that I could type without looking at the keyboard. Thank Mr Fitz-Henley for that.

The phone rang ever so often, and I had to ask them to be quiet. They complied. Then the 4 finished their paper separation and started to act up, which prompted Mr KF to ask "why Mr T must get on so all the time." There was a swivel chair which they thought was a car, or a merry go round. You get the picture? Thank goodness no one else was in my office block! Then it got ugly. Mr PM and The 5th Kid was sitting in the chair together. Then The 5th Kid went to the toilet and Mr T jumped in the chair, and wanted it all for himself. I had to remind him that the other two boys were quite fine in the chair.

Next, it was on to play "Lock the door....Knock on the Door." Mr D was mimicking the Admin Assistant when trying to gain access to the office. I have two doors to my office. One leads to the rest of the office block and the other one leads to outside. Mr T and Mr D were in and out. Finally I had to say to them, that I am sure my boss is going to tell me don't bring them back here!

Ok, this is reading like a novel. So I will stop here and by Friday or so, I will tell you about the tears part. I'm dog tired and I just "can't make," as they say here. (I know I promised you more last week two, but time intervened.)

Posted by yamfoot at August 16, 2011 10:28 PM