Lights Out

Today was going well until about 11:30 when we received an announcement that a streetlight needed repaired. As a result, the electricity at the school would have to be turned off for 6 hours. Students were allowed to call home on their cell phones and instead of teaching we managed the students and stood guard at the doors in case any decided to bolt without their parents. One student did try to leave and he almost succeeded as he was quite quiet and unnoticed until the door opened. He seemed a bit confused and didn't mind that he had to wait until someone came to get him.

I got to teach my lesson in the morning and it was a lot of fun; I taught about simple machines. We had an axle/wheel, lever, pulley, inclined plane, etc. in class. The kids seemed like they were having a lot of fun with using the machines.

We are in an interesting situation here at summer school. The school has a first and second session where the second session is optional for students who have good attendance and/or passing TAKS scores from their summer retake. Come monday, I will have some of my old students, but I will receive new ones. This might not sound like much of a problem as it's really good if a student doesn't have to come to summer school any more, BUT, TFA is collecting ISAT data. This was the test the students take at the beginning of getting a TFA teacher and at the end (two weeks into the 2nd session). If they meet their "growth goals," then it says that the TFA teacher was effective in teaching the students for those 4 weeks (14 actual school days). From the standpoint of many TFA teachers we also want the students to come back so that we can teach them more so that they'll be more prepared for school in the fall.

As a result of this attendance problem, we have to take steps to keep the students invested in our class so that they'll come back when it's optional and not mandatory. One route I and other teachers are taking is making the next two weeks personal for the students. We are bringing in resources and setting aside time for questions about life after high school--the meaning of a college degree, the possibilities in a profession, etc. This part of life is quite vague for many of our students as many are not brought up with these expectations. I will also be bringing in a Houston Kenyon alum as a speaker (and possibly quite a few more once I get the alumni website password in the next few days). I'll also write positive notes home and make sure to offer personalized help for each student's weak areas in what we are learning.

As a science teacher, my job is a little easier in making class interesting through cool experiments/demonstrations. A few days ago we were shown some amazing experiments that even college grads found fascinating such as lighting money on fire, crushing a can just by putting it in water, blowing the top off a film canister, etc. We plan to begin doing a cool experiment each day starting friday and of course following it up with a mini-lesson on the science behind it (5 minute explanation). This is all quite useful for the next two years because some of the same strategies will be used to keep the students invested in their work at school. The idea is that the teacher makes the classroom culture great and makes education meaningful to the students. Thus, the students see the value in school and the work they do each day.