Sometimes

[learnteach]

it's best just to relax. Aaaaah.

Still the big classes, but as long as no bloodshed, and everybody learns, it's all good, right? Except some can't learn in a boisterous environment.

Mmmm. Steak and Pyrates and yeah.

Biking 101, with the road cuts, is scary.

Students are clearly failing the summer school class and not caring. What's up with that?

"I sense no danger." --Patrick Star

Comments

[judith-s.livejournal.com]

You can lead the horse to water. The parents can make the kids go to school, but they can't make them learn.

[d-mon-chick.livejournal.com]

It's hard to understand.

At an earlier stage of life, things may be clearer. My future mom-in-law has been teaching summer pre-school in a low income area and I've been listening to her talk about the experience. It's frustrating (dealing with the adults) and tragic (with some of the children). She sees the dark the path that some of these tiny little children are walking and it is heart breaking. At the same time, it's a crappy and stressful place to work. She is heartened by the improvement in the kids but the adults she deals with treat her pretty crappy because they resent the fact that she teaches at Kensington during the regular school year.

Hang in there, you are doing everything you can and every child that learns is a victory for you.

[freewaydiva.livejournal.com]

If you get through to even *one* student this summer, it will have been a success.

Remember:

You will make sense to someone.
You will inspire someone.
You will be a role model to someone.
You will be a catalyst to someone.

And you will likely *never* know about it.

*hands you a virtual cocktail* :)

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

Students are clearly failing the summer school class and not caring. What's up with that?

Because it's a charter, when the students fail out, they end up back in the big district schools. Some -- not all, but *some* -- of the students are at the charter not because they want to be, but because their parents want them to be. For an example, there are a number of young latina women there because their parents want them to have the more sheltered charter environment. So, you have some unwilling students, and some of *those* have figured out that if they fail out of the charter, they'll get to be with their friends back at the big district schools. So, failing out.

Another subset of the students consists of kids who have been just burned out on the constant upheaval and changes. They can't make lasting connections to teachers because every time they do, the teachers go away. They're so demoralized at this point, they just don't give a fuck any more. Sad.