"Nose to the Grindstone"

We are now more than halfway through Institute - which means there is only 1 week left for my students before they take their test that will determine if they are going to high school next year. It is a stressful time for me and them, and you can tell in our classroom that everybody is starting to become a lot more serious.

Last week I learned the importance of developing a partnership with the parents of my students. I had to make one phone call home because a student was misbehaving and then looked at all the numbers in front of me and started to wonder what would happen if I just called them all... (I only have 11 students, so it wasn't an unreasonable mission). The responses I got from parents just blew me away. When I told one mother that her son received the highest score in our class on his midterm assessment, she started crying and was so thankful. She was asking what else she could do to help him and make sure he was on the right track. A father told me that he makes his son study for at least an hour every night, so I needed to make sure he was taking notes in class. When I told another mother that her son was consistently late for class, she physically walked him to school holding his hand the next morning to make sure he was there on time. Since those first phone calls I have seen a renewed dedication from my students every day in class.

Last week we received the surprise "TFA Day" which stands for Totally Free Afternoon. We were able to leave our school when the students get out (usually we have sessions for about 3 1/2 hours after they leave) and come back to Georgia Tech. It was wonderful to have a free afternoon in the middle of the week to relax, regroup, and get to bed early.

I feel like I am starting to get the hang of this teaching thing, and that some of the life lessons I am trying to implement are sinking in too. Today when my students were working on an activity I saw one student trying to cheat off another student's already complete activity. When the second student saw this he said, "Man there is no need for you to cheat. Come on. I will show you how to do this." At which point he proceeded to work through several problems with the struggling student, and when I checked later the student who tried to cheat understood the concept. I was so proud of my helper.

This week is our "nose to the grindstone" week, meaning I give the students an extra 8 pages of homework that are actual questions taken from previous CRCT tests (this is the test they need to pass next week). We are now having a competition for who can bring in the most homework, which includes this extra homework, for a prize at the end of the school year - hopefully this will be a good enough incentive to ensure that they are all studying and practicing every night!

With one week left I am finding myself spending more and more time planning and trying to find creative ways to keep students engaged during my lessons. As I get to know each and every student better, I know exactly why they need to go to high school next year and why I need to push myself to ensure it happens. Hopefully it will be enough.