Day five: February 27, 2015

Time: 9:15-10:40

7 hours and 5 minutes

       Today, James was not in class. Mrs. Clark is never surprised when this happens. She usually waits until about 15 minutes after first period is supposed to begin before actually starting class because students are often tardy to class. There were only about 7 people in class today which is relatively normal. Instead of staying in Mrs. Clark's room, she sent me across the hall because the students that she did have did not need tutors and were going to be working independently.
       In Mrs. Rook's class, she teaches math which immediately threw me off considering I'm an English major and Math has always been my weakest subject. She was going over some problems on the board rather than having all the students work independently on their computers because a lot of students were having some problems with the same questions. This was different for me because I am so used to the discussion driven classes in Mrs. Clark's class. Mostly, Mrs. Rook's was doing practice problems on the board step by step. Some students were paying attention but most were going about their online work normally. As a student myself, it always surprises me when students aren't paying attention to the teacher when they are standing up in front of the class teaching but in Classic City, it is normal because each student has their own plan of study and moves at their own pace.
       There were also a lot of tutors in class today which reminded of of the book that I read for my second book club, Americas Unseen kids:Teaching English/Language Arts in Today's Forgotten High Schools. I really enjoy seeing all of the tutors at Classic City like in the book I read but I wish that us tutors could work together to help out in classroom and possibly help teach but I understand that with the style of Classic City it would be difficult because each student is moving at their own pace so the lessons plans would not be beneficial to all the students.
       With James being absent as often as he is, it makes it very hard for me to strengthen the student tutor relationship but this experience has shown me how hard it is to help motivate students to want to come to school. It is also teaching me how to motivate students to do their work the best they can in order to create a better future for themselves.

Day four: February 19, 2015

9:15-10:40

5 hours and 40 minutes

      Today, when I went to tutoring it was about 12 degrees outside; one of the coldest days of the year. Knowing that attendance is already an issue at Classic City High School, I wasn't expecting many students to be there. When I got to the school, it looked like school wasn't even is session. When I got to Mrs. Clarks room, there were no students in the classroom and no students even in the hallway. Mrs. Clark had a sub that day so he wasn't sure what to tell me but said I could observe the students work. Mrs. Reed came by and said that there probably wouldn't be anyone I would be able to tutor since it was so cold but she told me that I was more than welcome to observe class. I stayed to observe Mrs. Clarks class but since there was a sub, there wasn't any lecturing so I just walked around the class keeping students on task while they were doing their online quizzes and answered questions if any of the few students there needed help.
      I can understand why there was very low attendance today was so low considering that attendance in an every day issue at Classic City but it was still disappointing that I wasn't able to tutor anyone. This reminded me of one of the books that I had to read for my book club for class Americas Unseen kids:Teaching English/Language Arts in Today's Forgotten High Schools. In this book, tutors go to an at risk high school every day to try and make the students more excited about learning and give them some guidance when learning in the everyday classroom. At their high school, they often had attendance issues as well considering students cannot learn if they do not come to school. In this book, the tutors tried to make learning more exciting and fun in order to make the students want to come to school; they also had a token economy program where they would be rewarded for coming to school every week day. This is something that Mrs. Reed does as well. The students are rewarded tickets for coming to school every week day and also for academic achievements. I can see how this works because if the students work with a tutor, they will get a ticket; so when we walk in and the teachers ask who wants a tutor, many students will say yes. This is extremely beneficial because even if they are just working with a tutor to get a ticket, they are still getting one on one time instruction so they are free to ask as many questions as they want. Although I didn't get to tutor today, I was shown what the reality of the classroom really is and how even if not all the students are there, the teachers and students have to improvise in order to make the day a successful school day.