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.
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.
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