Thoughts Four Days In
September 1st, 2009So night school went really well.
I’ve got six students—I can’t call them kids—who dropped everything they were doing in the evening and made a commitment to their education. I couldn’t help but be impressed from the first moment, and if that holds, then it should be a great program.
I could be wrong, but it started really well. I don’t know, I’ve never done this before—but well begun is half done.
So part of that “well begun” was due to the heroic efforts of the IT team at MRHS. Neal, Doug, Chris and Chris. For whatever reason, the fact that I would be asking my students to use a great many Web 2.0 technologies¹ that are usually banned in the high school—Gmail, Blogger, Del.ic.ious—got lost in translation, and none of the people in charge of the internet knew about it.
Neal found out at 10pm on a Sunday. Within five minutes he had sent an email back my way, and warned me this would be a problem.
Despite that, it was up and running by class time. That’s support, and I know I can’t do my job unless the people we have working in IT are doing theirs—and they really did.
We need them—we’re training students for a digital world. Those three make it possible, and we’re lucky to have them.
SAT prep course starts at MRHS September 15. Eight sessions of 90 minutes, free to the student. When I do this over the summer, the average class score leaps about 150 points—which is huge. I had one student whose score sky-rocketed 287 points.
That’s game changing right there. That opens doors. I hate the SAT, so I have no issue teaching people to beat it.
Conval won by two points. Grrrr….
If we’d played the first 25 minutes of the second half the way we did the last 15, it would have been a win.
One thing about youth everywhere is they only do what they feel they need to do. Raise expectations, and they’ll get there. The beautiful thing about sport is that the results of not playing to full potential are instantly apparent.
Although instantly frustrating, as well.
Speaking of soccer…
I know it’s not a huge priority… but I wonder how much it would cost to get 8 inches of fill on the field?
Although I applaud the dedication that has them out there on the field with buckets draining the water off , I also think we could do a bit better by them than that.
Ah well. Maybe next year’s budget…
I wander around the hallways a lot during the day. Not once have I seen Mr. Stewart or Ms. Alexander in their office. They’re always out, wandering the halls with me.
That’s so very awesome.
Me: So we’re all in the cave, struggling to get out. Get it?
Students: Right! We’re all chained by ignorance, and it’s our duty to struggle our way free, recognizing that what we think is an important reality now might not be. That’s why we read fiction—to see other perspectives.
Me: Excellent! Very well done! Now, on another note, would anyone like to lead a trip to Europe? I’ll help you plan it, you get students interested, and we’ll see what we can do come April vacation?
Students: What’s the drinking age?
Me: sound of head slamming against wall
I have an exchange student in class. That is wildly awesome—except for the fact that the student is probably 10,000,000,000 brighter than I am, given the ability to master two languages.
Still—for an American Lit course, what an incredible opportunity, especially since we just started a project to try and define what an American is.
I love essential questions.
1 Why are you doing that, Mr. Hale? Easy, inquiring mind. These students were already not successful once in the traditional high school—there’s no way they’re going to magically be successful if we keep doing the same things. Plus, it’s about adding value—often, it’s the poorest, and those with the least access to technology that don’t do well. The best thing I can do is try and find a way to provide as much advantage as possible for them—and that means technology as well as the skills in the English competencies. Blog or write a paper—what’s the difference? ↺
