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Onyx2201
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Illusion of Education NCLB
I'm dealing with "No Child Left Behind" I have 2 in my small remedial reading class who were retained.. One likes fire and to self cut, the other is bright and LAZY.
#3 student is in alternative placement for something I don't want to know about,
#4 has had a sad life,but seems like a decent kid
#5 the only female has a momm who is terminally ill. She sometimes cries on my shoulder
#6 has severe dyslexia, but works hard
#7 has me frustrated. He has all kinds of "stuff" wrong with him,that all have initials instead of names. But is he on meds, of course not. He sits and does very little and by the way tells me how boring school is. Well he "can't" write, it hurts him (he is not arthritic or anything close to that) he is out of shape for writing because he doesn't do it! I also get to shadow this kid and provide support in another class.
Aanyway, NCLB is a crock. The focus is on higherlevel thinking, well somebody forgot that in order to have higher level skills, one must have a good foundation in the basics.
Okay I've ranted, I feel a bit better
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Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.
-Auntie Mame
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10/1/2007, 11:10 pm
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toxiczen
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Re: Illusion of Education NCLB
that does sound like a handful! sounds like it can be a rewarding experience as well, for whatever achievements attained.
i take it you have no aid in this class?
do you have strict guidelines? or do you have some freedom in developing a program that works for all the students?
---
"Love is the strongest force the world possesses, yet! it is the humblest imaginable."
~Gandhi
"it is easier to tell the truth: you don't have to remember anything"
~Mark Twain
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10/2/2007, 5:51 am
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Kourtesan
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Re: Illusion of Education NCLB
I read your post and got pissed and depressed at once. What digs me, is that these kids have to live what someone with no vested interest (bet me his grandkids will go to private schools)dictates.
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10/2/2007, 8:29 am
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Onyx2201
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Re: Illusion of Education NCLB
Nope #7's grandkids will be on welfare, because #7 is being taught and aided by his parent to be helpless.
Luckily for me I can develop some of my own curriculumn, Right now I am reading them a book, but #7 was absent on Monday, goes to another class on T & TH for organizational help, I'll be gone tomorrow, but tomorrow will be the first day he hears the story, and I am NOT going back. He can do something else.
I have no aide in that class, and that is fine, it's a small group. It's #7 who wears me down. Today he had lost his student planner is supposed to have all of his assignments written down in it.
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Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.
-Auntie Mame
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10/2/2007, 12:37 pm
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Lady Emm
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Re: Illusion of Education NCLB
 However, as a person who has some knowlege of the frustration Onyx has with #7 in this class- although I live about a zillion states away, The planner mention either, did not have the assignments written, or did not have mom's signature as it was supposed to each day, BUT childs grades and lack of learning WILL be the teachers fault.
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10/2/2007, 2:55 pm
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Onyx2201
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Re: Illusion of Education NCLB
YOu have got that right. Emm. Somehow it will be my fault.
But ya know I may start having game day, the days he is in the other classroom.
It is a crime to give a capable kid that much help. We as a school are enabling him to be helpless.
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Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.
-Auntie Mame
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10/2/2007, 6:15 pm
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Lesigner Girl
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Re: Illusion of Education NCLB
It takes a strong person to do what you're doing, Onyx.  It must be heartbreaking to see the other children struggling through their real problems, and then you have to deal with a capable child who doesn't even try to help himself.
I know you probably just wanted to vent, and the following may or may not be good advice. But hopefully it will help you come up with your own ideas on how to make the best of the situation, and maybe even turn it into a success story.
Good men (and kids!) do bad things because they don't know any better. At least that's what Socrates said, and there seems to be a lot of truth to that. The trick, it seems, is to help the child understand how he is doing a disservice to himself by not doing the best he can.
You said "parent" in the singular. Did his dad bail on him and his mom? Did his dad die? Maybe he has some deep emotional problems that he's not telling anyone about.
Are you sure his parent (mom?) is letting him get away with everything? If so, do you think it's because she's encouraging him to live on welfare? Or maybe she's babying him because of his (possible) deep emotional problems, not realizing that it's actually doing him more harm than good. Or, maybe she tries to get him to do things but he just doesn't do it, and she doesn't know how to get him to do what he's supposed to. Maybe she used to try, but has given up, deluding herself into believing that he'll grow out of it and do better in the future.
You might want to call his mom in for a parent-teacher conference. Tell her your concerns for him, ask her if she knows how you can get through to him, etc. Express the idea that you care about him, and you want to know how you can best help him. Take mental notes of her responses; not just what she says, but also her tone of voice and body language, because it might give you some clues about what's really going on. Go into the meeting with no opinion of her one way or the other, to make sure it doesn't taint your reading of the situation. If she doesn't come for a conference, and if it's not against the rules, then go knocking on her door.
After the meeting and after sleeping on it, decide where to go from there. You might even want to go to bed early that night, because studies have shown that people process information during their sleep, and they process it better when the information is fresh in their mind before bed.
If it turns out that the kid is just being lazy, then game day without him doesn't sound like such a bad idea. And when he complains that you play games without him, you can tell him you'll start playing games on a day when he's there, but only if he completes all of the work that is given to him. And if he doesn't complete his work on even one day, then next week you will have game day without him again.
How old is this kid? Maybe you should ask him if he'd rather live in the slums and drive a clunker that always breaks down when he grows up, or if he wants a nice house, a nice car or two, a computer, a motorcycle, a four-wheeler, a horse, or anything else he might want that food stamps won't buy. Before you ask him that, maybe you should ask him what he would buy if he had a lot of money. Of course, you know where I'm going from here... that he can only get these things if he works at it.
After that, ask him what you can do to make school not boring. If he gives you an answer like, "play games all day," then ask him how he's going to learn something that will make him enough money to buy that motorcycle (or whatever) he wants if he's playing games all day.
I hope something in here helps, and I wish I could help you better. Hmmm... I wonder if you could recruit one or more of the other kids to get him interested in learning something.
BTW, I agree with you about NCLB. Talk about a farce! Dubya's all for it, but what does he know about education, when his was obviously bought...
"Is children learning?"
"Childrens do learn!"
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10/2/2007, 10:19 pm
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Onyx2201
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Re: Illusion of Education NCLB
#7 is a long story. I won't go into it.
I truely appreciate your thoughtful response.
I've met the mom, there is no help there.
Yes mostly I needed to vent.
I did go to a GREAT workshop today that was very helpful, lead by somebody who actually continues to work with kids, and has done long term tracking of the remediation kids. I learned a lot and I learned I'm doing a pretty good job (my own evaluation, but based on what I learned)
thanks for listening
---
Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.
-Auntie Mame
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10/3/2007, 6:47 pm
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Lesigner Girl
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Re: Illusion of Education NCLB
Any time, Onyx. 
I'm glad you went to that workshop and that it was helpful, and I'm glad you know you're on the right track.
Good luck with #7, and feel free to vent whenever you need to. 
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10/3/2007, 7:05 pm
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toxiczen
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Re: Illusion of Education NCLB
how long have you been doing this kind of work?
---
"Love is the strongest force the world possesses, yet! it is the humblest imaginable."
~Gandhi
"it is easier to tell the truth: you don't have to remember anything"
~Mark Twain
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10/3/2007, 8:15 pm
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