"Summer School: Unfulfilled Promise", brought up many important issues and suggestions on how to make summer school more beneficial for the students it serves. This ushers in thoughts on how we, as MTC members can properly serve our eager(and not so eager) to learn pupils this summer.
On page 18 of the article several recommendations are made with regards to summer school.
1.Summer school should be available to all failing students.
-This would be ideal, but difficult in our current economy. More teachers would be needed to keep student-teacher ratios down which means even more money. Funding this would be extremely difficult
2.Summer school should be a required part of a year round program.
-The problem with year round programs are for working parents in those districts finding day time child care for brief 2 to 3 week intervals when school is out. Most day care centers do not allow such haphazard enrollment. Other than that this sounds like a good idea.
3.Summer school should be free
-This sounds good, but it takes funding away from other areas of education(likely).
Really this is just another ideal situation that funding will likely never allow.
4.Mixing clear standards with instruction flexibility
-This is extremely important. You have to be able to monitor the progress of your students, otherwise you're just shooting in the dark. Also, instruction flexibility can bring more interest and innovation to the classroom that makes summer school more enjoyable for both students and teachers.
5.Summer school should be focused on meeting individual needs.
-Sounds good, but designing individual curricula for hundreds of different students is an enormous task and would compound a great deal of stress on summer school teachers.
6.Teachers should be proven at helping struggling students
-Again this ideal, but the fact of the matter is that teaching is a stressful job and long hours are required. Summer is golden beacon that keeps teachers from getting burned out and ensures that teachers can have a high quality of life. It is therefore more reasonable to take whoever you can get to teach summer school.
7.Conduct research on what works
-This should continually be done and discussed amongst the faculty putting the program together.
My vision this summer for the MTC summer school, is that we can foster a love of learning in our students, get them caught up, and grow a new crop of first year teachers that will be better prepared for real situations in their first year than we were. Success for our students will be based upon teaching the curriculum in an innovative way that will allow student mastery of the objectives required. In ensuring that our students are indeed achieving it will be desirable to give them pre- and post- summer evaluations of the grade 8 middle school science test, and compare the scores.
One important issue that I think is important to get across to the 1st-year teachers just how different summer school is from the situations they will face in their regular classrooms. It is important that our 1st years understand that it is important to be strict and have consequences for students who do not follow procedures. That way the procedures will be followed. I remember watching Lisa Booth, our 2nd year mentor give a kid a writing assignment for not raising his hand before answering a question in a class discussion. thought that was harsh at the time, but I now am unfortuanately well schooled in the phrase "if you give them an inch, they will take a mile". It is also important to get across to our first-years the importance of slowing down on the first days of school to practice class rules/procedures. As Harry and Rosemary Wong write "The ineffective teacher spends the1st day of school attempting to teach a subject and spends the rest of the year running after the students. The effective teacher spends most of the 1st week teaching students how to follow classroom procedures."(The First Days of School,Wong and Wong)
Olive Branch is a middle class suburb of Memphis and has all the amentities(restaurants, shopping, etc) to keep my wife happy.
To the right is our baseball field(byhalia high). I spend many afternoons here hanging with the guys, trying to teach them a thing or two. A lot of good kids on the baseball team. I suspect that we should have some success this year.
To the right is my apartment in Olive branch. The apartment works for us. It's about 1000 feet and is 2 bed/2 bath. Nothing wrong with that.
So this is a typical tuesday that I will face tomorrow and every tuesday thereafter.
6:00 am - my alarm is ringing, it's been a short night so I hit snooze to savor every last bit of rest that I can.
6:20 am - I decide that I can snooze no longer and begin the morning runaround. 1st-wake up my daughter(never a pleasant process) and put her on the couch to watch blue's clues, she puts he face down into the couch as getting out of bed is the last thing on earth she wants to do right now. 2nd- I throw some waffles in the oven for Sunny(daughter) and I and throw on the first 2 pieces of semi-professional attire I find in my closet. 3rd-hand my daughter her waffles and begin throwing her clothes on as fast as possible(she's tired and doesn't make this easy).
6:45-6:55 I drop off Sunny at La Petite which fortunately is less than 50 yards outside the entrance to our apartment, she does not really enjoy day care and gets upset when I leave. It breaks my heart and is not a very uplifting way to start my morning.
6:55-7:10 I drive 5 miles over the speed limit as I've always got a lot to do in the morning and should really be at school already
7:10-7:35 I arrive at school and begin a mad dash of morning housekeeping. I begin by stopping by the office to make copies of the notes/worksheets/tests/quizzes that I typed out for my students the night before. This is essential because I don't have LCD/mimio/overhead projector etc....(maybe next year, but probably not) I then run to my room and write the bellringer on the board for my classes. I usually will have a student stop by and talk to me in the morning(one of a handful of students who actually enjoy my company, I try and be polite and I love that they would choose some of there free time to talk to me, but I'd rather have a few minutes of peace before the madness).
7:40-8:38(1st period) Chemistry 1
Second worst class. A large class of 32 students, more than half of which are football and basketball players who are more intersted in entertaining one another than learning anything. Most classes may feel this way but this class is way too obvious about it. I begin class by collecting writing assignments and writing referrals for students who have 3 outstanding assignments(usually about 3 of these per week in this class). Then it's the painful process of keeping them on task whether we're taking notes, working on the do-now, working in groups, or individual work. I always love it when the bell sounds signaling the end of this period.
8:42-9:32 (2nd period) Chemistry 2
My favorite class of the day! Only 6 students in this class, all highly motivated and college bound. We have a pretty relaxed atmosphere. They participate willingly and are always engaged in the lesson. A real pleasure/treat after a tough stress filled 1st period.
9:36-10:26(3rd period) Physical Science
23 students and my 2nd favorite class and brightest physical science class . They don't tier classes at Byhalia high but it seems like it as this class is lightyears ahead of my other Physical Science classes with the exception of a few bad apples. They get started on their bellwork when they enter class. They participate in class, and overall pay attention and understand the material. I also have very few discipline problems in this class.
10:30-11:20(4th period) Physical Science
I refer to this as my special class(16 students). A lot of special ed kids in this class, for the most part a good class of kids, with the exception of a few disrespectful students. But I usually don't mind this class that much. I just have to take into account that it will take them a lot longer to get anything.
11:25-12:55(5th period) Physical Science
Kind of a tough group(23 students). Some really good students here and then there's some that make this room toxic with their appathy, laziness, and disrespect. Having lunch in the middle doesn't help their focus or their behavior, and this usually is a class with a lot of writing assignments and referrals.
12:55-1:59 (6th period) planning
This is where I get to begin planning for tomorrow's classes, usually I try and get 1 of my 3 preps done which usually doesn't happen but if I can get most of 1 prep done I'm happy. I also prepare for my loudest class of the day(7th period)
2:03-2:53(7th period) Chemistry 1
31 students but it feels like 50. This is a LOUD group. They are a good group of kids, just loud and it's my fault for it being that way. Most get there work done and will be quiet when I'm lecturing, but they love to work in groups and being the end of the day I let them help one another.
3:00-4:30 Baseball practice
One of my favorite parts of the day. I think we've got a good team and a good group of guys. Some of my fondest memories of youth and high school was playing baseball with my friends/teammates, in a way coaching brings back that feeling and reminds me of happy times from days past. Baseball is such a beautiful thing.
4:45-8:00 The night with the fam
I pick up my daughter from La petite and feed her dinner. I then spend the remainder of the night playing with my daughter, hanging with the wife,eating, and then reading Sunny her bed time story.
8:00-11:30 The hell that is 3 preps
I spend the remainder of the night reading textbooks, typing out notes, lesson plans, assessments, creating group activities, etc...
Not that bad when talking about one class but with 3 preps this is about a 3 to 4 hour a night deal.
11:30-12:00 bed preparation
Shower, snack, brush teeth, and off to bed.
Next day: REPEAT
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