Monday, November 16, 2009

Autumn Break - Monday through Wednesday, 9 through 11 November 2009

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were "supplementary" classes--40 minute tutoring sessions in English, Math and Kazakh, for students selected by the teachers as needing extra help. We had a schedule--my class, 1B, would get English for two 40-minute periods, then math for 1 period, then Kazakh language for two more. There would be the usual, impractical 10-minute breaks between periods. And the final lessons ended at 1:00 pm.


Technically, the school could not inform parents or require students to come. The administration posted a schedule and list of the students we'd selected. The Kazakh teachers wrote in the students' "diary"--homework notebook.

I remembered summer school at my school in South Carolina, how usually about half the students selected attended. After the first day or two, the administration would start calling parents. Summer school was relaxed and casual--and much needed for those students who attended. And a good way for teachers to make extra pay.


So I was wondering what this would be like. (No extra pay, however!) Sophia and I took the bus with Valerie and arrived at about 8:45, 15 minutes before the first period.


Our classrooms were dark. The teacher's lounge was dark (and empty). Worse, our classroom doors were locked.


We unloaded and waited in the teacher's lounge. Finally we wandered down the hall and started talking to other foreign teachers. I gave a DVD to Lynn, who had wanted to show an English-language movie to her students during this time.


I made it back to my classroom and had about four students.


Each of those three days, I had more students than the other teachers. I had four the first day, about seven the second, and five on Wednesday. However, I never had any fifth graders. Each day I asked in the teacher's lounge on the 3rd floor and was told that there were no 5th grade students. However, on Tuesday, nearing 1:00, I saw in the hallway Ingrid, my Turkish girl who is very weak. What? Didn't she know that she was supposed to be in class? Why hadn't I been told that I had a student?


On Wednesday I asked about her, and a Kazakh teacher found her for me. However, the Turkish English teacher wanted her in the canteen for a picnic. Not about to ruin her fun--or my break--I let her go. Yes, she desperately needs math help. But 40 minutes with her and a restless Sophia wasn't going to make that much of a difference. She needs English help as well.


Alex's father had called me during the Teacher's Field Trip to ask if I could tutor Alex on different days, due to the family's going out of town. He would be back on Wednesday, but not Monday or Tuesday. Well, Thursday would be Sophia's birthday, so no way, and Friday was the day the landlady had said Nikita might come back to fix the windows (a crack in a window on the patio). And Saturday is out of the question. I said we'd talk about it on Wednesday. When I mentioned the conversation to the vice principal, he said I did not have to tutor Alex outside of the regularly scheduled time.


He dropped Alex off on Wednesday after 1st period. I assumed that this was so the Kazakh teacher to tutor him, as she had also requested to tutor him alone--like me, she can't handle him with other students. But she ignored him and he sat in my classroom and yelled. He wasn't too bad, primarily because at that point we were watching starfall.com (awesome web site for kids learning how to read and ESOL kids too) using the new projector.


For math on Tuesday and Wednesday, I brought in cereal to practice addition and subtraction--most of my kids are whizzes at it and can do worksheets filled with dozens of problems, but these are the kids who don't get the concept. They really had fun with the cereal, and a few of them seemed to finally catch on. Ryan ate up all his cereal on Tuesday and didn't get more until I passed out more to all the students. He sulked for a good bit, but learned not to eat until he was told! Alex ate up all his cereal on Wednesday, and sulked too.


Ryan came late on Monday, so I didn't have him, but on Tuesday he came on time. While I was attempting to set up the projector, the kids got wild, of course, and Ryan started screaming--and refused to stop, even once I gave up on the projector and had the students take out their English notebooks and write their ABCs. I couldn't talk to him to get him to stop, I couldn't threaten him with a punishment or promise a reward (he wouldn't understand me), so I tried to get him to leave the classroom--a strategy I've used in the US. Simply moving a screaming child can disrupt their momentum and stop the screaming; moving a screaming child can also help the rest of the class concentrate; and I can attempt to talk (in this case, use gestures) with a child in the hallway without disrupting the entire class.


Ryan decided to pull an Alex, and he struggled mightily. What can I do with these kids? I can't reason with them, I can't explain things to them, I can't punish them, the rewards I've been using (stars and stickers) don't work on the worst offenders. Just then the principal walked by the classroom and saw me struggling. He got an assistant, who came in and yelled at the class in Russian. Pretty soon, they were all quietly working at their desks, except for Ryan, who was quietly sulking at his desk.


Wednesday during the silly 10-minute break between lessons, I noticed that Ryan had not done his work. So I tried to call him back into the room to finish. Matthew laughed at him, causing him to chase Matthew around the hallway, so I dragged Matthew back into the room too. Ryan must have thought that he was in trouble, and when he realized that I wasn't backing down from my order to return to the classroom, he ran into a corner and cried. I had to get my Kazakh teacher to talk to him--"Tell him he's not in trouble!" I said to her--but he still took about an hour to calm down enough to get back to work.


Matthew is another story. He's second worse in the class, behavior-wise, but really, I think a large part of his problem is the language. Yes, children have this amazing capacity to learn languages, and it's amazing how quickly a child can pick up a new language. But that is not all children!!! Children, like adults, differ. Some children quickly pick it up, some move steadily along, some struggle mightily and become very frustrated.


When I was getting Matthew to count in English, he said some words that were completely incomprehensible to me. Thinking that maybe he was counting in Kazakh, I said something to the Kazakh teacher. No, she said, that wasn't Kazakh or Russian; he does that a lot--when asked to repeat, says something completely different. He can't pronounce his words right, even in his native tongue.


And we're asking him to get it right in three different languages!


End point--learning a language can be so much harder for some people!! And Matthew definitely falls into that category! Sometimes he gets frustrated and "copies" me--just mumbling nonsense words.


These extra three days helped, but not greatly. He's still confused and still would rather spit in my face or mumble nonsense words than do his work.


Sophia spent these three days mostly bored, yet highly cooperative until about 1 pm. She sat in my class and participated, getting a bit grumpy once when I had to tell her to not answer my questions until the others have had a chance. I know that she knows what a pond is, what a tree is!


On Monday I sent her to Christie's room for the math lesson; however, on Tuesday and Wednesday I let her stay with me. She enjoyed adding and subtracting using cereal.


I didn't stay late and work any of those days, in part because Sophia was so bored and restless. Also, I had expected lunch to be served at 1 pm, but no lunch was served. That was enough to send me home!


My assistant was rather bored, and who came blame her? Why did she have to come in? She had nothing to do.


I think that if they want to do tutoring over break, they should (a) tell the teachers before they sign a contract; and (b) pay the teachers who tutor. It isn't a bad idea, just nobody--kids or teachers alike--were motivated to do much over the break.


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