Learn&Serve: Week 4

Week 4

Today was, interesting. Yes, we'll go with the term interesting.

Another student was added to the 8th grade class since the last time I had visited. I now am with the 8th graders twice, they do a cultural events type class now as well. As I've described before they are to pick an article out of the newspaper and answer the basic who, what, where, when, and why and then branch out a bit. Simple, real simple and they can even do the same article and work together. To me it's an easy A but it was a recipe for disaster.

Lets call the students Pat* and Joe* for sake of confidentiality. Joe* is the newest addition to the 8th grade and the two sat next to each other and started to work on the same article. The Pat* took Joe*s paper and ripped it. Mr. C was not having it today and just waved his hand and said Pat* moved to the back. Pat* raised his voice and started saying things like "This is f****** messed up!" "What are you making me move?!" and other statements along those lines. Like I said Mr. C was not having it and told Pat* if you don't want to move we'll get Miss Barns, who is the principal. When Mr. C when to get Miss Barns Pat* flipped out again and was saying "I'm not going to move, this is bull." he wrote on Joe's* newspaper and stood up and through it around. I was by myself and I had no idea what to do and I tried to get him to settle down and explain that we could fix this but nothing I said was responsive. Mr. C and Miss Barns came back and they tried to get Pat* to come, but he wouldn't so Miss Barns said well we'll just call the cops. Pat* lashed out and told them to call them, this is when Mr. C motioned Joe* and myself to follow him. We went to the computer lab and just told Joe* to sit on the computers. He actually ended up getting a lecture from what I assumed to be a fellow teacher but I don't think at the Alternative school. I never got his name and Mr. C didn't seem to know it either. Anyways, he gave him a lecture about marijuana and told him not to waste his life, gave him details about friends he has who have destroyed their lives. He told Joe* that he has the ability to be better then him, myself, and Mr. C. He has everything available to him and he just needs to work hard for it. I hope it got into his head, he seemed to be paying attention to every word but I don't know if it was out of respect or if it was because Joe* cared.

In the 10th grade we had them follow along with a power point and fill in a matching note sheet. By using technology we can grab the students attention more, especially since these children have a hard time focusing to begin with. We got through the note sheet and there was still time to spare so one of the students put on a Michael Jackson DVD and just started dancing. It's interesting how much they let the students use the televisions and the computers, even the teachers computer. At my high school teachers would get in trouble if we were using the classroom phone. It shows that in some ways the teachers really do trust these kids, but in other aspects not as much.

Joe* came back for his real class, Pat* did not. We learned that the police never came, Pat's* stepfather came and picked him up. Joe* was to look up 5 definitions in the text book and had 40 minuets to do so and I sat with him and helped him muse the glossary and the index. However, the 10th graders came back into the classroom because they had no work in their other class and watched the Michael Jackson DVD again. Joe* was really distracted and didn't get his work done and Mr. C didn't seem to care and this really bothered me. Joe* just got up and said he didn't want to do it anymore. I'm starting to cope with the not doing work aspect of this school. I've already got used to the fact that their is no structure, but it is very hard under the situation. I don't feel like the students are being taught to much and when they do get back into the real high school setting they are going to be far to behind.

The text says that one of the most disturbing thing to a teacher is a child who is disruptive to the classroom procedures. (Page: 193) You could see this was true through Mr. C's actions. At the first sign of disruption Mr. C asked Pat* to move to the back and when he didn't and created an outburst again, the principal was called and then the police were threatened to be called. In a setting like Niagara Falls Alternative I was informed that using the police as one of the first calls of action is a smart thing to do because these students can get violent. So how you react to a child's outburst in the classroom should be influenced on the environment and the type of behavioral issue the child has.

Hours Completed: 2

Kirk S. , Gallagher J.J. , Coleman M.R. , & Anastasiow N. (2009).Educating Exceptional Children (12th ed.). Boston, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.