drop outs

Dropout rates have slowly but surely been declining for the past twenty or so years. But think back to high school. Remember that one sketchy kid who was always at the lunch table two down from you and all of your friends? Or that one girl who sat in the back of the classroom painting her nails and talking about selling drugs instead of the book we were supposed to have finished the night before? Well, they can’t all be saved. That creeper from the lunchroom dropped out, and is working overnight at a warehouse to buy food and diapers for his little girl that he fathered with that girl who never read the books. Oh, and she is still dealing, but just when her mom watches their baby. We wouldn’t want her little mind corrupted now would we?

It is true, most kids have to want to be helped. And if their school counselors look in the right places all of the help and support they could ever want or need is there at their fingertips. It just needs to be implemented. Right, the school system has its problems, and redundancies, and corruptions. But, come one, it is supposed to be about the kids, right?. (I will soon give up this fantasy that all teachers and anyone in education would do anything for their students, but I’m fine imagining it for now.) I understand that certain students get in the way, and frustrate teachers beyond comprehension, but some teachers still just want nothing more than to reach out and help that “problem child” any way they can because they might have seen a potential that no one else did for the past fifteen years of that child’s schooling.

Scholarships, after school programs, sports, and free tutoring are just some of the options that these students that don’t seem to have a future can reach out to and receive help from. With the help of something even as simple as getting a kid to join the track team can turn a life around. Soon his grades will improve or he won’t be participating in the race this weekend, and kicked off the team if it occurs more than a few times. He will be at school for a few hours after the final bell ensuring he isn’t getting into any trouble on the streets or hanging out with the local riff raff. And he will have something to be proud of and believe in, himself. Viola. A “problem child” or “at risk” kid is saved from a life of poor decision and consequences.

I would love to think that all of my students in the AVID program I tutor for will get full rides (a very high percent qualify for at least 75% scholarship from grades and SAT scores alone, not even including sports and minority opportunities), attend, and graduate from colleges all over the US and have lifelong careers doing something they love. I know this won’t be the case. However, I know that all of them won’t attend college and all of the hard work and cheerleading I did for them will be for nothing. At least I can say I tried.

first blog

“You will be keeping a blog for this class,” isn’t exactly what I was expecting to hear on my first day in expository writing. “Ok, guess I’ll roll with it..”

The community I have chosen to join consists of teachers and tutors. As a tutor I realize my job is not to teach the original concept, but to answers questions and ensure the students fully understand it and are able to apply it. I feel my job is equally as important. Teaching a concept to a classroom is one thing, but ensuring the students grasp and are able to apply the concept is another. I am following several teacher’s blogs about what goes on in their classroom, a Tampa tutor who blogs about kids he tutors, and another AVID tutor’s blog. It should be noted the AVID is the program I work for. The program is new. It involves tutoring “at risk” high school students whose parents either did not go to college, or did not graduate high school. They are likely the first in their family to be graduating high school and likely do not think college is an option and do not know how to apply for college or realize that more people than they think take out student loans, and fill out scholarship applications on the daily. These AVID students are contractually bound to good grades and high attendance. Tutoring this one type of student should make it easy to judge whether or not the program is or is not working.

The general plan for my blog will consist of four factors: how the tutoring is and/or is not helping to prepare me for when I am teaching high school in two years, and if I believe the program is and/or is not helping he students I tutor. The students I am working with are a very select group of children. They a) want to be in the program, b) are contractually bound to show positive gains in school, and c) will be kicked out if they do or say anything inappropriate or offensive on any level. I realize that a real high school is nothing like this, but I will be able to tell if I become better at communicating with students on their level. This is not to say that I am so far removed from a high school student’s level at 21, or 23 when I begin teaching, but there will be huge differences between my students myself at that point. An issue that I plan to tackle in my blog will be judging if the program seems to help the students. I plan to assess if any of them are applying for college, if they are keeping their grades up, if the contract is enforced, if they seem to enjoy school more after joining the program and are able to get the help they need in school and preparing for college. The hard part is going to be keeping in mind that these students do not come from the same supportive and helpful home that I do, and staying patient with them and making sure we never miss a step when preparing for college.