Archive for the ‘students’ Category
May 1, 2012
Xavier never made it to the GED. I urged him to go register at the local adult school, he had the check in his pocket. What was he waiting for? How could I help? These past few weeks I would glimpse him through my classroom door, sneaking past in the hallway. He would be heading up to his room or going out supporting others to get their errands done. And he never missed a day of softball practice. The only time I’ve been able to catch him is Tuesdays and Thursdays when I’d hear the metal clatter of aluminum bats and the thud of the big canvas bag of leather mitts being pulled out for the team.
I had gotten Xavier’s test funded with urgency because he is due to leave the program soon. After he got his $150 check, I needed back-up getting him to move forward, so I wrote the director that Xavier had test jitters, that he was sitting on his check. It turns out the check they issued was only good for ten days. By the time I reached out to Xavier again the check had expired and he was being tested for drugs. None of this comes as a surprise, it’s all too common.
Today Xavier came in to say he was sorry. He told me with a big grin he will still be allowed to play on the in-house softball team after he exits the program. “And you can still take the GED,” I said. The sparkle in his eyes dissolved. I guess a high school diploma just doesn’t hold the same magic as baseball. There may be more than one field of dreams but it’ll always be little league without a diploma.
Posted in adult education, GED, parolees, rehab, relapse, students | Tagged GED, rehab and recovery, test jitters | Leave a Comment »
November 22, 2010
It’s the week of Thanksgiving and the community is busy cooking more turkeys in a week than most of us will in our lifetime. Many of these are being prepared for a local homeless shelter. All the women were missing from my class today. Someone said they were out together getting their hair done. I wonder what beauty school they went to or if a salon donated their services. It’s the first I’ve heard of this in my many years teaching at this site but no field trip would surprise me. Sometimes this place does feel like summer camp for felons. One wonders why anyone would ever leave.
Bart left this weekend. He didn’t seem restless on Friday when he was in my class. Sometimes a resident will leave just before a holiday to try to see their family or their dealer. Last week Bart drew me a lizard resting on a melting eyeball for the small gallery I have of student artwork. He might still be using his drug of choice, LSD. Bart claims to have taken LSD more times this year than the number of turkeys we are cooking.
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April 28, 2010
The student I call Diogenes now has over 20 hours in class. He is fiercely independent. When I assigned him a five-paragraph biographical essay he wrote about Patsy Cline. He pokes his head into class five times a day but rarely spends more than an hour inside. He got 100% on his spelling test today so I gave him a shark sticker. I saw he put it on his thermal coffee mug. I appreciate when a former gang member softens over an incentive as small as an aquatic-themed sticker. Though he is bound to be off task and chatty and a bit disruptive, I no longer dread having this student in my class. One must celebrate small victories.
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March 23, 2010
(Trying something new here, what I’m calling a flashback. Going back to my journals for stories from my earlier days as a parolee educator.)
A student of mine is convinced that if I eat snake, all my skin problems will go away. Back when Ramiro was in prison, out in the desert, he was assigned to Level 1 where they let you work outside the prison doing maintenance and gardening. His cellmate had a serious skin condition and was putting up with a great deal of embarrassment. One day Ramiro was working outside the perimeter of the prison and killed a desert snake. “You have to kill the snake before you get it mad or it’s no good,” Ramiro tells me, making a swift motion with his hand, showing how he killed the snake quickly and quietly while it slept. He threw the dead snake over the prison gate and later took it to his dormitory where they were allowed a hot plate and pan to cook with. Like a good friend, Ramiro cooked the snake and served it to his cellmate. He says that after only one or two times of consuming snake, his friend’s skin condition cleared up completely. “Snake will heal your skin, Miss P.,” Ramiro says, urging me to try it. “It cleans the blood.”
– from a 2002 journal entry
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March 16, 2010
I have one student who drives me crazy. He’s my Diogenes. He tells other students not to sign up for my school because “she will hold you hostage.” He says it with a smile. He has only put in seven hours since enrolling, seems like 70. He tries to be my friend but only ends up taking my time and focus off my work. Who’s being held hostage here? I offered him an optional drop (that he can leave with no penalty) which really doesn’t exist in our program. Some students need a class that is “teacher driven” – working independently on a computer is not the answer.
No matter how many pencils I put out at the beginning of the school day, I never end up with as many at day’s end. I write in black Sharpie marker on each pencil “Do Not Remove” and the date. A student recently brought me a handful of my pencils all marked “Do Not Remove” that he found in his roommate’s drawer who had left the rehab. Another student joked saying he had a dozen pencils marked “Do Not Remove,” to sell me. I tell them, “Please return my pencils. They don’t grow on trees…Well actually they do.”
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March 3, 2010
We have a male-female talking ban in place at the rehab this week. The residents are not to engage in any discussion with the opposite sex. This conversation ban hinders intimate relationships from forming within the community. The women have been in a workshop all day and my class has been kind of empty and quiet except the guys who for some reason feel a need to talk to me more than usual. And what about Terry who is transsexual? I think everyone should be able to talk to Terry. The talking ban extends to my classroom but I don’t enforce it when students are helping one another. If Antonio wants to help Marquita better understand the Barbarian takeover of the Roman Empire, then more power to that.
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February 19, 2010
My students have a hard time remembering. Many have spent the better part of their life doing drugs. So I am always open to strategies to help them remember all the formulas and rules that go into doing even simple math. I’ve developed what I call Jailhouse Math. Jailhouse Math is not approved by my program. It is a way in for my students and they get it. I teach fractions by using the prison bunk as an example. The heavier “cellie” usually gets the bottom bunk. Let’s call him Heavy-D, the denominator. The lighter guy is Numero Uno, he gets the top bunk, the numerator. Sometimes the two cellmates weigh the same or the heavier guy ends up on the top bunk, this is called Improper.
One of my students, Eric likes to teach on the board. Today he used an example of Jailhouse Math to explain perimeter. He drew a house that he said was a crack house. He said the inside where everyone was dealing and smoking rock is the area. Then he showed that the police had shown up. He said they had the place surrounded, he explained the police were on the perimeter. Nice work, Eric.
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February 17, 2010
Carlos knocked on the back door of my school today. “Can I come in? You know I split and I’m not supposed to be here but I was wondering if you could look up my scores on the GED test I took two weeks ago?” Carlos looked different. He had cut off his dark curls, he looked…conservative. He told me he was living with his family and had a good job. I looked up his scores. He passed all five sections of the GED, but he failed the exam because he was short 20 points. Carlos scored 2230 and he needed a score of 2250 to pass. His average was 446 and you need a 450 overall to pass. Heartbreaking.
Still, he was optimistic. We both agreed he should retake the writing section. He blamed his low score in this area on a malfunctioning pen they gave him. “I gave you a brand new pen for the test,” I said as I handed him my card. “Call me when you get the results on the re-test.”
Carlos giggled. It’s odd to hear a grown man giggle but I got used to it and will even miss it a little.
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February 15, 2010
Last Friday I put out art supplies for my students to make Valentines. I was struck by how busy the crafts table was. In prison, myriad art practices and ideas for homemade cards get passed on, especially amongst the men. One of my students made a half-dozen cards to sell to other residents at the rehab. Another student constructed cards with suspended photographs on hidden threads that spin inside a heart-shaped cut-out when you lightly blow on them.
The pest control man also came to spray the resident’s housing. Several of the women brought their fish bowls over to my classroom so the fish would not be exposed to the toxins. So today my classroom was full of big tattooed guys cutting on pink paper and colorful Japanese Fighting Fish swimming in faceted containers.
Posted in drug recovery, education, handicrafts, parolees, prison, students | Leave a Comment »
February 9, 2010
Several of my students will be out tomorrow getting their teeth pulled. These extractions will be done for free by university dental students. Needless to say many of my students have destroyed their gums by smoking crack or meth. Recovery isn’t just about avoiding old habits, it’s about confronting and working on the devastation caused by old habits.
I had my first dental scaling last Sunday and was reminded of trepanning and other archaic medical practices. I asked the hygienist if the scraping was harmful to the teeth. “Oh no,” she said, “it’s like removing the barnacles from the bottom of a boat.”
So now my mouth is seaworthy.
Posted in adult education, drug recovery, meth, parolees, rehab, students | Leave a Comment »
