Archive for the ‘education’ Category
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.
Posted in education, parolees, rehab, students | Leave a Comment »
March 25, 2010
I like to read to my students. Because most of them come and go, I try to choose books with short, self-contained chapters, vignettes that can be repeated — books like The House on Mango Street or Who Moved My Cheese? Storytelling is contagious. Suddenly someone else’s story becomes my own and I start adding to the narrative. Like today when I told my students I used to teach in the boys’ camps outside Juvenile Hall. On my first day, in Biology class, a boy threw a chair at me right over my desk. I ducked and calmly proceeded to introduce myself. Of course, I got a little respect after that, because I didn’t leave like the other summer subs.
Posted in education, Juvenile Hall, storytelling, teacher, The House on Mango Street, Who Moved My Cheese? | Leave a Comment »
March 12, 2010
Samuel is my newest student. He told me he was living in a car with his mom but his parole agent would not accept that as a primary residence. So he is at our residential rehab for an address, not for drug addiction. Sam told me his mom, who still lives in the car, is an alcoholic. He also told me he is a hopeless kleptomaniac. He especially loves high-end markets. A gourmet selection of goodies increases his chance of offending. For Sam, stealing itself is a high — very addictive and almost impossible to stop. His “jacket,” a list of his criminal convictions, is riddled with petty theft. Sam is tall and handsome with a long brunette ponytail. He looks like the boy next door who surfs. He told me he can’t read, which is not entirely true. He has a third-grade reading level. Hopefully he will stick around long enough to get some help in my school. Half the battle will be raising his self-esteem. Sam seems quite depressed. I’ve yet to see him smile. He eagerly awaited his mother’s arrival yesterday while he worked on the classroom computer. She was coming to drop off some of his clothes. I asked him, “Don’t you want to wait outside so you won’t miss her?” “No,” he said, “she will ask for me.” Sam checked with the front desk to see if his mother had come by. She had made a delivery but did not ask for him. Sam came back to school and signed out for the day. He was pretty upset.
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March 8, 2010
Damien helps clean the classroom everyday at 3:45 and he does a damn good job. I can’t read his emotions at all. I know he was in a real long time and I know he was in for murder. He doesn’t talk much, but he often murmurs to himself, “Mmm, mmm, mmm,” in a descending scale. He has a certain innocence, a naiveté. “Miss P.,” Damien asked me, “do you think I could get $10 for this half a twenty if I take it to the bank?” I walked over to see he was holding half a twenty-dollar bill torn along the face of Andrew Jackson. “Not sure, ” I said. I looked on the Internet and learned you need to be able to read both serial numbers and at least 75% of the bill. “Maybe I should save it for good luck,” Damien said. “Or save it because maybe someday you’ll find the person who has the other half,” I said. He laughed. “That’s a one in a million chance, Miss P!”
Posted in education, GED, math, parolees | Leave a Comment »
March 2, 2010
Today I helped my student Carey fill out a request to claim his father’s last paycheck through a state Treasury office. Carey had his father’s original death certificate. I couldn’t help but notice that the reason listed for his father’s death was carcinoma of the lung. I told Carey his dad died of lung cancer at 56. He said he knew his dad died of cancer but never knew which kind. I asked, “Did your father smoke?” “Pall Mall Reds,” said Carey. My students usually go on a ten-minute smoke break once in the morning and another in the afternoon. Just before Carey went to smoke, I reminded him that he was holding his father’s death certificate in his hand and that smoking could have been a contributing factor. (It’s the Adult Health Educator in me. ) “Thanks,” Carey said, “I’m going to be thinking about that all day.”
And then he left to go smoke.
Posted in crime, education, parolees, smoking, teacher | Leave a Comment »
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.
Posted in adult education, education, GED, parolees, students, teacher, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
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 4, 2010
Today I read an affirmation to my class. It was from a book of daily affirmations from the mid-eighties. Then I handed the book to a student to read aloud. I need to remind myself to let the students read aloud and short affirmations, simple and direct, are a great start. It’s easy to be the teacher on the pulpit. I asked my students what they think their children do most often after school. Watch TV or play video games was the common answer. “Not like us, we were getting our exercise gang banging,” one of my female students said. “Yeah, we never sat down,” another chimed in. “I wonder if there isn’t some activity between watching television and gang banging,” I asked them. Back to math, time to study ratio and proportions for the GED.
Posted in drug recovery, education, gangs, parolees | Leave a Comment »
February 3, 2010
Carlos is taking the GED exam tomorrow. I gave him several new pencils to take with him, solid cedar, not like those inferior “Depot” pencils. He was definitely a little nervous, coming and going today, not knowing what to do with himself. I told him to relax. He’s studied for over 250 hours and passed every section of the Pre-GED. Carlos is only 24. He has the potential to get his diploma and move on. I was trying to think of some success stories over the years, students who got out of the system for good and closed the door behind them. Students who went to art school, who entered the university, became drug counselors, they are the exceptions. Parolees who got their GED stand out. I’ve seen real progress. Maybe Carlos will become an X-Ray tech or maybe he will work in the oil fields like others in his family.
Posted in adult education, education, GED, parolees, students, teacher | Leave a Comment »
February 2, 2010
My school is inside a drug rehab for adults just out of prison. The entire community is in a week-long workshop. Some students will come to school to get out of the workshop and others will ask to get out of school to attend the workshop. Either is fine. I like to sit in on the gathering, drop in for fifteen minutes. Today they were showing a documentary on the big flat screen. They said for every 200 men in prison, there were approximately 700-900 children missing a father on the outside. I couldn’t stop thinking about this. Even when my students are on the outside they often fail to parent their children. The children are the forgotten victims of the criminal system, of drug use, of crime. I give my students clear-vue binders and they most often use them to display photos of their family and friends. It’s like a bunch of teenagers decorating their notebooks.
Posted in drug recovery, education, parolees, prison, rehab | Leave a Comment »
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