the beginnings

So school did indeed start on the 6th of September. The mandatory temperature checks got over fairly quickly, but I'm sure that was due in large part to parents showing up at 6:30 when school was scheduled to start at 7:40. We still had to wait, baking in the sun until 8:00 hoping the rest of our students would show up. They didn't. Most classes only boasted a 50% attendance rate the first day with only moderate improvement as the week progressed. I topped out at 20 out of 27 students. So things were a little slow going the first week. Everyday we got our temperature checked to make sure we didn't have swine flu, and every day I was given a new class list as there were daily changes to the roster. It's very difficult to get things going when your class is so transient. So we didn't, get things going that is. Most of us just spent the week trying to get to know the students and maybe review things from the previous year to assess where are students are at academically. I gave some "tests" at the end of the week to get a feel for the level of my students as well. They were quite revealing.

First, I gave a spelling test. I randomly chose words that I thought a fifth grader should know, seeing as I've been teaching seventh grade for the past two years and really had no clue where they would be. So I went with what I thought were safe words: whale, science, skirt, pencils, beautiful, glasses. I was trying to go for a variety; some with silent letters, some with different endings, that sort of thing. Over 50% of the students failed. Ok, so we need to work on spelling.

Next was the reading test. I read a story out loud to the students. It was a folk tale from West Africa about how the world got wisdom. Here's what happens: the sky god gives spider the gift of wisdom. Spider wants to keep it all to himself, so he puts it into a pot and tries to hide it in the tallest tree. When he can't, he breaks the pot and everyone gets a little bit of wisdom. After reading the story, I asked the students some basic questions: who is the main character, what gift did he get, what did he do with it, and what happened at the end. Again, I thought it was fairly straightforward and simple. Again, a ridiculous number of students failed.

Finally we came to the math test. I had looked through the math book and saw that the students learned two-digit multiplication last year. So I made up 10 problems for them to copy from the board and work on. After putting the problems on the board, there was a chorus of "Oh, this is easy! We did this last year!" Oh good, I thought. It turns out only three out of 20 knew how to do it. The rest just started multiplying any random number they felt like.

It looks like I have my work cut out for me this year.

On the plus side, I find the students to be quite enjoyable. They don't yet have the attitude of a seventh grader and they really are quite nice. I think it's going to be a good year. :)