UPDATE TO THE STORY BELOW ------ Maybe ten days after I posted that story below, "Mark" asked me if he could leave class early. I don't recall why, but I let him go, feeling a bit uneasy about it. I saw him later that day, handcuffed with 2 other boys all sitting on a curb at the edge of the teacher's parking lot. I never saw him again. About 2 weeks after that a student service worker came by with a computer print-out for me to give Mark his checkout grades.He had about 40% of the points in the class at that point but his writing skills, and likely reading were very low--- maybe 5th grade at best. Here is a kid that desperately needs education and life skills like reading, writing and the ability to problem solve, but he also desperately needing the approval of peers so he made another bad decision. I never found out why he was arrested that day but my guess is that it involved vandalism or stealing. Sad.
However for every Mark, there are 3 or 4 students who turn it around. A young latina - Raquel, was in my health class last year which ended in late June. Here she was again in my same class, same seat in early September. She received in June what could only be described as --what the kids say today-- an EPIC FAIL. She had a ditching buddy and the two of them missed maybe 20+ times in a 75-80 day semester. Raquel also had a bad attitude. She did some work but probably got less than 25% of the points required to pass. Approval of her friend was more important than anything else to her.
So here she is back in my class. Sixth period again-- the last period of the day, the notorious ditching period. Thus far after 9 weeks, she does have 7 absences, but she also has every assignment turned in and is getting an A with over 90% of the points possible. She stays awake in class. She has a good attitude and completely turned it around after a summer vacation.
Maybe about 5 years ago when I was coaching tennis, I ordered trophies at the end of the year and ordered an extra one for a girl named Xiomara. Her first semester was a disaster. She was very quiet but also very apathetic and never got any work turned in. She had poor attendance and she was just your garden variety "didn't try, didn't care, 'F' student". The next semester she had me for a different class, Health. I don't know how or why but she put it all together. She was still quiet but Xiomara did her work and received a B. In the last day or two of class I told the entire class "I have never done this before but I got a trophy for a student who was very surprising to me this year. The first semester she didn't do very well, but THIS semester she com-pletely turned it around and is getting a B, and Xiomara, this trophy says Most Improved Student Award - John Marshall High School, June 2006". Xiomara came up, accepted the award and a student started clapping and the whole class followed.There are so many stories, some good some not, but these kids as you watch them grow and change are never boring.
