10/15/08

Since I had given a test to three of my classes yesterday, my students were crazy to find out their scores. They were all hoarding around my desk this morning to find out what they got on their tests. I told them that they would have to wait. A few minutes later, Jeffney, one of my Advanced Math students, asked if there were any A’s. I told them that there were 7 A’s and two of those were 100’s. His eyes got really bright and he went running out into the hallway (school had not started yet) and was shouting to his fellow classmates, “There are SEVEN A’S and TWO ONE-HUNDREDS!” It is encouraging to hear their excitement about how they did on their test. Below is a picture of my students from Advanced Math.


From left to right: Riccardo, Marc, Kervens, Viottie, Leonne, Bedya, Mildride, Junior, Widsheldine, John Woodley, Nephtalie, Christophe, Jeffney, Dorothy, myself, and Fritz.

A few students stayed huddled around my desk asking me about the next test since we only had one so far for Advanced Math. The way the tests are set up is to have the first test after lesson 8, then the second after lesson 12 and a test thereafter every four lessons. The way it is set up is that each test covers all material except for the four most recent lessons. This is to ensure that the problems have reappeared enough times that they should know it. Well, I should be giving the second test after lesson 12, but we won’t finish that until the second day of the second quarter. However, we have covered all the material that will be on the second test and the students figured that out so a couple of them were saying, “SO, we COULD take the second test!” I thought it was crazy how much they wanted another test so depending on how this next week goes and how well they are doing, I might allow it a few days early.

Also, before class started today, Bedya, came over to my desk and asked if I could give her computer lessons. I asked her what she wanted to learn and she said, “Everything. I don’t know anything about computers.” It’s a little crazy to think about computers here. Some people have them, but for the most part they don’t or if they do, they don’t have internet access. To all of us from the US, we consider it a necessity; a way of life. I find it crazy to think of how much my nieces and my nephew know about computers at their ages because of their exposure compared to the students here. Fritz has also asked if I can teach him so I will probably set up a day where I show them the basics and then go from there.

Later this morning, in 6th grade, I spoke with one of my students about tutoring. I mentioned before that I have a new 6th grader named Lindsay. Well, after talking to Thom about how she is doing in her other classes, I found out that she is doing ok except for my math class and her French class. It seems like she didn’t get as far in 5th grade, at her prior school, to prepare her for math at our 6th grade level. She also had not taken any French courses before either which is why it is difficult for her. We teach French here because it is very important for these students to understand it as French is used heavily within the Haitian government.

Well, as for the math, I told her that I want her to start staying after school once a week so I can tutor her and bring her up to speed. I noticed that she is a bright student and learns quickly, but as you know with math, so much of the new material is based on the former lessons. Without knowing the material we studied during the first few weeks, she is struggling and I hate to see her fall behind. I’ll try to keep you updated on how she is doing.