I'm working on this project which involves kids giving up their lunch period one day a week. I approached one of the young ladies in the group and told her we were going to start this week and that she could bring her lunch up to the room we would be working in. She just looked at me and said, "But Ms, I love my lunch period."
I know how she feels. She's is a lovely, hard working young lady in the bottom third of the school. She has a full academic load and it is hard for her. And now, I am going to be stealing the one period she has to relax. I'm going to bring the kids donuts and try to make it fun but, work is work. I hope she doesn't start hating me.
4 comments:
I'm with your student....lunch is my favorite period of the day too!!
If you feed them, they will come.
Try ordering a pizza from a real pizzeria, rather than those fake franchise places, and they will really appreciate it.
I appreciate you are trying to help these students, but I have a number of issues with this, if I am understanding the scenario correctly. Here's my main one: You are asking the kids to give up a lunch period for something you deem important, but which they may not see the importance of. What if an administrator said that to us (teachers)?: "Well, I know it's your work-free lunch period, but we think that if you gave it up once a week, you'd greatly improve your teaching. You don't have to agree with me that you'd become a better teacher, but as long as I say that it will help you, that's all you really have to know."
Trying to "bribe" them with totally unhealthy donuts makes it even worse in my eyes, because it's a type of bribery, and we want them to want to do better in school for reasons other than getting donuts. Your final line "work is work" is the scariest of all. I have generally agreed with a lot of what I've read on this blog, but you seem to be doing to the kids exactly what our administrators are doing to us. Please rethink whether this project cannot be accomplished in the time given for class, and not on additional time that really should belong to the kids, for them to unwind a bit. We just can't expect these kids to go a full day, even only one a week, non-stop. Just my opinion.
--A fellow teacher
I agree with you 200%. Unfortunately, I got myself involved in this project before I really knew what it was about and I can't back out because I don't agree with it. All I can try to do is make it enjoyable for the kids. They will be rewarded for participating, not just with food. The bottom line is that if they don't want to come back, no one can force them to.
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