Memo_024

 

There are twenty-two seniors who must pass the Integrated Algebra Regents exam in June in order to meet the graduation requirement for math.  A class will be put together just for them four days a week (Monday through Thursday).  We can make it period 9, 10 or 11 so that it will fit into your day. You will be compensated at per-session rate and it is pensionable.  If you are interested, please let me know.  It will start next week or so. I understand many of the math teachers are taking classes after school and that prevents them from taking the job.

It seems to me teaching a sixth class should involve more than per-session.  The four day week probably skirts this requirement.  Still, it seems like quite a bit of work for this little money.

Before agreeing to teach this, ask:
1.  What happens if the kids don't show up?
2.  Will I be required to call parents and track them down?
3.  Will I be compensated for the time it takes to call parents and track them down?
4.  How will I be affected if they don't pass?

I've taught these at risk kids before.  It takes a special talent to get through to them because they don't see things the way others do.  The late logs, the no hat rule, the homework policy, the attendance requirement don't work with this group.  To teach them successfully, you need to break almost every rule, something that young, inexperienced teachers have been trained not to do.  Being successful with kids like this is an art, something it takes years to master. You have to be able to relate to these kids.  Traditional methods have not worked int he past and will not work now.

Several years ago I taught a double period class of seniors who had not passed one math class since freshman year.  It was a class I volunteered to teach as teachers weren't being rated by statistics back then. I got 27 out of 29 through.  It took all the effort I could muster to keep these kids going.  As a per-session class, this would have been impossible.  Unfortunately, the kids in that group, while passing the regents never learned math.  I see them still, years later, floundering around the community college campus, their biggest nemesis--MATH.

Mr. AP wrote in a previous memo that it job is to move these kids ahead,  It is not moving them ahead that counts but moving them out.  These administrators want to keep their bonuses coming.