4-18

So today, the class that I am normally in for tutoring had a substitute teacher. The students acted just like how other students did when I was in high school. Very many of the students chose to skip. I know this because I saw at least two of the girls who were supposed to be in the class out of the building. There was literally only three students that showed up and there were three more random students who were staying in the classroom for that period. My usual student did not show up and neither did any of the other students that I generally work with so I went to a different classroom. I worked with a student along with a fellow tutor.
This student, Sarah, was working on 12th grade literature. She said that she had entered the program a month ago and was actually ahead of where she needed to be in the course. The way she was able to do this is similar to the way Adrian's program is set up.She only has to take the pre-tests and if she passes them then she gets to skip the lecture and homework parts of the course. This really bothers me about the way the online classes are set up. Sarah said that her teacher generally summarizes the stories for her, so that she does not even have to read them. I feel like this completely defeats the purpose of the point of the program. The students is not really learning anything in my opinion. Sarah stated several times that she did not like being in the classroom that she was in while doing her work, and that she was ready to be done with the course so she did not have to get up early anymore. I understand that a majority of the students that are enrolled at the PLC are not the average students, but I feel that they should be held to a higher standard than it appears many of them are being held to.Sarah said that there was another girl who was almost completely done with the program at this point. She said she was able to do that because she worked with a tutor for every period and was able to take the pre-tests and skip the lectures and extra stuff that  goes along with the lessons. Sarah said that was why she wanted to work with a tutor as much as possible so that she can get done with everything. She said that she never understood why people would turn down the chance to work with a tutor. This actually made me feel a little appreciated for being there. I have felt appreciated other times, like I have been making a little difference in the school work of the students I have worked with when they do well on their tests.
One of the things that this course has made me realize is that classrooms work better when they are not as one sided with the teacher dominating the classroom. Granted, high school is a bit different than college classrooms, I think that students would appreciate being in charge of what they are learning to some extent. I remember my favorite English teacher in high school only gave us one exam. The rest of our grades came from group projects and different interactive activities within the classroom. We would have girls verses boys competitions by creating plays similar to ones that we had been reading in class. That was the best class I had in high school. I never felt like I was really having to do a ton of work, yet I was learning way more than I realized. I feel like I would want to conduct my classroom in a similar way that this class from high school was conducted and like this one. I think by having something like book clubs, the students would learn more and interact with the literature in a different way than they would probably be used to doing. There are so many different ways that teacher could get students more involved in the classrooms, and after going to the PLC I think it is very important to try to reach out to your students and connect with them. I mean we do expect them to learn what we are discussing in class, but maybe it would help if the teacher could learn more about what her students liked and incorporate that into the lesson in some way. I think that it would be cool to find out the students favorite shows or movies and introduce it into a lesson in some way to help them better understand what is being taught and to capture their attention. There are ways other than the traditional ones that would help a class reach its full potential. I think there would be nothing more satisfying than know that my students understood something because I could relate it to their lives. When I begin teaching one of my main goals will be to connect with my students. Sometimes all a person needs is that one person in their life to encourage them and push them to reach their full potential and I would be more than happy to help my students do that.