Day 3

Day 3 (February 21):

Today, I was unable to work with Riley. The students in her class, including her, were taking what the school calls a “benchmark test”. This test is to measure how far the student is in his or her objectives set out by the program. The teacher also encouraged the students to do well on this test because if they met certain objectives then she would remove them from their objectives list on their E2020 program.

Rather than staying in the classroom, the teacher allowed me to work with a student who was in a class for an elective. His name was Derrick. He was by far the most entertaining and self motivated student that I have worked with so far. We went to an extra room in the school that houses 3 or 4 extra computers for students. There we began to work through his Exploring Careers class. Derrick impressed me in many ways. He actually took the time to copy notes in the space created by the program that allows the students to keep them. He would pause the lecture in certain places and take down notes that were important from the slide show and cite the examples given by the instructor in his notes. I was impressed because I have thus  far worked with three different students and he was the only one I had seen actually take notes and be active in the lecture part of the program. The other students, not just the ones I have worked with, generally mute the lecture and listen to music or work on other projects. Derrick told me that he tried that and was just going to go through the tests and make his best guess, but after failing one test twice because he slept through the lecture, he decided against this method.

Derrick is a 19 year old student at Classic City High. He told me that he should have kept his priorities in order when he was in high school and still had the chance. He said he would have probably graduated when he was 17 if he had stayed on track and done what he was supposed to. Not only did he impress me with his note taking skills and actual devotion to his school work, but he told me about some other skills he has. He is able to fix computers, gaming systems, phones, etc. He told me about one time when his Playstation 3 started scratching his cd’s. Rather than taking it to a shop to see what was wrong with it, he opted to get a screw driver and find out for himself. Once it was taken apart he found a broken piece of a cd in the gaming system and removed it. He said it worked like brand new after that. This impressed me not only because I am technologically challenged, but also because I did not really expect that to be something he was interested in. I’m not really sure what I expected, but this was something that I found impressive. Derrick told me that he would be interested in becoming a video game graphic designer. I found this to be a thrilling idea and certainly an attainable goal for someone who exhibited such a grand knowledge for computers and technology.

Derrick has developed a strategy for doing well on his quizzes and tests in the E2020 program. He is able to keep his notes pulled up while he is taking the quizzes and tests. When a question arises that he cannot recall the answer to, he simply pulls up the notes he has typed up and finds the answer. Granted, not many high schools allow open notes tests, this is still a good strategy for this situation. I say this simply because most of the students do not take the time to actually type the notes from the lecture. I think it’s actually a great idea because by taking notes, you know that the student is at least somewhat actively engaging in the school work. I see it as just an incentive for the students to take notes if they get to use them when it truly counts.

Not only did he do well on his quizzes, but we also discussed what he was thinking about doing once he finished his E2020 program. He is currently taking an environmental science class and an elective. Once he finishes these he only has two more electives to take during the summer and then will be able to graduate if he passes the science portion of the EOCT. Derrick also told me that he had had a great science teacher. He talked about the teacher and how he had taken the class out to actively engage outdoors in an entomology course. He said he really broke the class down into terms that he could understand. I feel like the teacher was able to do that because he had the chance to work with students and help to explain the material that they were covering in their E2020 course. Back to his plans after graduation, Derrick talked about possibly enlisting and joining the Marines. He said that he just could not wait for all of the new places and new tasks that would come along with joining the Marines. He also said he had thought about applying to UGA. I told him I thought that was a great idea.

One of the main reasons that Derrickl is not certain about whether he will be joining the Marines or not is because he has had a cousin who served and was killed overseas. He told me he remembered his dad getting the call that his cousin had passed away while serving because of a possible suicide mission. He told me that his father said he would support him if he chose to join the Marines, but that he needs to make sure he recognizes what could happen while he is serving. I asked Derrick if he was scared about the thought of death since his cousin had passed away serving his country. He told me that the possibility of dying is something that comes along with that job, but that serving his country is a greater service. Derrick was different than the other students I have worked with because he seemed to have a drive that I have not necessarily noticed in the others yet.

Derrick would talk about his mom. He said that she has 3 jobs just to make sure that they get everything that they all need. He talked about her like she really cared about him. He said that he had been to pretty much all of the high schools in Athens because she wanted him to find one that he could do good in and Classic City turned out to be the answer.

So far, I have thoroughly enjoyed my experiences at Classic City because of many reasons. I personally love getting to work with students one on one and learn their stories. I also like being able to help explain things to them so that they can better understand them. It shows whenever they get the answer correct and in the end earn a good grade on the work. I like the laid back environment that the school has. Personally, I find it a rather easy learning environment.

One of the main things that I have noticed in my time spent at Classic City so far has been the effectiveness of the E2020 program. I cannot speak for all of the students, but I feel that many of them would much prefer a little more hands on work to go along with their lessons. I mean, it gets boring just sitting and watching a lady on a computer screen lecture for 25 minutes and then take a quiz. The monotony of the program eventually wears down the students so that they get bored and are no longer interested in their work. I also feel that the students do not necessarily have to learn the material they are working on. They can generally glaze over the information presented to them and make reasonable assumptions about the answers or if they fail ask the teacher to reset the test for them so they can take it again. Also, the students can just take the notes from the material and then reference it during the tests so that they never truly have to learn it. I almost feel that this method of teaching that the E2020 program has developed is like the idea of “bulimic learning”. This type of learning means that the student learns what they need to to pass the test and stores that information long enough to take the test and it then leaves their minds as soon as the test is finished. I know it has to be harder to make sure that each and every student is actually learning and staying on task with this online program, but the teacher I have observed generally does a good job in making sure they are. She tends to help them whenever they are having trouble with certain parts of their objectives. I think the teacher in these classrooms has to be a very skilled professional, have a lot of knowledge, and maintain a high level of patience with his or her students. I won’t go so far as to say that the E2020 program is not efficient, because it is, I just feel that maybe there are some other ways that the program could engage the students more rather than having just a lecturer and a slide show.