1st Day with Seniors!

I arrived this morning and met Mr. McCain, who teaches 12th humanities and leads the senior projects. He filled me in on what’s been going on and the different projects the girls are working on. In order to graduate from YWLCS, seniors must complete a senior presentation on either their senior project or an academic portfolio. Those students who didn't submit a proposal will have to complete an academic portfolio. There are 46 seniors and 18 of them are required to attend school for the next three weeks for one reason or another. Those 18 girls could fall under one of the following categories: guided with a project which means they submitted a proposal but need additional help to complete it, guided without a project for girls who for no apparent reason failed to turn in a proposal, but are in good standings academically, guided academic for girls who need to finish class work to graduate, and guided academic with junior classes for girls who needed to retake a junior class to graduate. I introduced myself to the girls, explaining why I was at YWLCS and how happy I would be to help them with their work. Shortly after they got to work, Jasmine asked me to edit her 10 page research paper. On top of the academic portfolio, the girls were assigned a 10 page research paper from Mr. McCain and some girls didn't do a very good job. McCain was explaining that there was a correlation between those who didn't do so well on the paper and those who were required to stay in school. Before they get working on their portfolio, they are to finish their paper. Jasmine’s paper was about the war in Darfur between the Tutsi and Hutus. I found it difficult to edit her paper because I am not very familiar with the events going on in Darfur. I also didn't want to be too discouraging or change to much in her paper. It took me quite a while to grade and when I returned it to her, I let her know to look it over and take any of the suggestions she wanted and to let me know if she had any questions. I helped one girl with her introduction for the academic portfolio and another girl with her paper. In between helping girls, I had the chance to talk with Mr. McCain to learn about their transcripts. Grades are not traditional, instead of getting an A through F students either get a high performing, proficient, or not yet. If students receive a not yet they are required to make up work or retake the class. To graduate, students need an 85% overall in their classes. This is similar to a GPA, I believe. This prevents students from barely passing every class and being able to graduate. Students who are unable to graduate in four years have the option of taking summer classes to graduate or returning for a 5th year. I asked Mr. McCain where these girls would be without YWLCS and he said it was hard to say but in a large public school he imagined them not still being in school. It seems class size and individual attention make the most difference when it comes to at-risk students staying in school. I am so excited to have a home for the next three weeks and I am thrilled to helping in any way possible. After lunch on Wednesdays the students get to go home and teachers stay for professional development. There was an all staff meeting at 1:40 followed by a content meeting. The all staff meeting was very short and only addressed the issue of contacting advisees parents about down slips. After the staff meeting they switch off every week meeting with content or academy. YWLCS is split into three academies, 7th-8th make up the middle academy, 9th-10th make up the junior academy, and 11th-12th make up the senior academy. Today the 6 math teachers met for content. They discussed taking the opportunity to observe each other to provide feedback and also observing another school who use the IMP math curriculum. Data in the form of report cards was handed out to see where improvements needed to be made. It was during this part of the meeting when I realized how far behind these students are compared to the other schools I've been to. I understand that Chicago Public Schools are in bad shape with an outrageous dropout rate of something like 67% and so I guess it doesn't surprise me that a charter school isn't in great shape either. Many of the students transfer in from public schools and so their understanding is limited. 7th graders at YWLCS are learning about pentagons, quadrilaterals, hexagons, and octagons which is what I taught to the 5th graders at KIPP. 11th graders are just being introduced to x & y intercepts which the HTH 8th graders were learning about 3 weeks ago. I was shocked to say the least. Now this is just an observation, not a conclusion based on research but it blows my mind how poor our education system is in this country. How are we not all on the same page and a great page at that. After discussing the trends in the data, the teachers went into the computer lab to learn some basic knowledge on Geometry Sketchpad. The program could be useful to have the students learn interactively. Today was a great learning experience and I am excited to help some students with math tomorrow!