Long Days

So, it goes like this. Our school has never met AYP. AYP stands for Adequate Yearly Progress, and is the indicator that a school is educating kids properly, according to No Child Left Behind. Like I said before, our school has never met AYP. Ever. That means that we are considered a "level 5" school. We could be next in line for governmental take-over. Because we are such a low-performing school, we are required to offer students extracurricular tutoring and such, if they so choose to partake. One of the after-school tutoring programs needed an elementary school tutor for the 3rd quarter. The e-mail from the coordinator, coupled with what I know about the elementary staff, made the situation seem pretty desperate. I felt sorry for the coordinator so I volunteered to be an after-school tutor for two of the four days each week. That means that I tutor for two hours a day, two days a week.

That doesn't sound horrible. It's only 4 hours a week and I do get paid a generous amount. The downside is that I am at school for 11 1/2 hours on those two days. 6:30 in the morning until 6 at night. I am usually beat by the time school gets out. Teaching wears me out, and then I have to stick around for two more hours. The tutoring isn't too intensive, but I do have to be coherent and patient. I help kids with their homework and other work from their teachers, and then get them interested in learning games or educational websites. (I only have two computers, so if I ever have all 10 kids show up, I'm in trouble.)

This week was our first week of the quarter. I had 5 kids show up Monday and it was the longest two hours of my life. I felt like a glorified baby-sitter. Two of the kids who came were surly older elementary boys who clearly do not like me. They spent the two hours complaining about how bored they were and trying to convince me to let them go on YouTube. I spent at least an hour the next morning trying to find games and websites and multiplication work for them (they requested it). Neither of them showed up on Tuesday. Well, no, I take that back. One of them came in about 3:30 and asked if this other student could wait for him. Until 6? No. They both left my room, but went to do their homework at Power Hour in the cafeteria (Boys and Girls Club coordinator comes up and supervises kids in the cafeteria so they have a quiet place to get their homework done). The other boy came in about 3:45 and asked if he could go on YouTube during tutoring. No. The first boy wandered in and joined the argument. The answer was still no. 4:00 rolled around and both of the boys had left school grounds. Whatever. Their loss. I wasn't going to worry about it. Tuesday was bliss. The 4 kids I had show up were sweet kids and 3 of them entertained themselves with the games I had out. That other 1 spent an hour and a half doing two math assignments and I had to sit beside her and prompt her to do every single problem. That pretty much meant me doing the math, too, and then we would compare answers and argue about who was right.

Definitely a reminder about why I teach the little kids. Older elementary kids have too much attitude and are way too defiant. I've always said that it takes a special kind of person to teach middle-school kids and I think that applies to 4th and 5th grade kids, too.

Depending on how burned-out I am by the end of February, I am contemplating volunteering to do all 4 nights for 4th quarter. Am I crazy? Yes. Is it worth it? Definitely.