Changing the Summer School

I have already blogged about this in part, so I will both rehash and add some new:

-The material in Ann's summer school class could better be covered by a monitored reading of "Delta Autumn."  The multi-hour daily sessions seem a waste of time when much the same information can be gleaned from one 5 hour session with a book.  Granted, the information would need to be built upon and sharpened, but I think Ann's class would work better as a "refining" tool where we could reflect and discuss what we've read, rather than a freshmen-level ed-school bore-a-thon.

-We need more discipline training.  I see problems stemming from two sources:

1. The summer school kids are angels and totally unlike what we will face in our regular classrooms.  Experience with them does not acclimate us to the chronic high-school discipline issues.  And even when we conduct role-plays, they have an exotic once-in-a-lifetime feel about them.  We are equipped to deal with attempted homicide but not with subtle, everyday disrespect.

2. Many of these students misbehave because they are looking for attention (especially the younger ones).  During August and September, I would get angry at students who would pretend like they had an individual question, only to have them ask me what the directions (which i had just gone over) were when I got to their desks.  I realize now that the kids were just looking for some one-on-one time with an adult.

I remember that Brian Hawkins in particular emphasized how needy some of our students (especially female) would be, but I think he overplayed his hand.  Yes, they'll want our attention, but that desire won't often manifest itself sexually (as he often implied); in all likelihood you'll just have to deal with clingy, slightly annoying, and probably disruptive-because-it's-how-they-seek-attention kids.  Treating them kindly and benevolently will work better in the long term than an immediate outburst and disciplinary action.

Ultimately, though, the first years will have to sink or swim on their own merits.  No matter how well we (think that we) train them, the Summer School will never be a panacea. 

It's human nature, I guess, to demand individual responsibility and independent thinking from our students, but to be constantly complaining about how our summer school left us unprepared to deal with them.