My work is still a wonderful experience. Yes, I teach students that have had to con others to stay alive on the streets. Yes, there are students who I don't like to dealing with when they are oozing attitude. Yes, there are pregnant female students. However, there are others that are just so grateful to have a safe place to sleep and a chance at getting a job, so that they can take care of themselves and their future (or maybe current) family.
These students didn't have anyone instilling wise lessons in them. They don't have deeply engrained work ethics, because most of their parents didn't have great work ethics. Our school and Job Corp. instill great work ethics. We are the students' good, adult influences and are so much more strict than a public school.
We are the structure that these students didn't have. If a student enters the room a minute late, they're tardy which affects their campus privileges, if chronic. We are preparing them for a job and promptness is a necessary job skill. I'm constantly having the girls take their facial piercings out, so that they can practice being presentable. Some of the empty holes in the faces from the piercings aren't pleasant at which to look though.
If students get positive Intervention Reports, they get to live in the dorm with more luxuries like TV's in the rooms. They also get the first lunch for consistently good behavior. Apparently, the first lunch is very coveted. On payday, which is only $45-$49 every month, the well-behaved students get a little more. So behavior modification techniques are heavily used at this government intervention facility.
To be a part of emparting hope for a new, independent life with a job is such an awesome experience. The teachers and students act as a team. The students know that we're there to help them help themselves. Some students are much more needy than others, but it's all good. One of my super needy students was one of three that completed high school math this week! She was taking math three periods a day, since math was the last academic subject for her to pass before she finishes her "Seniors" class and gets her high school diploma.
In "Seniors" they do an actual business plan for their future career, give a presentation about this plan, and do a detailed CAD design of their business. In math they start their CAD drawing of their future business---property, building, landscaping, and parking. CAD is interwoven into our math lessons which is one of the reasons why I was hired---despite a bad reference. I used CAD for engineering and landscape design and CAD can take a long time to learn.
Today I actually did my version of the students' CAD design for their "Seniors" class. I'm trying to do all their CAD assignments, so I can anticipate their questions and know what is required for assignment sign-offs. My co-teacher is still the only one who knows exactly what the students are supposed to do on some of the CAD assignments, but by next week that won't be a problem. It'd be easier, if we could actually trust the students to tell us the truth---that they did everything that was required for each sign-off, but like I said, they've had to be con artists to get by on the streets. They know that we have to treat them with suspicion, accept our scrutiny, and don't hold it against us either.
Our classroom life is not all rules and hard work though. I try to add a little joy into our math classroom, since most everyone walking through the door hates math. I found that even the con artists like my happy faces and "Awesome!" on their graded worksheets. I found that even the con artists like that I can speak Spanish to them, if they're Spanish speakers. In fact I sang, "Feliz Cumpleanos a Ti!" to a young man who just turned 20 today. I found that even the con artists, though 6'-4" like to share an umbrella with their little math teacher. I had to really stretch my arm up to get the umbrella above his head! Yes, we have a structured life at school, but it has smiles and love in it, too. That's why I love my new, wonderful job.
P.S. To my blog readers: If you want to support a struggling math/engineering teacher and author, please buy my first book, "The Romance of Kilimanjaro," soon to be followed by my second book at: https://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=9781613464960 Thank You!
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