I talked to a lot of kids today about the extra tutoring sessions, and almost everyone hated it. I know that it's still being worked out, but too many complained about not doing anything (most were simply given a worksheet after everyone calmed down). A few other kids said that although they needed help in math, the work in the extra sessions was too easy. I originally thought that kids would be embarrassed about being required to attend tutoring, but it seems that because so many kids have to stay (I have about 5 students out of the 40 in after-school that don't have tutoring) it shouldn't be much of a problem. But it doesn't seem like the sessions are going to be an efficient way to help struggling kids.
According to this poll from Insideschools.org, parents are not happy with the new schedule either. A major problem seems to be that parents aren't getting enough information about what is going on. It doesn't seem like my school has done a good job informing parents, but it is also crazy to expect schools to successfully implement something this big in the middle of the year. Why not wait until next fall?
Tuesday, February 7, 2006
37.5 minutes of chaos
Yesterday the extended tutoring schedule went into effect and it was crazy at my middle school (it seems like it was a similar situation elsewhere, according to this NY Times article). Dozens of parents were calling the after-school office trying to figure out where their kids were, and it seemed like a number of students that were supposed to be in tutoring left the building early (I can usually tell by how many kids have McDonalds). Nobody at the school seemed to know what was going on. And the kids that went to tutoring were absolutely off the wall in after-school. I really hope this works itself out, but I'm not optimistic after yesterday.
Monday, February 6, 2006
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