Sports Day

We had a sports day on Wednesday and overall it went well. We traveled to the other campus which has more space and is out of the city a little. The first problem we had was of our high school students, only about 5-6 actually showed up. We don't have a huge high school, but there are about 80-100 students, maybe. For that few to show up is embarrassing. I guess they thought they did not have to come. Probably didn't want to get sweaty. What was the worst part about it is the other campus had almost 100% attendance. I was embarrassed for our campus. But I definately feel there are differences in the students at the two campuses.

The students at the other campus seem to have more school pride than our students. I'm not sure why this is, but I feel it is due to a combination of different type of students along with a staff that is more proud of the school. Since my campus is downtown, there are a few teachers there who are teaching just so they can make enough money for late night extracurriculars (I'm pretty sure you know what this means, but if not I can elaborate later). These teachers really don't have much school pride and are happy being at a school that isn't very strict with them and their teaching style. Its similar to what is seen at schools back home in the states, teachers arrive at school as late as they can and leave as early as they can. The only difference is that back home the teachers are still working to pay for a house or a car. Here, they are working to pay for their social activities.

A lot of the kids had a bad attitude going into sports day. They were saying that its not that fun and they don't want to go. The effort put forth by some of these students throughout the day was less than inspiring as well. I couldn't help but be upset with how lazy some of the students are, which is somewhat of a cultural and somewhat of a socio-economic characteristic. These kids have a sense of entitlement that they have never had to really work for anything. So when we try to get them to come out and exert some physical strength, they don't feel like it and the effort shows.

I know back home, sports day was the best day of the year. I loved sports day. It was a day to take off of school and run around doing what kids do; run, jump and be loud. It was great. Here, its more of a burden and a hassle than anything else. I did get some pictures from this day, and I will send them after the fair pictures are completed.

I was speaking with another teacher at lunch the other day and he made a very good point about the sense of entitlement these students have. He said, "If I had maids cleaning up after me and taking care of everything for me, how would I know any different. I would probably act the same way because someone was always doing things for me and I didn't have to do anything for myself."

This made me step back and think about the lives of these students. The most frustrating thing for me this year has been the constant fight to motivate these students and the constant complaining to get them to do anything. Yes, this is something that all teachers must face, but I notice it so much more over here than back in the states. Having heard this quote from the teacher, it does make sense that these students have poor work ethics because they have never been held responsible for anything they have done before.

I'm trying to teach my students a little responsibility in the class, not just math. I had a philosophy on coaching that went something like this, "If that only thing my athletes learn from me is how to run faster or jump farther/higher, then I have failed them." I feel the same way about my classes. If all these students learn from me is how to add or subtract numbers better, then I have failed them.

One way I'm trying to teach them responsibility is through a group project I had my 6th graders complete last week. I graded them and 2 of the 4 groups scored less than 50%, the other two groups were about a 75% and 80%, so the grades were not great. I gave them the grades and told them I would like them to write a reflection on the project and the group activity. They don't know this, but if the reflection is strong, I am going to change the project grades so that it does not negatively affect their grades. I wanted them to know the grade as a shock value and see what they wrote in the reflection, to know how they really felt.

I want them to know that sometimes with groups, the workload is not fair and they need to be responsible to ensure that everything is getting done and completed to the standard needed. Some students did more work than the others in their group, some accepted what others did and did not check the work. The result was a grade that was lower than they expected. I want them to think about this and tell me what their thoughts are on the project. Hopefully, they will grow a little and realize some things outside of the realm of mathematics from this reflection.

If one student can learn an important lesson from this project and reflection, then it was well worth it. I know, a little long, but I had a lot of stuff to talk about.

Aaron