More of the Good, the Bad, & the Ugly

I have to say that I am incredibly lucky. The district where I completed student teaching offers excellent student services, and just two weeks after graduating I am working nearly full-time as a tutor through the district. The job market for English teachers is tight right now, so the tutoring gig is a welcome life raft.
The pay is almost what I'd be making as a first-year teacher and I'm working one-on-one with students. It's not permanent and there's no benefits, but it means that I can pay the bills and even afford to go out on a date once in a while.
For better or worse, the district offers tutoring to any student who misses 3 days or more, for almost any reason. I have 3 students now, two of which were expelled for the year and the third is at risk of dropping out. The goal with her is simple: tutor her enough that she can get passing grades in 4 classes to earn enough credits to graduate a semester early, and train her well enough to pass the NY state regents exams. She was ready to give up and drop out 6 weeks ago, this is the school's last recourse to save her from herself.

I'm not convinced that this is the best thing to do for these kids, and sometimes it feels like a scam. One of the kids blew off all of his schoolwork, and had two and a half weeks to get ready for the regents tests when I first met him. He's only got two: Global History and English. I'm confident that he'll pass the English test, but he blew off all his Global studies and will only do half the homework I assign him. Three days before the test he's only half way through the book. I don't think he has a chance in hell of passing. His parents don't seem to be able to keep on him, either. Mom says that she's making sure that he gets his work done, but I don't see her making any effort, either. If I were in charge of the tutoring budget, I'd tell Mom to waste her own money on a tutor. Fortunately for me, I'm not in charge and still have a job.

The worst part is that this kid may have a learning disability. I've seen signs of a reading problem with him, and he definitely shows all of the avoidance behaviors that kids use to mask disabilities. Mom gave me some convoluted story about the district refusing to have him evaluated and telling her that she couldn't have him evaluated independantly, which turns out to be total horseshit. Every kid in New York has a right to be evaluated if requested by a teacher or parent. So today's task was to talk to his guidance counselor to get the ball rolling.

The kid's a junior now and has been barely squeaking by since 8th grade. Somewhere there is an explanation of why in two weeks I've been able to get the kid on the track for testing, but in the previous 3 years nothing happened.

Celebrate your victories. 2 out of my 3 at risk students are going to pass.

Graduation!

It is absolutely official. I have successfully jumped through all of the required hoops to graduate. If I hadn't been so lazy about paperwork, they would have confirmed this in time for me to walk with the rest of the December graduates. The only thing that's standing between me and permany NY state teacher certification is more paperwork and fifty bucks (both of which I have and will be sent off shortly). There won't be much of a party, but congratulatory gifts, cards, and marriage proposals are all welcome. (If you know a sugar mama with enough cash to pay off my student loans, send her my way. I'm a good listener, give good massages, and am very handy around the house.)

This is the time for me to thank everyone that has been reading, and especially those that have made comments to me in person, backchannel, or posted comments to this blog. I found that I have fans in places I never expected and compatriots I never knew about, and the good words from everyone were incredibly motivating, particularly in the last few weeks of the semester when it felt like I was treading water more than growing or learning.

Student teaching is done, and as much as I'd like to breathe a huge sigh of relief, relax, and celebrate the fact that I finally finished, this is really the beginning. It seemed only appropriate that I changed the title of the blog to "Diary of a New Teacher." I'm still running headlong, full steam into whatever comes at me. Like always.