The ALC Kid Part 1

This is my third year teaching at an area learning center. It has been quite a learning process. I know that first year I sent out multiple emails to family and friends because I just couldn't believe how these children behaved. I was stressed and more than once had thought about quitting.

Last year was a different year. Compounding the negative student behavior was also terrible student attendance. I had many days where I had one or two students in some of my classes. How can you possibly keep the flow of teaching going when 50% of your students show up 50-75 percent of the time? To keep all of the students current you would have to spend half of your class periods reteaching what you've already taught! It was exasperating to say the least.

This year is yet again different from the previous two. I have been keeping track of attendance for each class. One class has gone below 45% but the rest have been 60% and 80%. My best attended class ranges between 85 and 93% attendance. I have been offering rewards to individual students with perfect attendance. (The first four weeks I only had six students with perfect attendance. This last four weeks only 4 that qualified.) I have also been treating the class with the highest attendance for those 4 weeks with a treat party. We have a group of younger students that we refer to as the middle level. Their attendance has historically been the best and the other classes will probably never beat them. So I decided to reward the top two classes with treats.

Get this--the worst behaved class is also the second best attended! I feel strange giving them treats because they are not well behaved. They have some things going against them though. Firstly it is the last class of the day and for many it is all they can do to get through it. There are also two students in that class that are incapable of sitting still for long periods of time and their misbehavior is a result of that. A third student is impulsive and a trouble maker of a different sort. Add to that the fetal alcohol child who is loud and also impulsive. Last but not least is the kid who gets swayed by the distractions of the others. I can't even begin to tell you how glad I am when that class is over!