Thursday, December 17, 2009

Student House-Call??!!

Two students of mine (M4) actually came to my apartment building yesterday!  I was taking a nap, but Rachel received a call from downstairs, by one of the cleaning ladies.  Something about school and teacher.  Rachel went downstairs and saw two of my students with their Holiday Story Presentation sheets.  They wanted me to look them over and correct for tomorrow's class - when students are to present in their groups a holiday travel story. 

It's a not a huge secret where we live, as we are only about 5-10 minutes walk from school, but still!  To come to the apartment!!  Why couldn't they have just left the papers on my desk?  I do have one guess.  I think word has gotten around.  My first M4 class that did the presentations went horribly.  Out of 38 students (not including the soldiers who never come to class, but whom I must still somehow grade), only 18 of them were prepared to present.  After the 18 presented, I left the classroom.  I went back and wrote a letter to the students, which I then had translated in Thai.  I then made 20 copies of the letter, folded them, and wrote the number and nickname of each student who didn't present on the front.  When I next had their class, which was earlier this week - Tuesday - after the travel listening test, I called out their names and asked them to please stand up as I called them out.  I then instructed all the other students to leave.  I told these students to sit down and pay attention.  I called up one student to read out loud the letter, while I passed around the copies to everyone else.  The letter went something like this:

I want to know why out of 38 students in this class (not including the soldiers), only 18 of you were prepared to present.  For those of you that were here last week, did you think this was a joke?  For those of you that were absent or skipping class last week, you know where my office is.  Coming to class this week and asking for the presentation story worksheets is unacceptable.  You had a whole week to come to my office and ask about what you missed.  That is your responsibility.  You are not children.  This is unacceptable.  You will receive a '0' for your grade.  For your sake, I hope you care more next time.

The students sat there in silence for about 5 mintues re-reading the letter.  It was a very serious moment.  Objective achieved.  There was some discussion in Thai amongst the students, and some apologies and a couple excuses.  But all in all, I do believe it was effective, and for this - I think word got around the M4s.  As from then on, more and more students from other M4 sections showed up in my office asking for sheets and for help before they present in the next few days.  Hence, the house-call. 

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