Truth in Advertising

I have felt pretty useless this week at work.  It has been focused on recruiting and since I am not all that good at small talk and abhor fliers, I was put in charge of radio advertising.  I wrote lots of radio stations but only got replies from a couple.  Ultimately, we ended up placing advertising on WDGM, a sports station in Tuscaloosa that runs JOX sports programming out of Birmingham, and WTUG which is an R&B station.  That week consisted of  lot of me sitting in front of my computer, waiting for people to send me e-mail.  You know how a watched pot never boils? Anyways, here is the spot they are playing.  I will be glad when I am back in the classroom teaching again.

Basketball Jones

I hope everyone had a great Christmahannukwanzika and New Year.  We started off 2011 at YouthBuild by attending an Alabama basketball game.  The students are really into basketball, so they had a great time. They got to stay afterwards to meet the coach. I left early (because I'm old) so I didn't get to meet him, so the highlight of the night was at halftime when the alabama wheelchair basketball team came out and had a 10 minute scrimmage. Alabama ended up demolishing Toledo by a score of 83-41.

The scores are in!

I got the kids' scores and they look great!  I had another student pass the test, so that is a total of 3 students that are getting a GED diploma this semester.  I have 1 student who is only 10 points away, and another that is only 20 points.  They are both about 2-3 questions away from passing.  I had another student come up on his math score almost 150 points.  YouthBuild gives bonuses to students who pass subjects for the first time, for moving up 40 points, and for passing the tests.  My students are breaking the bank! Next semester I have 5 that I fully expect to get their diploma and more that could possibly get it if they are really dedicated to studying. I still have 3 students who haven't recieved their scores because thy took it a couple days later.  I'll keep my fingers crossed for them.

We are about to head up to Huntsvegas for the holidays.  Merry Christmahannukwanzikah everybody!

Student pics

Freezing and smoking before the GED test.

I thought this scene was kind of funny.  They were acting like they were freezing to death, but they really needed that cigarette before the GED test. Also, my co-worker Ramell is a photographer in addition to working at YouthBuild.  He took pictures of most of the kids and had them write a word that describes them on their picture.  They turned out nicely.  Some of them are kind of funny because they refuse to smile, but put words like funny or charismatic while they have an expression on their face that says something more along the lines of, "I wanna kill someone." Here is a link to the pics, http://ramellross.com/index.php?/ongoing/2nd-chancers/.

Nature

So you probably already know that I am a proponent of environental education.  It is sometimes a little difficult to do much environmental ed in a GED classroom where most of the students need math more than they need science lessons.  Nevertheless, I did have the opportunity to bring a little bit of nature into the classroom for the students to experience. 



Green anole



I found a couple of green anoles which are all over the place down here.  They are sometimes called American chameleons even though they aren't related to chameleons.  They can change color to blend in with their surroundings.  I put one of them that I found in a jar to get a better look at it.  It was green when I found it, but by the time the students got into the room, it had turned brown to blend in with the color of the desk it was sitting on.  They passed it around and got a good look at it, then I put some leaves and grass in the jar.  In just a couple of minutes it had turned green like it was when I found it.  We then took it outside and released it into a tree.

Praying Mantis

We also found a wicked looking praying mantis.  I brought one in earlier in the semester that was pretty small and had bright green legs, but this one was huge.  It looked like a leaf and kind of freaked out some of the students. We talked about its camoflauge and how it would help with hunting, then let it go out on the pole in whinch we found it. Then I showed them some of the crazy stuff you can find on the internet about praying mantises such as some of the larger ones catching hummingbirds and frogs.





Eastern Box Turtle

The lizards weren't the only reptiles we had in the clasroom this semester.  We also had an eastern box turtle join us on the same day as the collard green harvesting.  Ramell was going to bring it to me earlier, but the turtle escaped in his house for almost a week.  Finally he located it and brought it in for the class to observe.  He was a little bit shy and didn't want to come out of his shell very much, but it was cool to show him to the students.  I ended up letting him go in the woods behind our new house. 

Some of the other wildlife we had were leaf-footed bugs, jumping spiders, an injured pidgeon, a hawk that landed just outside of the classroom, and a cicada nymph. My plan is to start a terrarium in the classroom like I had when I was working at Pine Hill so the students can bring in creatures and we can observe them in a way that isn't quite as harmful to the animals before letting them go.



Eric and his bird



Collard Greens



Check out our humonsterous collards.



My students hanging out with the kids in the garden.

This semester's YouthBuild students cooperated with Greensboro Elementary school on a collard green garden. I may need to get some tips from my students for next year because these were some of the biggest collards I have ever seen.  And they got that way fast, so they were still tender. My students prepared the soil and planted the collards. The elementary students were all assigned one plant to take care of after they were planted.  They were in charge of watering, measure size and growth and lots of other educational activities.  When it came time to harvest, they sold the greens as a fundraiser for the elementary school.  These pictures are of my students at harvest time, interacting with the elementary students who took care of the plants after YB students planted them. Some of the greens that were not sold were harvested, cooked, and served for the school's lunch that day. Another exciting part about the day was the appearance of Terri Sewell who was running for the House of Representative in Alabama. She answered questions for our students and encouraged them to vote.  She soon after became the first black woman to be elected to the House of Representatives in Alabama.

Raheem couldn't wait for lunch, so he got an early start.





Motorcycle Museum



students checkin out the Model-T


Early in the semester, I accompanied the student on a trip to the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum.  Although I am not the biggest motorcycle fan, it was really interesting, and the students had a good time.  There was a race that day on the track directly behind the museum.  You could see them racing out of the window from the upper stories of the museum.  There were lots of old bikes and quite a few motorized bicycles that had pedals and a motor. The best part of the trip, however, was the drive there and back.  The students crack me up.

YB students watching the race.