Monday, April 16, 2007

Back in a Classroom

So as part of my convoluted path to being an educator I am required to do a number of field experiences. A 20 hour, a 120 hour, and finally a full semester full time. I am in the midst of the 20 hour experience today at an ALC here in Saint Closet. An ALC for those of you not familiar with educationese is an Alternative Learning Center. It is where they send discipline cases without learning disabilities , though generally there are learning disabilities involved they just haven't been diagnosed.

I am in the ALC of the ALC. The program is called PLATO (I have no idea what the acronym stands for) and consists of coming into class for two hours a dasy and very slowly finishing yiur requirements for a GED. To get here you have to be kicked out of the regular school and then kicked out of the ALC.

This is the most unstructured education imaginable outside of existentialist self guided camps of thought that scare my little teaching soul. The students come in for two hous. During those two hours they do as much work as they want; genrally they work for an hour and then go play basketball. the work is given a credit equivalency and peple graduate when they accumulate a certain number of credits.

I wander about attempting to not step on my students pride and have them do their work.

Interesting times; it is good to be back in a class room.

~Eikon