Another tiring day!

It seems that my students lack common sense and logical thinking skills. They also tend to forget things. Most of this, while frustrating, I can understand and "explain away" as cultural or educational. Some of it is just not understandable to me. For example, the best student in my class taught me this morning that "watermelon" in Kurdish is "shifty". I found this to be very good information as I am quite fond of watermelon. However, this afternoon, this same student found it necessary to ask me what "watermelon" was in order to put it in the correct column. It would have been alright if this was a sort of test, but she honestly didn't have any idea what it was. I know that I have lapses in memory sometimes, but this was a bit odd.

I also had to deal with upset students this afternoon. It seems that some of the students (those getting below 50%) received a letter stating that they needed to improve their grades. They also had to speak with the dean about this. The dean said something along the lines of "I know some of you have been studying hard, but you have to work harder." Two of the students in my class were so upset by this that they refused to do their work. With tears in their eyes, they said that they were going to go to the Administrative Assistant and give back the books and stay at home; they weren't going to come to college anymore.

I managed to get them to do their work. I talked with three of the students after class. It was one of the previous two, and two others. They all travel together, so it was easy to do. They couldn't understand why they were being told they were lazy. It seems that they had the wrong impression of what the letter was and what the dean had meant. They thought he was saying they were just lazy and weren't trying and weren't learning. I had to reassure them that it wasn't true. I had to explain that all was important was that they were not scoring as well as they needed to and that they would have until the next periodic to bring up these test scores. I also reminded them that they could come see me after class for any help that they need. They thanked me and left... I just hope they do come to see me for help. They work so hard; it would be a shame for them to not go on because of not asking for help. When they started, they knew no English at all, and now they can communicate (though with difficulty). They are using complete sentences, even!! It is so exciting to see....I don't want to be part of the reason this is snuffed out.

I am having questions about how my classes, tests, and and such is effecting their future in the school. Am I doing the right things? Will they be able to go on? Will it be my fault if they can't? I know that some of them will not go on because they are not really there to learn. But some, like these three, really want to be there, and I think can do it. I hope I am able to help them through.