Day 6

I am beginning to see a routine with Mr. Maudsley's class and to be honest, I really don't see how it is effective for the students who don't seem motivated which is most of the African American students (not to sound racist, that's just how it seems). The class begins with Mr. Maudsley putting the warm up activity on the overhead projector which literally comes straight from their notes from the previous day. All they have to do is flip their notebooks a page or two back and they have the answer, which is what I've seen Emma and Taylor doing the past few weeks. Almost the entire rest of the class, with the exception of two other students, is either chatting, up walking around the classroom, or on the computer listening to music videos. This frustrates me so much because Classic City High School has a waiting list for students who actually want to attend the school and students are getting turned away left and right because there is simply no room for them in the classes. Then, I come as a tutor and see the majority of the class either not even present, or sitting down completely disengaged. I don't know why this works me up so much but in my opinion, these students just need to leave if they are not going to put in the effort. I can see Mr. Maudsley wants to help and is willing to put in the effort but he can only do so much.
Today, I noticed at least four students were absent compared to last week, which is fairly simple to notice considering the class size. I asked Emma where everyone was and she explained that "a lot of students got kicked out last week." This surprised me at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I kind of saw it coming for them. It was weird because I was almost relieved that they were gone. I know this may sound horrible because I am a future teacher and should want to help these unmotivated students but after a while, it's just draining. Mr. Maudsley told me at the end of the class, "To be honest, it's for the best. They were distracting and it was making my job difficult." This is exactly how I reacted to the situation but it felt comforting to know that he felt the same way as I did.
Overall, I didn't do much today but observe during his lecture. I talked a little with Emma and Taylor towards the end of the class but for some reason was very frustrated today. Hopefully next week will be better and I'll begin to see more progress with some other students.