Unit test III results

Lot of surprises this time. There were a lot of things which I have done differently from the semester exam, whose results were pathetic. Now I do not know which one of them I need to attribute to the changed results I am seeing. For one, I read the questions out to the students this time, which I didn't do last time. But one thing I noticed was that the students were actually able to read the questions on their own much better this time. But I indeed didn't want to take a chance. The questions were mostly multiple choice questions, since their big goal of scholarship exam is going to be that way. But this has not tremendously improved the outcome either. Those who have tried a complete guessing game have lost it. Look at the marks on SST (wow!) a consistent tenner. That indeed is attributed to the changed ways in which the subject was taught in class. My kids just do not study for the exam, if they have learnt something in class and can remember that, that's all they will write.

My dyslexic (no:1) has passed only in Hindi and Marathi last time. But this time he has failed those.

My special kid (no:3) gave me the most pleasant one, she failed only in Science this time. Last time she has failed in all subjects.

Rahul, the drummer (no:10) failed in non-languages, which is similar to last time.

John (no:12) broke my heart when I saw the results from the Hindi teacher. He passed in all subjects except Hindi and as usual scored the highest in Maths.

My Nanda (no: 8), who had first rank last time stayed at the same percentage, while all other zoomed past her, leaving her with the 5th rank this time.

Kiran, my ADHD kid (no: 6), got 2nd rank. In his report card he will get 1st rank after adding marks of subjects like PT, Work Experience etc. If he was not having ADHD he wouldn't have been sitting in my class for sure.

A simple comparison on the % from each test shows that every single one of them except Nanda improved their results over their disastrous semester results. 6 of them even managed to improve the results over their Unit 1 results.

Overall the stars are my special kid (let me call her Anita, as she has started becoming not so special in the way in which I started calling her that), my small little mouse, Anuj (no:2), who improved his percentage by 16 points even though he failed in Maths, and Lekha (no:7), with 13 points raise, who is showing great investment now that she has started becoming more regular in class.

Overall the results are much more satisfying than both the previous tests. But on absolute terms the result still looks so horrible. 74% as the top, just 2 above 70%, just 4 above 60%. The results are not yet published to the students and their parents. It will happen soon and I am just not able to guess the parents' reactions this time. Let me wait and see.

Rahul, the drummer

Rahul is one of the smallest in my class. He is also one of the 4 who has not failed in any class till now. But the way in which he is progressing currently, I am doubtful whether he will be in the same league next year. He has lost so many days this year in school for wedding in family and other silly reasons. By the time I got him back in class, it was time for him to be sent back home due to non-payment of fees. While I managed to get extension for another kid, Rohini ma'am just wouldn't hear Rahul's case as according to her, his father will not bother if he is in class.

Rahul is a classic case of ASS (attention seeking syndrome). His drumming must be a part of that. He is not hyperactive and he is not dumb. His falling back is mostly due to the missed classes. When he comes into the class in the morning, if I offer to hug him, he comes to me with a grin measuring from one ear to the other. He will give me a hug and then run out of the class immediately lest I ask him to start reading the sight words in his folder.

Every day when I give instructions to students to start writing their passage on the subject I have given, Rahul will start with a "No". "Please write", "No". This repeats in almost all the classes in which I ask them to do anything. When I discussed this defiance with my mentor in teaching, she has told me that students usually know where they stand in class. This is a response to knowing that he comes at the very bottom in class and it is not very unusual for kids who are not doing well in their studies to do this.

For the drumming issue, I have brought a small double drum. Once the unit test is over, I am going to introduce that as a reward for Rahul to stay away from drumming during class. After class and during recess he can drum on that if he can do that. Hopefully that also makes him to start listening in class. If his ASS still plays up, I will have to find a way to get that from distracting the class. May be, going up to him every 4-5 mins and touching him will help him know that my attention is on him and he need not do anything special to get it.

I am proposing to his parents that I take 2 hours of tuition for him during the weekend for him to catch up. They usually come up with lack of mobility as a reason for him not to attend the extra class or the scholarship class I take. Since my house is closer to his house, I hope it will not be a reason any more.

Even if his future is that of a great drummer, a little bit of English and Maths will not do any harm to him in the long run.