"Hey bro, that's not being promotive"

~freshman male student to fellow freshman male in hallway

Even if said in jest, it's still noteworthy to hear freshmen boys talking about being promotive. Perhaps our message really is sinking in.

Many of our students truly are promotive. I have two Dominican girls in class 10A who are so enthusiastic about learning it's contagious. This has to be filmed. One girl speaks little English while the other, written about in another posting, works extra super hard at everything--even while understanding extremely little English. In Unison Reading, both girls always have vocabulary sheets at the ready and are never off task. During the mini lesson both girls have taken to sitting up front, always alert.

Two other boys in the same class are not so promotive. Though they've been in our school and New York City the same length of time as so many of  our students--approximately 1-1.5 years, it seems to be--they remain largely disengaged and off task. Principal N. acted as supreme interlocutor yesterday as we sat in on their Unison Reading group. Student An. was the largely disengaged Group Leader (GL) who counted for the group to begin ("Okay, 1-2-3..."), but whose heart was otherwise not really in the work. Principal N. did not hesitate to stop the three boys in mid-sentence numerous times and interrogate them about how to help each other.

Student Ad. sat smiling, as usual, but otherwise remained silent. The principal really pushed back at him, wondering why he was not communicating with the other two. One lesson I learned is needing to really jump into the reading group more to help facilitate when students are not communicating well or helping each other effectively.

The bottom line here is to help make students into leaders. To help them learn responsibility. It's baptism by fire for many, as they learn a new language concurrent with leadership skills that so many adults do not have [just ask my father who is a management consultant & coach for corporate leaders].

Alas, our school's recurring statement about "being promotive" is not empty.
And many students are getting the message.
Although I've only been her for a month so far, the proof is in the vegan pudding, so to speak.
Today's attendance is 94.5%.
Overally average for school year so far is approximately 94-95%. That's about five kids absent per day out of about 170 students in our school (which is only freshmen and sophomores as of now).