<p><strong>Your Name: </strong>Jackson Wright

<strong>Today’s Date:</strong> 2007/11/16

[Week or date reporting about: 11/12/2007]

<strong>Day(s) worked or described:</strong> M T<strong> W</strong> Θ <strong>F</strong>

<strong>Total hours for week: </strong>around six

<strong>The School: </strong>Mollison School

<strong>Kind of Work:</strong> (Tech general, Helping Teacher, Lab maintenance)

<strong>Main Report or Narrative: </strong>

This week has had much more of a different feel than weeks prior.  Wednesday was very relaxed, and I had so little to do, I made rounds and checked on every teacher's computer, and eventually found plenty of work fixing random things here and there.

Friday, however, began with an exciting experience of a computer lab full of students.  They were all preparing, or supposed to be preparing, for their high school applications.  The teacher in the computer lab was frantically trying to convey the importance of these applications, but many of the students were more content listening to Lil Wayne.

From what I gathered, the high school that Mollison students are fed into (Phillips) is of very low quality in comparison to the other high schools to which they can apply.

Well, I had to go to Mrs. Sigler's room and fix her computer, which took a while and I was able to hear her entire conversation with her students (7th graders) about the importance of going to a good high school and going to college.  She made an emphasis on the fact that they need to be passionate and care about school to get anywhere in life, and cited various statistics to instill the fact that the odds were against them. 

Indeed, this was the crux of her point.  Because of their race/income status, they are less inclined and less likely to make it to college.  So, her main concern was, get good grades, learn, so you can be successful and prove these statistics wrong.  This kind of advice sounded harsh at first, however I recall that statistically, this is the kind of advice that works.  Telling kids that they are great and have the capacity for anything based on doing nothing (as has been policy recently) does not have the same effect as letting them know the reality of the situation and the odds that are at stake. 

The fruits of this job are beginning to appear on a daily basis.

 I realize this was a tangent, but I did fix some computers while I was at it.

I'm also going to bring in an external sound card for the special-ed teacher on Monday.

 <strong>Something to read:</strong> the news...wuz goin' on?