Faced with a problem........

Well, more like several problems. The first, and simple one, is that I am exhausted and need to get some sleep soon. That is the easy problem. I'll deal with that one quite soon by simply falling into my freshly made bed.

Another problem, less easy to solve, is that I'm more than a little lonely tonight. No immediate cure for that. Just have to live with it. The house is quiet and so am I. The kind of quiet not always welcome.

A less direct problem, and one that's preying on my mind, is how to deal with the upcoming school year.

I'll explain....

My partner and I have an interesting crop of students coming to us this next school year. A very..... special..... group. We've been aware there are some problems headed our way, but they seem to be piling up.

A few examples... at yesterdays open house, meant to be a meet/greet for incoming students, several students did not show. (In fact, about half the upcoming class failed to show up). Of special note.... while two of the special students did not make it, their interpreters did. You see, they don't speak English, nor do their parents. Their school-assigned interpretors wanted to see what they had gotten themselves into, but the students apparently did not care enough to.

Also at the meet/greet, the sign language interpretors for another pair of students who cannot speak or hear. They expect to need two interpretors to keep up during theory lessons, trading off every ten minutes or so. I think I will have to learn sign language. I think I will have no choice in this.

Today, the text books I loaned to our IU person were returned. The ones I loaned her so audio versions of our text could be made, since we have a fair number of incoming students who cannot read. The audio texts did not come with them, as they are specially coded to only work on expensive equipment we'll not be trusted with. Oh. Goody.

I just learned an incoming student has 'anger management' issues and will have a special pass allowing him to leave the class whenever he pleases. We were told this is for our other students safety.

Another incoming student spent the day with us today, so he can see what is coming up. It seems he does not do well with 'emotional shocks' like starting a new school year. We have learned he also doesn't do well with things like taking notes, paying attention, and doing much more than staring at a wall.

I like to think there is no challenge I won't take on with my job, but I'm not so confident right now.

One of our biggest challenges is the spread of student abilities. We normally have a class of fifty, ranging from barely able to read up to 4.0 grade average college bound. Skill levels swing wildly, but we have always been flexible enough to make it work for all of them every year. This next year..... presents a challenge like never before. How to teach a college level technical program to multiple illiterate students and high achievers, all at the same time, while being sorta fair and giving our best to all of them?

We have to make changes, and drastic ones, and have them planned and in place before mid August. We designed our curriculum at 13th year level for students who can read, understand, and work self directed. It's looking like more than half our incoming class will fail the day they walk in our door, if we keep at that level.

There is another option.... as my partner pointed out today. We signed on to teach young adults a technical education and prepare them for careers in our industry. Whats coming.... is not that. Perhaps it's time.

For tonight.... I'm going to meditate a while, as I smell the beans baking slowly in the oven. With sweet Italian sausage, molasses, green chillies, fried onions, and tomatoes, the dutch oven will be in the heat all night long. By morning the dog will have drowned in saliva in his sleep and I'll have a decent lunch waiting after I get back from the range. But tonight, I'll listen to the music while I close my eyes, and seek a quiet center within where peace lays waiting.