Asatta Mesa, 12, says teachers have taught her to read the FCAT questions before she reads the passage, so she can know where to look for the answers.
For today’s installment in our series, The Secret Lives of Students, we hear about tricks students have learned to pass the FCAT.
Editor’s note: This post was written by middle school student Asatta Mesa who is participating in the summer school program, Breakthrough Miami.Â
By Asatta Mesa, 12
As a student in Florida, I’ve been taking the FCAT since the third grade.
I am now entering the eighth grade, meaning that I have spent five years and a countless number of months preparing and taking a test that will not help me gain any knowledge or help me for the future.
FCAT takes so much time away from the education of students.
You learn tricks just to pass a test and then never apply those tricks to living in society. Continue Reading →
Dieudonne Saint-Georges, 13, does not participate in her schools magnet program. She says she feels like she's been labeled as an "average or below average learner."
For today’s installment in our series, The Secret Lives of Students, we hear how magnet schools can make some students feel left out.Â
Editor’s note: This post was written by middle school student Dieudonne Saint-Georges who is participating in the summer school program, Breakthrough Miami.Â
By Dieudonne Saint-Georges, 13
It’s natural for humans to group themselves according to interest and views. It has come to the point that humans crave companionship and acceptance. However, separation tends to cause problems.
Throughout history the fact that humans naturally group themselves have been known to cause wars.
One group tends to believe they are superior to the other, or others and that causes conflict. Sure cliques that form in schools are created unpretentiously, but sometimes that causes separation in schools.
John F. Kennedy Middle School is separated into its well-known magnet program called BEAT and its regular school. It seems as though people have become accustomed to seeing the school as two now.
For the second installment in our series, The Secret Lives of Students, we hear from Miami students about how school cliques affect their performance in class.
Editors note: this post was written by students Genice Nadal, Ana Chao and Teresa Fernandez.
Sarah Gonzalez / StateImpact Florida
Genice Nadal, 10, in class at The Carrolton School in Coconut Grove.
By Genice Nadal, 10
Cliques can affect your educational performance because when you are left out of one you feel unimportant and that’s not a feeling you’ll love.
Some cliques include the popular, nerd, and normal cliques, or if there is an empty table that is where the loners are.
I am part of a clique also but the clique I hang out with feels more sister-like. We are just one big sisterhood but it’s just more than I can describe.
The student authors who reported and wrote about conflicting home and school rules.
Editor’s note: We’re launching a new series for the next month, asking students to tell us what life is like in Florida schools.
The students are part of Breakthrough Miami, which runs programs in the summer and during the school year for students in elementary, middle and high schools.
We asked students to tell us what was on their minds. The answer? Rules, cliques, school lunches and other aspects of school life. They’ll also tell us what they think of online classes and whether teachers are teaching to the test.
This post was reported and written by elementary students Joshua Partridge (10), Saed Cameron (11), Emma Blanco (10), Joshua Johnson (11), Ashanti Kinchen (10) and Teley Laporte (11) – Students participating in the summer school program, Breakthrough Miami.Â
It’s a common problem that students everywhere face: Your parent or guardian tells you to defend yourself if confronted at school, while your principal tells you that hitting back equals suspension.
It’s that time between Halloween and Thanksgiving when first-year teachers start losing some of the initial excitement they had at the start of the school year, and when students (who haven’t had a school break in a while) start pushing new teachers to see what they can get away with.
Roxanna Elden, calls the month of November the “disillusionment phase” for rookie teachers.
Below, she tells us about her first-year teacher breakdown, and offers some tips for new teachers, friends and family members of new teachers, and people who help train new teachers.Â
“This Halloween marked the ten-year anniversary of my first-year teacher breakdown. I spent the afternoon in my car in a Burger King parking lot, crying too hard to drive. According to many of the teachers I interviewed for my book, I was right on schedule.
Shamir Ali, 25, with his mother Shamim Sultana of Bangladesh. She was deported in Feb. 2009 for driving without a license.
Days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told StateImpact Florida that DREAM Act student Shamir Ali was a “fugitive alien,” Ali was released from detention.
We got in touch with Ali, who is now making new college plans. Ali says he shouldn’t have been facing deportation and is thankful to be out. Here’s Ali, in his own words:
“I am still in disbelief! The back and forth was such a psychological roller coaster. They first denied me prosecutorial discretion but then approved it after all the media attention. Pretty much, it was all the support I received from people… Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart!
I was given an order of supervision for one year which lets me work, drive, and etc. I have to visit with an ICE officer every month and if I’m doing well, they will renew it after that year expires. I am VERY grateful for that … [and] I do appreciate ICE granting me that. I just wish they accepted it automatically since I qualify for everything under the Morton Memo released by ICE. All the media attention, petitions, and protests is what really pushed ICE to release me. Continue Reading →
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