Recommendation Process

I definitely have had my good and bad experiences with this recently. It is really a hassle when you have students in your class who automatically turn themselves off after finding out they don't want to be in my class after they were placed there. What I try to do is to relate as much of my material to the real world as I possibly can. I had a student who wanted to be a rapper and said that my class didn't have anything to do with what he wanted to do in life. What I did was break down everything from my broadcasting class that he should know about rapping. For instance, I told him that if you want to be a rapper, you have to be able to tell a story, then you have to know how to organize your thoughts, which is the same thing that my class does when they do a project. Then I explained to them that you have to know how to edit your video because it's your vision and you have to know how to put it together. After he heard my explanation, the light came on and he didn't realize that so much went into rapping. From that point on he really understood that CTAE classes play a major role with him being successful. For me it's all about knowing your kids personalities and really trying to figure out what makes them happy. Something that I thought about that might help us is to have an application only class for your level two and level three kids. Honestly, not all of the kids in the level two classes have no business in being in some of our classes. Some are in our classes because our administration put them there. I understand that you have to put the kids somewhere but why is it always in our classes? It's unfair because some of the worst kids in terms of discipline are placed in our classes. I believe if there was an application process, I believe the students who really want to be in our classes will have a chance to be in there. This is better than a student to receive the news that the classes are full, especially with students who have no desire to be there in the first place. If it comes to that, I believe that the kids who apply for the classes should be the first ones enrolled in the class and not the kids who just need their schedules filled.