Asheville+High+School+(site+D)

Well, what happened this first time? Or for you, Eriel? You were determined to go back to AHS. What's new that you saw?

Emmalee West- I was shocked at the size of AHS. During my first visit I observed a class of participants in the AVID program which, I found out, was a first generation college bound prepatory class. Students from UNC-A came to tutor these college bound freshmen in small groups. In the group that I was in the tutor tried very hard to coax the information that the students were asking for out of them by taking small steps from their questions and repharasing untill the students themselvs found the answer. The program appears very organized with special tecniques for note taking. At the second visit I observed a bored meeting for this AVID program. During the meeting the students described some of the organization skills that they have learned through the program. It was through the class, most of them would say, that they obtained the skills to better recall information. The third, and final visit, was in an english classroom. In class they were taking notes and doing vocabulary. I noticed that a good majority of the students had their ipods (and various other musical devices) playing during this process, they all seemed very focused. The instructor talked to us for a while about what it was like teaching and some of the difficulties that she has run into. She also spoke about the differences in her classes. She was telling us that the next class that was coming in was the more rowdey class, verry loud and talkative, compaired to the quiet of the current class. I took notice that the, honers english class that we were in was mostly white. When the second class came in right before we left I noticed a drastic difference in the attitudes and beings of the students. All of the class was of color and came in with great spirit. We didn't really get to see learning taking place because of the changes of classes, however, it was interesting to see the differences in the students.