Are you refusing to work?

I have a very difficult students who I'm sure I've talked about before, but can't remember his alias. I guess I'll rename him with...Elliot. Elliot is severely unmotivated in most content areas, but especially in reading and writing. He often does not participate during reading mini lessons or write during Writers' Workshop. I've tried many things to get him going, but he just doesn't seem to care. I would like to rephrase that. He does seem to care, because when I talk about his behavior or refusal to work, he often gets a very angry look like he is upset with himself. In most cases, I understand where a child's anger or dislike for a certain type of work come to play, but with Elliot, it happens so often that I'm confused by it.

Today during math, we were noticing patterns when multiplying by 10s, 100s, 1000s. The class had a sheet to follow along with. We talked about the pattern, the answer for each one, and how we would figure out the next. Well, we excluded Elliot. I sauntered (we're learning about verbs of steel as well) to his desk only to notice all the blanks were filled with question marks. The first words out of my mouth were, "This is unacceptable!" I said this first because this was a discussion I was about to have for about the 10th time with Elliot. We've talked about it being unacceptable to write a question mark in the blank when we are working as a group and when there are 2 teachers to help (myself and my aide). I erased all of the question marks for him, tried to get him going again and he just put his head down. I asked, "Are you refusing to do your work?" He nodded his head.

-- I am documenting exactly how I handled the situation. I would not handle this type of situation like this every time, but I have given this child about 300 chances in many different settings within our classroom. You may not agree with this, but at the moment, and still during reflections, I agree with what I did. Also keep in mind that I already have a conference scheduled for tomorrow with this child's parents.--

I asked Elliot to leave my classroom. My door was already propped open, so I asked him to sit right in the doorway. When I got the rest of the class back on track, I asked Elliot if he was ready to re-enter our classroom and return to work. If he was not, I told him that he could go sit in Ms. H's room next door. (She is aware of this student's behavior and is very helpful in stressful times.) He followed me back to his desk and immediately put his head down. I said, "Grab your paper. You are going to Ms. H's room." "I don't want to go in there." "I'm sorry. It is not a choice. I gave you a choice to work and you chose not to. You have no more choices." He went to Ms. H's room and sat for the remainder of math.

I obviously have to figure out some way to motivate this student to work, but I'm stumped. He HATES cooperative work (and we do a lot of that), he hates anything that takes too much energy, he hates talking in front of the class (which I don't force on any child), and he hates when I ask him to do something. This child is very bright in math (commended on our state test last year) and fairly competent in reading. Unfortunately, he has only shown me that he is incapable of doing work without my step-by-step-by-step guidance....uuuugggghhhh!

Can I wear your glasses?

I have a student who has an obsession with glasses. He wants to know why people wear them (each one specifically), when are they going to get Lasik, and if he can wear their glasses. At times, this can be quite funny and at other times, it's quite annoying. Some things that are a part of his obsession are as follows:

- Continually asks me why I don't want Lasik. "It's not a big deal. A surgeon does it quick and easy. He just opens your eye and fixes it."

- Wants to wear my glasses, or my mom's when she visited, or anybody else's that are within his reach. He will almost steal them in order to try them on if I leave mine laying around.

- Once wore a pair of glasses to school that were not his. He told everyone they were his, but mom said they were not and she had no idea where he got them from.

- Wants to know the day people got Lasik if they did (or if they aren't wearing their glasses for some reason that day).

- Wants to know if every first grader is the little brother of a kid in our class who wears glasses.

Today he was trying to wear my glasses because they were temporarily left unattended on my desk. When I told him he should ask before picking things up, he asked, asked again, asked again and again until I couldn't stop laughing. When I said no he could not wear my glasses, he was trying to see through them without putting them on. He looked through the front and then through the correct side. He was so interested in what it feels like to wear my glasses. I have to keep an eye on where they are so they don't disappear at a random moment.

Hurricane of a day!

We found out late yesterday afternoon that today was going to be an early release because of the hurricane that is headed towards Galveston/Houston. Austin was trying to prepare for the evacuees from the coast. Some of the kids knew when they arrived at school and I informed others that school would be releasing at 12:45. This was a bit difficult for Richard to understand...
R: "My mom doesn't know today is an early release."
Me: "How are you supposed to get home?"
R: "My mom was supposed to tell me. She doesn't know that today is an early release."
Me: "I understand that you don't think she knows about today, but how were you planning on getting home today?"
R: "The bus."
Me: "Then you are still going to ride the bus. It's just going to leave school a couple hours earlier than usual."
R: "But my mom doesn't know it's an early release."
Me: "It's okay. You are going to ride the bus and get off at your house."
R: "But she won't know and won't be waiting on me."
Me: "But you know where your stop is?"
R: "Yes, but my mom won't know that I will be coming."
Me: "Is she home today?"
R: "Yes, but she won't know that I'm coming."
Me: "It's okay. If she is going to be home, you can just get off at your stop and walk to your house."
R: "But my mom won't know that I'm coming."
Me: "It will be okay. Just get on the bus today, get off at your stop, and then walk to your house."
(I would like to say this is an exaggerated conversation, but that would make my life easier.)
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Some things are funny...it's natural. I try to make the day fun for everyone, but some kids find humor in things that aren't really funny. Because of the hurricane and their never-ending questions, we watched the United Streaming video on Hurricanes. The kids loved this. I explained that I was not a hurricane expert and this video could explain things a bit better. We also looked at Ike's track on www.stormpulse.com. We talked about where they weathermen predicted it would go and also about future hurricanes. I read the list of names for the rest of this year's hurricanes and one of them was also the name of a child in our class. Well, this is what Victor found more hilarious than necessary. He began rolling on the floor laughing hysterically about the hurricane having the same name as the kid in our class. According to Victor's response, there hasn't been anything more funny that's happened in his life. Imagine a child rolling on the floor and laughing hysterically...he was unstoppable!

Boys, Boys, Boys!

Today started off on a good note...everything was going smoothly for most of the morning. We were adding words, pictures, and definitions to our homemade math dictionaries and talking about problems that were commonly missed on a recent worksheet. Throughout this, I'm asking "the boys" to please raise their hand if they would like to make a comment or share their thinking. The disruptions continue...

I warn them that if they don't raise their hand and make only appropriate comments, they will "move their clip" (which means 5 minutes of recess). The disruptions continue...

They're off to specials and I'm off to the the principal's office to see if she can talk with them and scare them into behaving. She tells me that she can meet with them at lunch and I should bring them in. I later find out that they all started crying like babies and admitting everything they've done wrong in class. (These kids think they are so tough in the classroom, yet they are babies at heart!) She talks about what will happen next (referral -> ISS) if they don't get their act together and sends them back to class. The disruptions return...

I didn't get much teaching done this afternoon because of all their talking and infectious laughing (it never infected me, but it did get to the other kids). As the boys walked out the door I asked each of them who I should call home to speak to (knowing full well, that I would just talk to whoever I could get a hold of). It just sparked a little more fear in their eyes and they all claimed that they would "be better tomorrow". I've already given them more chances than any of them deserve. I was trying to handle my classroom management on my own and these boys are beyond my control. Tomorrow they will be written up if they don't choose to make good choices (being on task and raising their hand to speak--or just not yelling out will work too). Their parents are also going to remind them of their future if they don't make good choices tonight!

Some of you may have noticed that I only mention this talkative bunch to be boys...well...it is ONLY boys! I am not being sexist in any way...it's just the way they are!