The Ying and Yang of Friday

Today was awesome and awful all at the same time.  Of course, the emotional roller-coaster is very student-centric.

I'll start with the bad; let's call him Will.  I've been trying my darndest to connect with this kid and understand his creative process.  He worked really well yesterday by first writing out all of his ideas on the whiteboard, and then transferring them to a piece of paper.  It seemed to work for him.  I thought it was fantastic; I was flexible to meet his needs, and he was productive to meet my expectations.  Today, he was not meeting me halfway.  He was being obnoxious while everyone else was diligently, and silently, toiling away.  It killed me that his constant interruptions were unending, and on top of that, he jokingly would make disrespectful comments towards my class (long story).  I finally gave him the final warning, "Will, my next step is issuing you an ELO."  (ELO in this district means Extended Learning Opportunity after school, which is the nicest way of saying detention.  Students have an individualized character-building lesson to target their offensive behavior, and come out of it with a goal to change things in the future.) Either he didn't believe me or he thought, in the moment, that he didn't care.  He took that last risk, and I issued the due diligence.  Our interaction ended with him in tears, and me calling administration.

HOWEVER!  Here's the highlight of my day:


In my first hour is a student, let's call her Amelie, who has an emotional/behavioral situation which disrupts her life.  In the mornings, for some reason, she's super chill and with it.  She does pretty OK in my class, which is her first block.  After lunch, however--good luck.   She's been seen up and down the hallways, sitting on the counters in the main office, using disrespectful language towards staff, whathaveyou.  She has a paraprofessional with her at all times to track her behavior and re-direct, and ultimately remove if necessary.  This morning in Language Arts, I was having the students focus on finishing their writing assessment piece.  She had only gotten about a half a paragraph down, due to absences and off-task behavior (but more so the absences).  Today, she completed three handwritten pages, and typed the finished product, topping it off with an illustration as well!  I was blown away and gave her the biggest high five to celebrate.