JS

Week of March 9-13

JS returned to Latin on Friday and seemed to be trying. We were reviewing for the exam. However, he is also at my lunch table and I see a "mechant" boy. He is conniving, sarcastic, mean-spirited and the only restraint on his words and actions is the moral strength of the seventh and eighth grade students (personal opinion). He uses his considerable intellect to make fun of others--not in a nice way. FS is also at my table and is often unawares of how he is being set up. The others have enough strength of character not to be enticed to play his game. (Julie)

JS was sick Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Upon his return on Thursday, the dynamics of the classroom seemed to change. --Betsy

Ides of March: JS: The reports I have received from Betsy and Isabel and others since Jackson has returned to the classroom unconditionally have not been encouraging. The first week of March seemed poor and this week (Thursday and Friday) was beset by poor behavior as well. Am I getting the full picture? I will be meeting with his parents tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. so this information will be very helpful. If I understand it correctly, he is not turning in his rubric. SJH

JS seems very disconnected and consistently leaves his book at home. This is not helping with staying focused in class or helping him to be engaged. I am concerned for his success on his exam on Monday. He was to come to class on Friday and take a make up quiz to prepare for this exam. He did not; though, in his defense, I beleive he was working on catching up on other subjects wtih Besty. I brought the quiz to him to take and asked him to bring it up to me when he was done so that I could correct is and return it to me as a study guide for Monday's exam. I never saw him again. Betsy said he disappeared for a short while and she thought he was on his way to see me. I never saw him....I will approach him about this before Assembly tomorrow. Isabel

16 March 09 - JS was defiant as he entered the classroom today, reluctanty taking off his sweatshirt and going on incessantly about it. He blurted out something ugly (more under his breath but loud enough for everyone to hear) about Audrey D. I sent him down to see Steve. --Isabel

19 March 09: I sent JS out of class after several disruptions. He came unprepared for science. I gave him and a few others time to fill in their study guides so we could review for the exam tomorrow. He relunctantly joined a group. He finally got a pencil out and opened his book after several prompts from me. I walked across the hallway and heard him yellin/singing some song about a girl from across the hallway. I went back and stood in the doorway. I observed several kids asking him to be quiet to which he just turned up the volume. Everyone else was on task. Few saw me standing there. JS did not. I watched for about two minutes as he got louder and louder, not doing any work, purposefully distracting others. I came in and ask him to leave b/c he was not helping theclass or himself get ready for the exam. He returned later in the day excited about the lunch Steve talks about below. He did do fine tha afternoon, but we were engaged in a Language Arts Exam most of the time. --- Betsy

After JS was sent out of class, Shana brought him to me and I had a long talk with him. After a while he finally started talking and mentioned an 8th grade friend of his noted for her candid observations. I indicated to JS that on occasion this student and I had lunch in the workroom and asked JS if he would like all of us to have lunch sometime. To which he asked if that would work out... today.

Well, it happened and I asked his friend to consider helping JS with his behavior. What traspired was fascinating. The 8th graders observations were on target, direct and used with a metaphor invovling Transformers and their modalities! This might give us a toe hold.

I can fill in the gaps later, but I would be interested in hearing how JS did in the afternoon. SJH Please see what I wrote above. -Betsy

20 March--JS was taking his science exam for me today. He did not do as well as he could have, academically. I feel like he just gave up. We did a rocket launch this afternoon and I had to separate him from the group (outside) b/c he was having a hard time controlling himself. Screaming, running around, putting on a show basically. The kindergarteners were watching. --Betsy

Mrs. Musgrove came to me at the penny drop and was furious that JS was being rude to her. She said she was saying to her class "First grade friends come over here" and JS was saying "Fifth grade friends come over here." She gave him "a look" and he did it again, mocking her. She asked who his teacher was and he said he didn't know. Then she got angry and asked him again and he said Mrs. McLinda. She said last week he told her that he didn't have to listen to her b/c it wasn't school time. I think she was still thinking about his during this interaction. I asked JS and he said he didn't hear her correctly and thought she said, where is your teacher?, to which he replied I don't know. I asked him today (the 23rd) what he was going to do to make that right with her and he just shrugged his shoulders. --Betsy

23 March--JS was only with me part of the afternoon (30 minutes) for math. We went over his math exam and he did very well. He was pleased and I praised him. He worked quietly at his desk while I worked with other students who did not do as well and stayed on task. Then we went to music class the last 40 minutes of the day. I observed this all boy class. He was borderline rude. Singing loudly and off key on purpose. Rocking in his chair off the hook. I kept catching his eye and he would straighten himself out for a second and then be right back off task. Other times he looked down and didn't sing at all with an angry expression on his face. Chris K just ignored him. It was very difficult for him to focus. --Betsy

24 March (from Angie) In Social Studies, JS sits with me at the front table at all times, as he is just too off-task to sit anywhere else. Today during direct instruction, JS was writing messages in a "code" to pass to a friend instead of attending to the lesson. Consequently, he did not meet the objective in class for the day (The class was picking out the 10 most important words from a non-ficiton selection about the natural barriers of China - both a reading strategy and a Social Studies objective) JS might as well have been sitting in the hall the entire time - he just couldn't focus.

Additionally, he came to class without last night's homework, and is staying after school with me today (for the second day in a row) to re-do his Social Studies exam in which he did not demonstrate competency. It appears to me that he is not motivated whatsoever to even attempt appropriate classroom behaviors that 1) allow him to progress academically and 2) allow the others a productive environment to progress academically. I spoke to him after class about what it is he wants out of class. Still getting the "I want to have fun" answer...I asked him if he wants to be here (meaning "in class") He had to think about that one and reluctantly said "I guess so." I asked him what that looked like and he couldn't verbalize it, as if he just wasn't interested in telling me. I prompted him by asking if not having his homework and not being engaged in the lesson day is "what it looks like." He said no, but did not offer any other thoughts, comments. etc. I asked him to reflect and tell me at the end of the day today //something.// Dealing with these behaviors frequenly with seemingly little response from JS is draining! --Angie

Thanks Betsy. Let's launch the peer approach for JS in 5th with Shana and Kathleen.

I'm not sure this will work. Jackson remains unfocused and uninterested in what we are doing in class. Peers monitor and "correct" him, even when in an encouraging way, it doesn't seem to work. What will be different with this approach?--Betsy

I'm not sure it will, but could be different on the largerlevel/scale. You will have to advise me on this, Betsy and Angie. How did he do this at the end of the week? SJH

His counselor has not be very responsive. SJH

Have you had any contact with JS parents? May I cut and paste some of these answers to his parents? SJH