This morning I worked one-on-one with a very bright 7th grader. Apparently he was in special ed for behavior problems. I was warned several times that phone numbers I should call if he gave me problems. While I was waiting for him to show up, I heard him in the hallway, "A sub? I hate subs!" It did not seem like a promising start. However, we got along swimmingly.
He was working on 8th grade level math. I found myself a little rusty on some of it, but quickly remembered. We worked together through the whole lesson, and got a lot of work done during the hour. The next class period, I was told to let him play on the computer if he had done his work first hour. He immediately began surfing rap sites, like Eminem.com, which led to a discussion of why I thought Ja Rule was far better than Eminem, and how Mary J. Blige was better than either of them.
After a bit, I decided to try and steer this web surfing time towards something a little more constructive and, um, school-related. I asked him if he wanted his own website. He said yes, and I walked him through the sign-up process at Blogger. By the end of the period, he had his first blog entry, and an awesome template. It has its share of spelling and grammer errors, but if he sticks with it, it will give him some good writing excercise, plus he might pick up some html skills. (I am not going to link to it at the moment. Not to comfortable about putting a students name out there. Also, it is still in its infancy.)
After that, he shot hoops in the gym for the last hour before lunch. (He's a good BB player, and he says he is on a city team that is going to Chicago for a tournament this weekend.) Apparently, he goes home after lunch. That's all well and good. I am just a little mystified at his schedule. I never got a chance to ask any of the other teachers about it. It just seemed so non-academic, even for special ed. Such a bright kid, too. One thing I did get from the teachers was that this was apparently an amazingly good day, and that most of them are sick of him by now. *sigh*
Two days left....
