Skip to main content

Ramblings...

I have a seven year old, a first grader. Recently he read and passed comprehension questions on a third grade-level reading passage. Third grade. He solves algebraic problems with me while we wait for our meals when out at restaurants. He questions everything, makes connections to the world around him, and speaks and reads in Spanish. He is a wonder. And yet... he is one of the most frustrating and challenging beings I have ever met.  

He argues, because he thinks he knows better. He cries, because we ask him to complete a task he doesn't want to do. He sulks, because his homework will take too long. He focuses, because the task at hand is challenging and rewarding. He persists, because he can see the end in sight. He works, because he loves to help. He investigates, because he thrives on knowing more.

That curious, smart, and people-pleasing boy has been shying away more and more from compliance in recent days. Non-compliance - a character trait that could serve him well as an adult, to push the boundaries, to pursue and intently engage with challenging topics, to learn as he sees fit. But right now, as a first grader, it looks like defiance, it looks like the inability to complete tasks, it looks like the inability to maintain focus. My husband and I talk to him daily about behavior and what he's learning. We're present, and involved. He tries to be as well, but right now he's struggling a bit to see the point.

How many students does this describe? How many teachers are frustrated with students and the lack of compliance, the lack of completed work, the inability to maintain focus? Does an incomplete assignment mean a lack of mastery? Does a complete assignment ensure mastery? Is compliance the goal of the task?



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BreakoutEDU, YES!

Plan. Schedule. Print. Prep. Hide clues. Set locks. Test locks. Double-check clues.  Breathe. Engage. Breakout! I won't sugarcoat this, the process of preparing for my first BreakoutEDU session took me a long time!  (I used a pre-made game, Grammar Guru, it was great by-the-way!) However, every bit of time I spent printing, cutting, re-printing, scanning, and building was WORTH IT! Cyndi Childers, a 6th grade teacher at East Burke Middle School, was looking for something to get her students engaged, and I knew Breakout was just the trick. We ran two simultaneous games in two rooms, with Cyndi facilitating one room and myself in the other.  We had groups about about 12-15 students in each room.  The group size worked, it could have been smaller, but it really wasn't bad at all.   This game has a progression of clue finding, one leading to another, so they were all somewhat forced to be working together on 1-2 clues at once, which I liked.  This help...
5 comments
Read more

September, eesh!

Back to school season is full of events, changes, new people, meetings, and for the Wolfhope family, a periodic fever syndrome for our younger son.  The stress of handling 'all the things' is often tolerable for me, until it's not. I love my job, and the responsibility and the freedom to try and fail, but ultimately succeed. I like knowing how to do things, things that are really kind of over my head, but I think I may be addicted to learning new things. That quest for always knowing more, the love of figuring things out, and the genuine joy I get for solving problems and helping people has really carried me through one of the most eventful Septembers I can remember. But... I'm no superwoman. I have failed, and failed, and failed over and over again. I have let stress and a workload carry-over at home, often distracted, or saying, "I'm almost done." I was overcome with tears, just days prior to my son's surgery date. He's fine. He's a champio...
1 comment
Read more

Blessings and Insomnia

It's 3:24 am and I have been wide awake for a least an hour. It was the coughing that woke me. Not mine but that of my seven year-old. He was diagnosed with influenza A this morning. His three year-old brother was diagnosed with influenza B and is sleeping fitfully next to my husband. Friday, today, will be day five of me staying home with sick kiddos. Two different strains of flu sick kiddos. Super irritable, not so sick that they can't annoy one another, sick kiddos. Super hungry, and attention craving sick kiddos. And in moments, it seems overwhelming, like too much at once.  I have not yet succumbed completely to the stress and exhaustion, and it's because of unyielding grace, understanding, and compassion from both my family and those surrounding my family.  Tuesday night, I went with a bunch of girlfriends to dinner and a movie, and that Brandy wouldn't take "no" for an answer. She knew! Self-care is important, and she made sure I took care of myself. ...
Post a Comment
Read more