It's because I didn't understand.

Howdy y'all!

I felt very humbled today.
I got a new student in my first period Resource Learning class. He's an 8th grade boy who I think is just adorable. He actually just got put into Special Ed, but I think he's needed it for quite a while. He has a rough home life (from what I understand) and he has portrayed some interesting, slightly hostile and definitely non-compliant behaviors in various classes (which is why he was referred for Special Ed in the first place). He hasn't even been in my class for a week yet, but today was the first day we really got to get started on homework.

He was fine until we started doing homework, then I could see some of those non-compliant tendencies coming out. I chose to ignore them and continue as though he wasn't mumbling and grumbling about having to do make-up work.
The thing is...we have less than two weeks left in the term and he as a 10% in his History class and a 20% in his Science class. He's also failing English. Oh dear. I told him that it would be hard, but maybe if he worked really hard he would be able to make up his assignments enough to pass.

While we were walking through the hall I told him I was glad he was in my class so that he could get help. He said something like this,

"I got help all of last year and it didn't work. Teachers even pulled me aside and helped me, but I still failed."

When I asked him about his grades right now and mentioned all the zeros, he said,

"If there's a zero, it's because I didn't understand it."

The poor kid! I realize that I don't know how much of his grades are due to non-compliance and refusing to work/hand in assignments, but at the same time, his sincere and heart-felt statements sounded kind of like a plea for help mixed with a lot of self-doubt. I want to help him so much! He's had a rough bit the last few months, but according to my facilitator, his behavior has improved a little bit ever since he was tested to see if he would get qualify for Special Ed.

I'm really hoping that with a lot of work, we can get his grades up in the next couple of weeks. He's such a cute kid and I know that he just wants to do well.

-Ms. Damron-