Jenn's+Journal

March 2. 2009 I am so excited about the changes that Yosh is making. This week, he completed his SMALSI inventory. He had to complete the second half again because it is 145 questions and the last 90 he just circled any answer. This was a perfect way to help him to see that he has a difficult time sustaining attention for an entire test period and he needs to either take a break or advocate for himself and put the test down and plan another time to continue it. Yosh has been doing this for the entire year and I continuously brought it to his attention but he did not want to hear it. I think that having him do the Learning Styles Inventory and discussing with him the results began to make him understand himself. On Thursday I actually got a half finished test in my mailbox from his teacher. On the top it said "Not Finished, finish in Mrs. Maichins class". I have been teaching this all year, and Yosh never did it. He finally did. When I asked him he said that he recognized that he was about to just fill in answers so he stopped taking the test, knowing he could finish it with me. Progress. People are always yelling at him because he cuts up in class and is impulsive with his words. He always gets poor grades, not because he can't do something, but because he rushes through it and does not see the value in putting effort into his work. Another strategy that I have started in order for him to "see" and reflect on his actions is emailing both he and his father (in the same email) some of his behaviors that I saw and/or heard about for the day (both positive and negative) and reminders about what he needs to accomplish that night. Yosh's dad was not very involved with his learning, he always had to act as disciplinarian because Yosh was always getting into trouble, but interestingly enough I got a phone call on Friday from dad. He asked me what subjects Yosh had difficulty in because he is noticing that now that he is doing his homework, he is not putting much effort into it. Love it. Love it. Love it. PERFECT!!!! We are able to move onto the next step. Got him to do the work consistently, now we are going to work on the effort factor. I spoke with the Brainology people, who developed a program for Middle School kids based on Dweck's research. It teaches kids about brain plasticity and how, with effort, their brain can grow and learn. They have given me a free trial subscription for my kids this year. Yosh's CSE is next Thursday, and I want to do the first tutorial with him before then. BTW, he is at this point refusing to go to the CSE to advocate for himself. I'll get him there!

March 10th, 2009

This is really working. This week is Yosh's CSE annual review. Throughout the year, I always show my students their IEP and go over it with them and help them understand what their classification is, their disability and how it affects them, what they are entitled to, etc. Yosh never wanted to know about it or when he actually sat with me so I could go over it, I now realize he wasn't listening. I constantly mention throughout the year that they will be going to their annual review CSE meeting and will be expected to talk at it, and I will prepare them adequately to do it. Yosh always said "No way man, Im not even going". I always thought that it was because he didn't care.

Yosh asked me both yesterday and today when his meeting was. Though I have been telling him forever, he obviously wasn't ready to listen, but now he was. I sat down and explained it to him, and he then asked me about what he was going to say. I had prepared a powerpoint template in which my students tell about themselves, their learning styles and their disabilities. Yosh actually asked to see it (though I showed it to him a million times and he refused), and we had a fantastic conversation about how he views himself as a learner. He actually said "I have a growth mindset because I believe that if I try hard I can do it". I almost fell over. He was actually listening.

Interestingly, today I realized why he was so resistent to learning about himself. He was nervous to "see himself" and did not want to understand himself because he would then have to admit that he had things to work on, and he would have to begin to exert effort in changing the things that were not working for him. Today he did. He was finally ready.

Another breakthrough for developing Mindset.