Starfish: I made a difference to E...

One of the freshmen students in my 7^th period never participated in class and rarely brought any materials. My teacher sent him out two days in a row after he refused to participate or respond. On the second day, I followed him out into the hallway and talked to him about his lack of interest in school.  I came to find out he has low confidence in his ability to succeed in school. “I’ve lost faith that I can do good.” The bell was about to rind, so I told him I wanted to continue this conversation after school. We went back into the classroom to gather his things and then headed to homework help in the cafeteria. I asked him about his family, how he feels about school, and his goals. I pulled out a sheet of paper and started taking notes. Soon, we started coming up with steps on how to achieve his goals. The first goal we wanted to conquer was to get his grades up, but he recognized that in order to be able to raise his grades, he needs to come to school on time. I gave him some suggestions on how to have a better chance on coming to school on times and he commented “I really like these ideas.”  I pulled out another sheet of paper, making him a copy of our notes, goals, and steps for success, and had him sign his name promising to try his best to come to school on time the next morning. I told him I would be waiting for him in the lobby of the school in the morning to greet him in the morning. The next day, at 8:05 AM I was so excited to see him walking in the door! We had 5 minutes to get him to class so we hurried to his locker and down the hall to his class. The bell rang right as we walked through the door. He made it in time with a huge smile on his face! “I’m so proud of you!” “Thank you, I’m proud of myself too!” From that day on, he has come to class with his homework done, his materials in hand, and has been participating. I invited him to VIP Lounge for his improvement not only in attendance but his behavior in general. And to top it all off, he has been coming earlier to school this past week to play basketball in the gym with us during morning greeting!