Rough Draft

Storm LOVES KPop and Psy

• "I don't like to think about that because I don't like compliments, so it's weird.  And I don't want people to think I'm like, "let's go to school!" because I hate school. I hate school. I don't really like the idea of school. I go cause it's required and you can get a good job and stuff but I don't like coming off as someone who's enthusiastic about the idea of learning...even though I kind of am...but I like to get my ideas out. I feel like the way people perceive you, no matter if it's true or not, that is what you are because the world is how everyone sees something. So even if I'm not stupid, if everyone thinks I am, I am because that's how it's determined kind of. So I feel like I need to be very clear with everything- if I have an opinion or something, I need to get it out there cause I don't want someone to get the wrong idea about me. It's kind of self-conscious on my part, but, you know..."
• Motivation- reading from Beers
  • Doesn't like to read things people tell her to read
  • Doesn't enjoy school even though she's "good" at it
  • Parents care about grades, she cares about learning/bettering herself/the way others perceive her
  • Her level of motivation depends on the amount of boredom/other factors
    • If her parents are trying to talk to her, she'll pick up anything to read in order to avoid talking to them
• Interested in
  • foreign language
  • fashion
  • photography
  • psychology/informational readings
  • art
  • Korea, specifically
• Likes to read
  • psychology books
  • fashion blogs
• Does not like to write anything
• Procrastinator
• Perfectionist
  • never feels like any of her work is even relatively good, even if it warrants a 98
• Is friends with the top ten students of her class, so she doesn't feel smart compared to them
• Her favorite English teacher is Mr. Barner because he lets them do whatever they want. She just wants to do her work at home at the last minute and spend time in class doing whatever she wants
• Wants to be a fashion photographer when she grows up
  • another puzzling question as to why she's so motivated to do well

Storm's Motivators

Storm and I had such an interesting talk about her and school.  After observing her, I realized that Storm is one of the top students in all of her classes, not just in ours.  I was adamant to get to the point of what motivates Storm to get such good grades and participate so actively in classes.  Her answer: nothing.  She said she hates school, she doesn’t particularly like writing, and she couldn’t care less about grades.  Until this point, I won’t lie, I had seen almost all of my past self in Storm.  When Storm told me that she didn’t care about grades, only her parents do, I was baffled.  She had said it before, but she really meant it!

We went on with the interview and we came to a question about where she thinks her abilities lie in comparison to her other peers.  She answered truthfully that she felt she was ahead of most of her peers, but that her friends are the top ten of the class and she’s thirteen, so in comparison to them she never feels above average.  At this point, I pointed out to her that she is ahead of most of her peers and I also mentioned that she actively participates even when the teacher doesn’t ask for anyone to.  I asked her what her motivation was. What follows is one of the most insightful things to ever come out of a fifteen-year-old’s mouth ever in all of time:

"I don't like to think about that because I don't like compliments, so it's weird.  And I don't want people to think I'm like, "let's go to school!" because I hate school. I hate school. I don't really like the idea of school. I go cause it's required and you can get a good job and stuff but I don't like coming off as someone who's enthusiastic about the idea of learning...even though I kind of am...but I like to get my ideas out. I feel like the way people perceive you, no matter if it's true or not, that is what you are because the world is how everyone sees something. So even if I'm not stupid, if everyone thinks I am, I am because that's how it's determined kind of. So I feel like I need to be very clear with everything- if I have an opinion or something, I need to get it out there cause I don't want someone to get the wrong idea about me. It's kind of self-conscious on my part, but, you know..."

So yes. So. Much. Insight.  I’m not sure that many average teenagers think this way, which is why it was so cool to have this little window into Storm’s mind.  The thing that is even cooler is that that night I went home and read Beer’s chapters about motivation and basically connected everything to what Storm said.  Storm’s motivators are internal so they’re very strong and, lucky for her, they correlate directly with school. 

Storm surprised me again when we discussed reading.  It makes sense in the context of the above quote, but before I understood her motivations I was surprised.  She told me that she hates to read anything someone gives her to read.  If she’s not required to read, she’ll read anything, apparently.  This goes back to different motivators.  It’s really good to know this about Storm! I know that she’ll read the books, though, because she doesn’t want to appear dumb. 

Enough about motivators.  I should throw in here quickly that Storm and I also discussed the possibility of her being a fashion blogger.  This, she claims, is the only time she would ever want to write outside of school.  She is already thinking of creating media (something Jenkins mentions as being essential to technological literacy).  

A Day With Storm

This is what I felt like following Storm around all day

Today I had the chance to observe my student (and by observe my student I mean follow her around and record every action she made and every word said).  Unfortunately, all of Stormageddon’s classes were extremely busy today—one had presentations of multimedia projects, one had a mock trial, and one had necessary group work.  In between all of the hubbub of the day, I was able to ask Storm just a few of the questions that I hope to ask her about her attitude toward school, reading, and writing.

I already know from last week that Storm takes school kind of seriously but her parents take school very seriously.  From today’s observation, it is clear that Storm is one of the smartest, if not the smartest, student in all of her classes.  She’s one of those students that’s just worlds above cognitively.  When I asked her if I could make a copy of the essay she just got back for my mentor teacher’s class, she replied that of course I could but, “it’s not very well written. I mean, I got a 98 on it, but I don’t think it’s any good.”  Even when Storm is slacking, she is excelling.

While in my mentor teacher’s class, during a short break, Storm asked me what I had been typing all day.  I told her I was typing every time she did anything or got distracted or said anything, etc.  I mentioned the distraction because it is something I’ve noticed in our English class and I wanted to get to the bottom of it.  After our conversation though, when Storm heard me start typing while she was talking off topic with her friend, she reacted, “No! Dangit! I have to pretend that I stay on task because I hear you typing!”  I told her not to change anything she was doing because I wanted to see a true representation of how she behaves in class, so she went back to talking.  Later, she explained to me what I already kind of suspected, which is that if she is talking it’s usually because she is bored or because the teacher or a student or activity is annoying her.

When I did have a chance to ask Storm a quick question about school, I decided to ask her what she would change about her school experience if she could.  She replied that she would like for each teacher to give each student one free day a semester.  One day where if that student had a lot going on, they could skip their work without penalization, as long as it’s not a big project.  I think that this is a good insight into the mind of Storm as well as the difference between her and other students.  She didn’t jump to “no reading” or “no math”, but a reasonable solution to a problem that truly affects her life—too much homework.  She also mentioned, in not so many words, that teachers could collaborate to make sure assignments didn’t overlap as much as they do.

Today was an interesting day with Storm, definitely. I’m looking forward to getting more of her insights on reading and writing, but for now I’ve learned a lot about her attitudes towards school already.

Stormageddon Dark Lord of All

I’m so happy to finally write about something happy and not something that stresses me out! Yay!

I got a chance in third block to interview the girl I will be doing my case study on. Yes, the student I am following around and prodding with personal questions is in fact a girl, despite the misleading pseudonym.  At the end of the interview, I asked her if there was any particular pseudonym she would like to go by and this was her reply.  Apparently, it is a Doctor Who reference and apparently, that baby really is Stormageddon.  The Doctor, who claims to speak baby, meets a baby named Alfie who, he says, likes to call himself Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All.  So there we are.

Already, I have learned something about my student.  Stormageddon Dark Lord of All (whom I will refer to as Storm for short) is a very active participant in class and an avid reader, so I was excited to interview her.  I knew from our previous interactions that she loves fashion.  She comes decked out to class every day and most of our conversations consist of us commenting on a piece of clothing the other is wearing.  When I asked her what she enjoys, though, fashion didn’t even make the list.  Storm loves photography, art, foreign languages, theatre, and singing, to name a few.  This surprised me because I knew Storm reads psychology books for fun, so I was expecting a more science, less art based person.  When I asked her what she wants to do in the future, though, it did not surprise me that she said she would like to be a fashion photographer or an interpreter; I already know that she speaks fluent Korean and is very passionate about fashion.

I also learned about Storm’s family.  I learned that her mom is from Trinidad and that her dad works in D.C. for the Navy.  She has a sister who’s a senior at Clarke Central and they kind of get along. 

Probably the most interesting thing to me, though, is the fact that her parents do not accept mid-level A work. A 95 is unacceptable.  We talked about whether or not grades are a motivation for her and she said not really.  She would be happy with a mid-level A, but her parents are focused more on her doing her absolute best and pushing to higher than what is expected of her. 

I see a lot of the characteristics of an independent reader in Storm.  She’s the kind of student who enjoys, I mean actually enjoys, the classics.  I’m not sure that any of the YA books on Melissa’s list would challenge her enough. She’s that kind of reader.  But she doesn’t write much (I’ve learned from previous conversations).  Storm doesn’t do any writing outside of school writing, but she also can’t complete writing at school.  Every time we give the students in class writing time she does other homework and says she’d rather finish it at home.  Therefore, I’m also not sure a writing workshop would benefit her.  Obviously I have a lot more to learn about her learning styles, but this is a good start I think.