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.