We wrapped up the last of the outlines today and worked on rough drafts, so another work day overall. I had one unfortunate incident today that left me unhappy. One of our new females students, who had recently transferred to the middle school from a nearby charter school because of a major disciplinary issue (she was selling booze to her classmates in 8th grade) had a falling out with me today. The student refused to participate in the day's activity of working on rough drafts because "this assignment is dumb, this school is dumb, and you're dumb." We had a lovely little heated talk in the team room which rests in the center of the classrooms in the pod, which resulted in Aria screaming at me, tearing her paper, and me writing her up for misbehavior.
I felt crummy after the situation because the student holds so much potential. She's extremely smart and so very articulate- during our "conversation" (read "argument") she blew me away and easily could have pushed me into a corner with her verbal intelligence- but her attitude and poor decisions need to undergo a major overhaul in order for her to ever find some academic success... or any success really. I learned later from Ms. Luby that the young girl is the product of a rape, and so she's obviously never had a father figure in her life. Her mom plays a very hands-off role in the girl's life and whenever problems arise at home, the young girl is sent to the local teen shelter for the weekend. I can't entirely blame the girl for having a crummy attitude, and especially because she's an EBD student with an IEP, but I wish so badly that she would let me reach out to her... connect with her. I'm not giving up on her yet. I recently made of goals I'd like to accomplish during this experience, and connecting with this girl is now one of them.
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