State Assessment Season

It's state assessment time in my district. Children around the state are taking the the state's proficiency test for the entire month of March. I don't think that Lent and the state test occurring in the same month is a mere coincidence. Everyone is on edge and the kids are reaching their breaking points. Not to mention that Daylight Savings Time hasn't helped at all, either. I proctor the tests for three English Language Learner (ELL) students, and I have seen the pitfalls of testing this population firsthand. Since my students are ELL, they could have all parts of the math test read to them. So I was able to sit down and read aloud the directions, sentences and word problems in the math test. It is supposed to be the way to determine if a child has true math skills, by removing the language component. It does require the student to be able to understand English when it is spoken to them, which is a big assumption. While I was able to read to them for the math test, I wasn't able to read more than the test directions for the reading and writing tests. It has to be really frustrating for a student to sit there and struggle through a test that's not in your native language, a language that you've been exposed to for only a year or two. In fact, I know it's frustrating because I had a student have a complete meltdown in my room. He was inconsolable and I didn't know how to make him feel better. I wasn't sure what I could say that would make him feel better, or could comprehend. I felt trapped because he wouldn't leave my office and I had to dismiss the other students and take his test back to the secure location.

My other gripe is that the test is designed to fool students into thinking that they are doing well. The math test is especially guilty of this. It's a multiple-choice test, and without a doubt, each question has one answer choice that is possible by trying to solve the problem in a simplistic yet incorrect way. It drove me crazy because as I read the questions to my students I watched them use horrible tactics to solve them. I wanted to yell at them, but of course I had to keep everything to myself. I'm starting to think that we may need to go the Princeton Review route and talk about answers that are there to trip you. I would settle for kids trying to solve a problem, and if they do it incorrectly there answer isn't a choice. I remember that happening a few times on the SAT and GRE.

BBC

IQ and Older Fathers

Today's New York Times had an article about the IQs of children of older fathers. Older fathers have children with lower IQs when tested in different cognitive areas, including fluid reasoning, memory, and motor skills. When I see studies like that I often wonder who did the testing and what test did they use. According to the news article, the information was gathered from 50,000 mothers who attended 12 clinics from the years 1959 to 1965. Whatever test was used, it must have been the earliest edition. Interestingly, an older father's detriment to IQ seems to be biological, while an older mother's asset to IQ seems to be environmental. Older mothers are more nurturing and have the economic means to provide more enrichment. The article mentioned the age range of the the fathers and mothers in the story. They had participants as young as 12 and 14! A teenage birth in the 60's had to be controversial.

BBC

School Psychologists and Pop Culture

I don't have HBO, I can't afford it. So there are many shows that have entered the pop culture Zeitgeist that I never got to experience the first time around: The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, The Wire, etc. Nonetheless, I just started watching The Sopranos on DVD. Season 1, Episode 7 titled "Down Under"featured a school psychologist. Anthony Jr. stole communion wine and showed up at school drunk. He was suspended from school and the principal decided that he should be evaluated by the school psychologist for ADD. The first thing I noticed was that this Catholic school had its own school psychologist. Impressive, but likely, I don't know. There were a lot of things in the episode that wouldn't be legal now. I'm not sure if it's a reflection of the time since it was 10 years ago (1999), a depiction of special education identification in private/parochial schools, or poetic license. First, the principal and the school psychologist strong-armed Tony and Carmela into the evaluation. I don't remember seeing them sign a consent for the evaluation. The second thing was the lack of a PPT. The only person doing the eval was the school psychologist, but I can personally attest to being the only person doing an eval, this happens when I do outside evals for my district. But this has only happened with re-evaluations. An initial would require a lot more evaluators, including school nurse, social worker (if available) and speech and language.

There was a part of the episode where they showed the evaluation. In the scene, Anthony was completing a projectives exercise. He was looking at pictures and had to describe what he thought about them. My first reaction was, "What test is that?" then I remembered that for test security they wouldn't be able to show an actual test. I thought the school psychologist's demeanor was dead-on. Even his noncommital speech about the "possibility" of having ADD was classic. I think it was interesting how the different Soprano family members kept mistaking the school psychologist for a psychiatrist. He was introduced with the title of doctor, but somehow everyone turned him into a psychiatrist. All in all, it was a decent depiction of what we do.

BBC

NASP Convention - Boston Day 2

My second day at NASP wasn't as successful as my first. I woke up too late to make it to the one mini-skills workshop that I wanted to go to. The problem of lack of handouts continued into the second day. There were a few sessions that I wanted to attend, but I was spent by 3:00. There is only so much you take in after a while. All in all, I enjoyed myself. It's always good to get out of the building and do something for yourself. One thing that was new to me was the forms that I used to document my professional development hours. It was a good way to track what I did. The bonus of attending is that I now have a few more strategies to use and a few more ideas about improving how I do my job.

BBC

Live from the NASP Convention in Boston - Day 1

I'm reporting live from the NASP Convention in Boston. Despite everyone's grumblings about having to travel to New England in February for a convention, the weather hasn't been that bad. It isn't snowing, so that's always a plus.

My initial impression of the convention is that the association has done a poor job of gauging how popular some of the free workshops would be vs. the ones that are real duds. I've either attended or tried to attend 3 very popular free workshops and they have all been standing room only. Meanwhile I attended one session that had a ballroom and it was a 1/4 full. What gives, NASP?

I attended a session run by Cecil Reynolds, professor from Texas A & M, and frequent NASP listserv contributor. He's really nice and personable in person, too bad he comes off as a prick online. That's my assessment so far. More later.

BBC

Interpersonal Relationships

My principal has this ongoing joke that I should go back to school and get my doctorate, and my dissertation should be a study on the interpersonal relationships of teachers within my school. She always mentions this when she has a story for me about warring teachers and their juvenile antics. Today I was passing by her office and she called me in. She waved a letter at me and told me that she had more data for my doctorate. She handed me the paper and I tried to read it, but it didn't make sense. A teacher had written a note asking my principal to intervene with a conflict she was having with a fellow teacher. They were bickering about wall decorations and use of a personal refrigerator. It was ridiculous because they are supposed to be adults and should have been able to handle this on their own, but they wanted "mom" to intervene. She forced them to work it out amongst themselves during planning, but she informed them that she would be present during their planning time.

I had a more pressing issue that required my attention, so I sought her advice while I was there. I was approached by one of the special ed teachers who was concerned about one of her students. She told me that this particular student didn't feel welcome in his homeroom class. He's has a learning disability and really struggles with reading. The special ed teacher told me that the student often showed up at her door during off hours because his teacher sent him out of the room. It sounds like there was no inclusion in the classroom. He's starting to feel ostracized and unwanted, and we aren't sure if the teacher is doing this consciously. So the special ed teacher wanted to talk to the homeroom teacher but she wanted to a) use the right words so that she could convey a convincing message and b) do it when she wasn't so emotional about it. I commended her on recognizing how emotional she could be if she approached the teacher now. Other than that, I was kind of clueless about what advice to give to the teacher. My principal gave me some pointers. The teacher should focus on saying how she was uncomfortable with what was happening and that she wanted to know how she could help the teacher. If the teacher focused on her discomfort, then the focus wouldn't be on the actions of the other teacher. It made sense, and luckily it was exactly what the special ed teacher wanted to hear. In the end, I felt like I was able to help in some way. I'll see what happens once she actually approaches the homeroom teacher.

RTI Can't Come Soon Enough

I have this feeling that I will be signing a record number of kids for testing this spring. There are a number of students who have been retained and aren't making academic progress (Big surprise! When you have a kid repeat a grade but don't change anything, what do you expect? What's that saying about doing the same thing and expecting different results?) Well, now there are few kids that are basically in a holding pattern and we need to land these planes before they come crashing to the ground. Unfortunately, I feel like air traffic control and once I have these planes landed, each one is waiting for a gate to open and I have no gates available. Today I felt like I had to land one of those planes prematurely. There was a first grader that was recommended for retention last year who has made no progress in his academics. There was some inconsistency with attendance in kindergarten, which I forgot about at the meeting. It could be argued that there has been a lack of instruction. He should be receiving kindergarten instruction, yet he was getting first grade instruction. We met with the parents today and I wanted to give them some possible options on how to move forward. I hoped that there would be other interventions that we could use, but there weren't any viable options to present. The literacy specialist was absent and I wasn't sure about her availability to implement an intervention. It was hard to offer choices when I wasn't sure what the choices were. In the end the kid will be evaluated, and I'm not sure what he will qualify for. I just wish there was a clear procedure of how to address the needs of students before moving towards special education. That's where RTI will hopefully be effective. The 3-tiered approach to interventions will be welcomed. My state is supposed to start using RTI next fall, but with the economic crisis, I'm not sure if the state education budget will be able to fund this initiative. Something has to happen soon. I don't like dealing with such a nebulous matter.

Unappreciated?

Today I went to a workshop with school psychologists and social workers and someone brought up how we are unappreciated. The social worker complained about how she has done numerous social-emotional learning classroom lessons throughout the years and not once has a teacher or parent thanked her for doing so. This struck me as odd because I wouldn't expect to be thanked. It's not that I expect people not to pay attention to some of the things that I do, like classroom lessons, it's that I don't expect them to pay attention to it. (If you read the last sentence carefully, it make sense.) I've always considered this to be a thankless job. I don't need anyone to acknowledge it, and I don't expect them to. I have a feeling that if I were to wait for some acknowledgment for all that I do for kids, I would be waiting for an eternity.

BBC

When Things Come Together

First thing this morning I had the two meetings that I mentioned in the last post. Both meetings went really well. I was amazed at how we were able to sit down and actually develop ideas on how to provide better services to students. I think we were able to change how one teacher views her role in the classroom. This particular teacher was hung up on the fact that her student wasn't turning in homework and his mother wasn't helping the situation. I told her that she had to let the homework go. There are more worthy battles to fight. I have often found it hard for people to realize that you can't always change behavior, but you can change how you react to it. I hope that the message sticks this time. My principal was pleased with the outcome of both meetings; it was her idea to have the meetings in the first place. If she's happy, then I'm happy.

On another note, I got a request for records from Nathan's mother. Now they are living in Vermont. We'll see how long that lasts. I'm expecting him to be back in my school by next year, it really is the next logical step.

BBC

Tensions Running High

For some reason there were a few teachers who were a little high-strung today. I don't know if they all had rough days, rough weekends, the cold weather, or the fact that January seems to never end, but I was dealing with grouchy, stressed-out people all day. One teacher knocked on my door and came in to talk to me. That's always a sign of something serious, because teachers rarely have the time to actually knock on my door. The teacher told me that she had discussed the problem with the principal and she suggested that the information be shared with me. So I had one teacher complaining about her recent interaction with a mother and child. It's the old familiar tune of a student that isn't completing homework, mom thinks that the teacher doesn't care, and mom is doing everything she can to undermine the interventions and extra work that the teacher has put in place. This teacher wasn't that grouchy actually, more exasperated. As I was talking to her, there was a knock on my door and my principal walked in. This was a sign that she wanted immediate action. So she reiterated the case and requested a meeting of relevant staff soon. I looked at the schedule and she pressed for sooner, so I scheduled the meeting for tomorrow. She then asked me about an ongoing issue with a special ed teacher and a regular ed teacher. I didn't have promising news, so she demanded an additional meeting with those teachers after we meet on the first student. I had 2 new meetings scheduled in less than 2 minutes!

The other grouchy teacher run-in happened at the end of the day. I was at my mailbox and a teacher comes up to me and says, "I need help with this kid," then she proceeded to show me that the student's reading score hasn't changed since last May. My response was "At least he's consistent." I was treating it lightheartedly, which did not go over well at that moment. She became infuriated and stormed off yelling, "You know, I just can't get any help in this school!" I tried to tell her I was kidding and she's normally good-natured and full of sarcasm. I guess she was having a bad day.

BBC

Nathan Epilogue

I just published the last Nathan post, I still had it in my drafts. It's fortunate that I didn't publish it because the story wasn't over. I guess the big move didn't happen, because my school received a fax from a school in a nearby town requesting records for Nathan. I thought he was moving to the Midwest, but I guess I was wrong. His mom entered the wrong school on the request form, which indicates her current state of mind, but at least he is enrolled in school. I think he's been out of school since the beginning of November. If he stays local, it's only a matter of time before he reenrolls in my school. My school should install a revolving door, it would make things easier.

BBC

Snow Days

The kid in me loves snow days. There's nothing like waking up to a fresh coating of snow and seeing that school is canceled. On the other hand, when I have meetings scheduled on that same day it throws off my whole schedule. I am up to my ears in PPTs that haven't happened yet. I've had 2 snow days so far this year, and of course both of those days chock full of meetings.

I've had to make arrangements to have these meetings occur. I tried to fit some in next week, but they will only run into the other scheduled meetings. And the weather forecast for next week calls for another snowstorm.

BBC

Nathan is Gone

After weeks of Nathan's status turning and twisting in the bureaucratic winds of public education, we received that dreaded piece of paper. My principal summoned me to her office and handed me the document. It was a Request for Records form. Nathan's name was at the top of the sheet and the location of the school was in another state far away. It appears that he's moving back to the state where he spent his toddler years. So that was it. Ironically, my district had just figured out how to transport Nathan back to our school; it only took about 6 or 7 weeks. A bus went to his shelter to pick him up and the family had moved out over the weekend. He's another kid that was a challenge and just when we poured our resources into him and saw a positive change, he moved away. Simply heartbreaking.

BBC

Land of the Luddites

Maybe Luddite is too strong of a word. Technologically naive seems more appropriate. I've been on a crusade to get people in my school to embrace basic technology: email, web-based programs, word processing programs, i.e., nothing fancy. As I've been trying to educate others I've noticed the different levels of technology naivete that people have in my building. My district, like many others in the nation, has moved towards using a web-based program for writing IEPs. The problem has been that only two people out of 6 are comfortable enough with the program to complete an IEP. Everyone else has expressed their trepidation towards using the computer. One of the drawbacks is that the entry fields do not appear as they do within an IEP so that those who are used to completing them by hand do not know what they are looking at on the computer. I remedied the situation by creating a manual that helped everyone work in the computer program with ease. I think that it was well-received.

Another one of the initiatives I started in my building was to post a Tech Tip of the Day. I read a New York Times blog post by David Pogue and it enlightened me on the numerous bits of computer knowledge that I've been unaware of all these years. Since there were things that I didn't know about, I figured that no one else in my building knew these either. So I started posting Tech Tips each day. I thought about sending them via email, but that would have defeated the purpose, since some people are reluctant to check their email. Well, people are reading the posts, I've seen copies floating around the school.

The last week, I've experienced two different eye-opening moments on the vast technological divide that exists in my school. Those on the inexperienced end amaze me. I was asked by a co-worker how to attach a file to an email. I thought that was the lowest, but that was beaten the next day. I was sitting in my office when I got an internal call from another room. A teacher was on the other line and she asked me if I had turned off the computer when I used it in the lab. I used the lab when I taught my coworkers how to use the web-based program last week. I guess I turn off the computer out of habit; I was finished using it so it seemed like the thing to do. I didn't know that there were people in the building that didn't know how to turn on the computer. So I figured it must have been something complex. I went to the lab to see what was wrong. The LCD projector was working so that was one less problem to deal with, but the screen was black. I thought that maybe something was unplugged and when I looked at the computer, I realized that it wasn't on. I pressed the button on the CPU and the computer sprang to life. It couldn't have been that easy, I figured that I would have to do something more than that. Well it appeared that the teacher was pressing the wrong button. Instead of the on/off switch she was pressing the button that opens the CPU. If you're familiar with old Dell computers then you know what I'm talking about. She was pressing the wrong button and couldn't understand why it wouldn't turn on. That was a new one for me. I thought I had seen it all until that moment.

BBC

In the News

A couple of news stories that caught my attention.

Obama named his nominee for Secretary of Education.

I don't have an opinion at this point. Until recently the Secretary of Education job was a thankless job that didn't seem to have a real impact on education. If you think about it, was it the Secretary of Education that played a major role in Brown v. Board of Ed? IDEA? It seems to me that until No Child Left Behind (NCLB) no one really knew what the Education Secretary actually did. Now the cabinet position is more important than ever. We'll have to see what Arne Duncan will do in his position.

A district in Maryland is getting rid of the "Gifted" label.

All I have to say is unless you have a school for the gifted, the percentage of your student body that is gifted should reflect society, about 2%. That's it. A school with 36% gifted students is either too lenient in their criteria or there's something in the water. I need to move to Montgomery County if there's a good chance of creating a gifted child just by living there. Regardless, people want their children to be in gifted programs, but not all are created equal. I would look to see what kind of enrichment these programs had to offer. Is it something I could replicate on my own? Like special education, sometimes the label doesn't matter, the level of service does.

BBC

Subpoena!

So I was sitting in my office writing a report, when my phone buzzed. It was the front desk, the secretary said that there was someone there to see me. There was something ominous about how she said "someone" but I figured it was another school psychologist, maybe a parent. I went downstairs and went to the front desk and found a guy wearing a jacket with a law enforcement badge on the shoulder. He asked me for my name, and then handed over a sheet of paper. I wish I could tell you what he said exactly. It could have been, "You are required to appear in court," or something like that. Maybe he didn't anything at all. I just remember that I was in disbelief because when I met with Children's Services, they made it sound as if I wouldn't be called to testify in court. The court case is a custody case between foster parents that want to adopt a student that attends my school, and his biological family. I had pretty much forgotten about the case, but then I received the subpoena.

I had a day to fantasize what it would be like to testify in court. I pictured stating my name, swearing in, and sitting on the stand answering questions in my most official school psychologist tone. Today the assistant attorney general called me and we discussed the case. She asked me about my education, credentials, and when I first met the student. I had a really cool story, because I remembered him from his very first day of school last year. He has a unique spelling of his first name and his teacher misspelled it. When the teacher was going around the room and asking students to tell something interesting about themselves, the student mentioned that his name was misspelled on the label that was sitting on his desk. I could empathize because my name gets misspelled a lot. Anyway, I kept talking to the attorney on the phone and it soon became apparent that I was not the best person to testify. The truth is, I have very little contact with the student. I don't provide psychological services to him, and I haven't dealt with any behavioral issues with him either. I told the attorney that I agreed to testify on behalf of our school's personnel, but she said she couldn't allow that. It would be hearsay. I guess it's her job to pay attention to such things. So in the end, she chose to withdraw my subpoena and serve the social worker instead. She would be more appropriate, but I'm disappointed in missing out on going to court. How often will I get the chance to participate in a hearing for a good reason. Let's hope that the next time I'm subpoenaed it won't be because of some sort of malpractice.

BBC

Family Dynamics in the Workplace.

Sometimes a school's faculty can feel like a dysfunctional family. I guess I wasn't far off by the looks of this article in the New York Times.

BBC

Nathan is Homeless

Something that I've been dealing with for a couple of weeks now is Nathan's homeless situation. It started suddenly when his mother notified the school that she had been evicted. Nathan missed a couple of days of school and he was commuting from a town 20 minutes away. He was temporarily living with his uncle. Then his mother moved into a shelter, and that's where he's been since. Now he hasn't been in school for almost 3 weeks now. He stopped going to his after-school therapy because transportation wasn't available. The fact that he hasn't been to school is a huge problem, because it's against the law. Mom has no way of getting him to school in our town, and they aren't residents in the town where the shelter is. The law states that a child has a right to attend the school in the town where the family last had established residency, which would be my town. His mom went through the proper channels and made a formal request for transportation. But so far there has been a standoff between the two towns. No one knows how to transport a single child in a safe and efficient manner. There aren't any other students who need to come from the other town. There are no bus drivers available from my town. Plus, no one feels comfortable putting a 6 year old in a taxi alone for a 30 minute ride with a stranger. The case is especially sensitive when one takes into account Nathan's special needs. His label maybe ADHD, but his issues are significant. And we still don't know what is going to happen, but something has to happen soon. It still won't be soon enough for Nathan.

BBC

Talk the Talk

Today we had a meeting with a couple of concerned parents. They have concerns about their 5th grade son. The parents reported that daily homework sessions last 3-4 hours. Their son seems unmotivated and he doesn't seem to retain information. I had to sit back and refrain from making a look of disdain because I knew that the parents had a history of being all talk. Last year, they came in like gangbusters, accusing his 4th grade teacher of slacking off, not checking his assignments and not teaching their son. It was completely bogus, but the teacher was unnerved. She ended up sending home extra work to appease the parents. Of course, the extra work never came back to school. The teacher was really confused, but that told me everything that I wanted to know.

At the meeting, the father had all of these complaints about how he didn't think his son was learning anything. It sounded like his issue was with memorization vs. long-term acquisition. Dad was really intense. I suggested that instead of quizzing his son on concepts that he should have learned, he should try to integrate the information into a conversation to see what he has learned. The interesting thing about the kid is that despite reading slightly below grade level, he has very few problems in school. It appears that he is able to maintain his composure at school and by the time he gets home he's spent. But his parents don't seem to understand that.

Listening to the parents was a chore. I tried my best not to show my irritation, but I'm learning that my parental pet peeve are the parents that claim to do so much and you know they aren't doing $#!%. We devised a plan that involved cutting down on homework time. We will be able to see what he's able to do in a prescribed amount of time. The teacher will meet with them a few weeks later. We'll see how this experiment goes.

BBC

Alexander

One of my goals this year was to increase my consultation cases. I wanted to get into the real nitty-gritty of working with teachers on issues they are having in the classroom. Of course, when it comes to consultation, it also means that I evaluate the teacher to see what changes she can make to address the target behaviors. Over the past 3 weeks Alexander had floated to the top of the "Children that require extra attention" list. He was noticeably from the first day of school, but now he's been attracting my attention.

He's classically ADHD. He calls out. He can't stay seated. He sings and hums at his desk. He plays with his pencil and eraser when he should be doing classwork. I had started working with his teacher to address his behavior. We came up with different plans, one plan was to address his frustration. It was designed to give him a way to release his frustration. There was also a plan to reward him for positive behavior. The teacher just started to use these plans in conjunction, sometimes.

Yesterday afternoon, I was called to deal with Alexander three times in about an hour and a half. It was getting ridiculous because I was trying assess a student. I knew that I could have been on call, so I was only conducting an interview. The student got to see some of the things I have to do in school, and he marveled at how often my intercom phone rang. After dealing with Alexander and seeing how frustrated his teacher was, I knew that I had to develop some ideas. I felt like I was stuck in the "No Idea" corner. I knew I had to kick it old school and hit the books. It was the first time in a while that I wished I was still in grad school; just to be able to brainstorm with my classmates. I really needed to talk to them last night. My SO told me to email them, but that would take to long. I would have to spell out all of the details in order to get an adequate response. So I hit the books and the internet and found some inspiration. I had to remember what the goal of consultation is. At the moment all I wanted was a peaceful day without having to report to this classroom multiple times a day to remove Alexander to another room. After some thought, I remembered the goal of consultation: empower the teacher. With that, I knew what I had to do.

To start, I really needed to see what was going on in the classroom, because by the time I got there, I ended up witnessing the tail end of a long spiral of behavior that went from bad to worse. Multiple incidents usually started with Alexander getting frustrated and instead of leaving the classroom to cool-off, he would have a stand-off with his teacher and refuse to leave. She would request someone to come to the room, to escort him to a neighboring class to cool-off. And of course, he would still refuse. I would ask what happened, and I wasn't able to get a clear answer to what set him off. I decided that an observation would give me the opportunity to see what led up to Alexander's removals.

I sat in the classroom for about 2 hours this morning, and what I saw was jaw-dropping. This kid was non-stop. He was a constant ball of energy; all over his desk and chair, seriously sitting upside down in his chair, I didn't think that was possible. He was singing and talking to himself. He was calling out for no real reason. All of his behavior was attention-seeking. To her credit, his teacher ignores a huge amount of it, but that may be part of the problem. Most of the students were ignoring him, which was remarkable on their part. But Alexander wouldn't be denied, he kept pushing and pushing until someone was going to notice him. The students eat breakfast at their desks in the morning, so they eat breakfast while they complete their morning work. Alexander was focused on eating and playing with his breakfast, and decided that he could use his milk to gain the attention of his classmates.

As I sat only four feet away from him, he proceeded to shake his milk carton, open it and giggle like a 4 year old, and stick his hand up to his wrist into the milk. Then, he started to fling his hands around in order to spray anything in his vicinity with milk. A couple of his classmates felt the milk hit them and started to say something. At this point I intervened because it was obvious that his teacher wasn't paying attention to this either. That was the perfect opportunity for the teacher to address his behavior and she didn't. When I intervened, I wished I had a camera, because my words cannot do justice to what I was watching. Alexander turned to me, his face, hands, and forearms dripping with milk. At that moment I wanted a camera. Before he could deny his involvement in the situation or question mine, someone announced that the principal was coming. Alexander looked bewildered and when the principal walked in, I had never seen a kid try to get his act together so quickly. He became a completely different child. (I wanted to tell someone about his unbelievable behavior and I realized that with my wireless laptop, I could email the principal, who was most likely sitting at her desk at that moment. However, I never imagined that she would actually come in for an observation.)

So my principal found a seat and it just so happened that the class was transitioning to group reading activity. This required them to sit on the floor while the teacher read them a short passage. As the students gathered on the floor, Alexander worked on cleaning off his desk and the floor around him. When he made it to the group, he was the model student; sitting with his legs crossed, hands in his lap, looking forward, and raising his hand to answer questions. He was a different student. The principal left after a short time and Alexander managed to maintain his appropriate behavior. When the class made it back to their seats, Alexander's good behavior lasted for about 5 minutes. Then the noises and movement around his desk returned.

What I had witnessed for those 2 hours provided me with many ideas to help the teacher. I left with a better picture of what occurs in the class. I met with the teacher and gave her some ideas. My principal and the social worker also had some ideas. I was worried at first because I didn't know where to go, so I went back to the basics. It's amazing what a good ol' observation can do.

BBC