Abstract:

Ellen Berg watches one of her struggling students slowly become engaged and start to make better grades--while adapting to some consequences of succcess, like peer pressure from friends.

Berg, E. (2005). For some students, success is an adjustment. Retrieved from the Teacher Leaders Network 11 Apr 2008. Link: http://www.teacherleaders.org/old_site/diaries04_05/EB17_04_05.html

Full Text:

For Some Students, Success Is an Adjustment

A little more than a month ago, over quesadillas and chili con queso, my teacher friends talked me into getting acrylic nails. I am not much of a girly girl, so getting the nails was a real step out of the box for me.

I spent the week after my trip to the nail salon relearning simple tasks: putting my car key into the ignition. Opening soda cans. Figuring out how to pick up the dime inside my desk at school for a soda from the vending machine. The nails were a small physical change, but the effect they had on my everyday life was tremendous.

I have been thinking a lot about how this one change has affected my life in light of the changes we want to see from our students. Just like my friends, we see the changes we want our students to make as no big deal: Study more. Turn in homework. Stay calm in the midst of frustration. And just like me, our students, when taking those small steps toward change, experience little earthquakes we never even consider.

Take Travis, for example. Travis is an almost-14-year-old sixth grade boy in my homeroom with an IEP for learning disabilities in reading and written expression. He is a big boy in a classroom of little boys, largely unsupervised at home, and used to using his size to negotiate the outcomes he desires. He is also sweet beneath the surface, a talented artist with a reluctant but engaging smile. He is reading four grades below level and is used to F's. It is less risky for him to fight and fail than to try, only to fail anyway.

Since Travis is a little older, I relate to him differently than I do my younger kids. He needs to be talked to honestly, without emotion. He needs me to call him on unreasonable behavior. He needs someone to give him a good, swift kick in the behind when he gets out of line. All of this I do for him and more, because he is truly an intelligent, talented young man.

I have been working with him all year, and it was only halfway through the third quarter that I began seeing systemic change in Travis. His grades were up—D's and C's—he was turning in homework, and he was less likely to be sent back to me for time-out through the day. He was demonstrating the ability to take responsibility for his actions by self-correcting and talking calmly with his teachers. Marked improvement, and I am so very proud of him.

However, he slips. Success is an adjustment for Travis in the same way my nails are an adjustment for me. He has the pressure of friends and fellow gang members to behave in a certain way. He has the fears of not being good enough or smart enough. I watch him suspend disbelief only to have it all come crashing down on him in waves of self-doubt. He has days where he is checking on his grades and progress followed by days like today when he's arguing with me about a hat I'd taken from him after telling him no less than five times to put it in his locker. I see his old ways battling with his new, and I only hope the new becomes as comfortable and welcoming as my nails have become for me.

I no longer struggle with opening cans or starting the car, and I actually look forward to that 30 minutes each week when I go to get my nails done. Will Travis feel the same way about school in a year or two? Or will he decide to cut it out of his life like I almost did when my nails were really frustrating me?

We have to understand we have a huge influence on these situations. If we give up hope or grow impatient, what makes us think our students will have the strength to withstand our opinions?

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