Ah-Ha Moments

1. Noticing that one of our toughest students, who often struggles with having a defiant
attitude in class, is a complete softie around her little sister. This shows me that she may
be using her behavior to get attention from other students or from teachers.
2. Realizing that this same student, who also struggles with inappropriate language and
outbursts in class, is very quiet and demure around her family. In fact, her father says
she hardly ever talks at home. This shows me that she may be using her words to get
attention from other students or from teachers.
3. Finding out that a student of color, who frequently meaningfully contributes to class
discussions regarding racism while reading To Kill a Mockingbird, comes from a
mixed-race household. This shows me that my preconceived notions or assumptions
about a students family or background should never be generalized or stereotyped in
my mind.
4. Seeing how few parents actually come to parent-teacher conferences. Out of 120
students, we only talked to roughly 20 of those students parents. This shows me that
parent-teacher communication throughout the year (via email, phone, etc) is so vital for
making sure that everyone is on the same page.
5. Seeing several parents having to sit and wait until an interpreter became available for
them, or saw their sons/daughters trying their best to translate for their parents. Clearly
this puts the student in an awkward position, having to translate a conversation between
their parent and teacher about their grades and behavior in class. This shows me how
important it is to have translators available for parents.
6. Seeing another one of our toughest students, who struggles with motivation and work
ethic during class, literally holding his mothers face in his hands and begging her to
listen to him. We had explained that he had a lot of late work to make up, and he tried to
make excuses for why all of his homework wasnt done. This shows me that even if we
cant motivate him in class, clearly he is motivated to please his mother; his mother could
be a huge asset in his education.
7. Seeing one boy, who struggles with connecting with peers in class, affectionately holding
and rocking his baby brother during his meeting. This shows me that even if he doesnt
have many friends, he has a tender heart and is a very sweet boy.
8. Meeting the dad of one of our brightest, but quietest, students in Diff class, and learning
that this boy is just as quiet at home. Also learning from his dad that he is freakishly
smart at home, reads every book he can get his hand on, but is very quiet even at home.
This shows me that sometimes class expectations are not realistic for our students
personalities.
9. Realizing how little time we truly get to talk to each parent, and that this may be the first
(or only) time that we may get to meet in person. The education I had as an adolescent
involved having parents and teachers who were friends with each other, and who could
feel comfortable talking about my education casually. This shows me that my ability to
communicate effectively in that short meeting with parents is critical in gaining their trust.
10. Trying to think of unique positive things to say about each student can be a real
challenge, especially only a few short weeks into the school year! Its far too easy to
 think of instances that a student frustrated us in class, and its a little harder to think of
specific examples that they impressed us. This shows me that keeping a behavior
tracker or something similar would be a good idea, that way I have exact instances that
I can communicate with parents about their students.

Action Steps
1. Ensure that one student is on time to his next class; he had been receiving tardies
almost every day following our class, even though his next class is just next door. One
solution would be following him into the hallway during the passing period, and making
sure he gets to his next class on time.
2. Keep one students mom informed of his misbehavior in class, as well as his missing
assignments. The solution is to call her if he has late work or poor behavior, so she can
help reinforce our classroom expectations.
3. Encourage one student to participate in class more; his dad said that he needs to be
challenged to expand his public speaking comfort level. One solution is to specifically
call on him in class once a day to share his thoughts/opinions.
4. Giving one student physical handouts of assignments, rather than having him do it on
Google Classroom. His mom let us know that they dont have internet at home, so hes
not able to work on his assignments because they are all posted on Google Classroom.
Printing physical copies will allow him to work on assignments at home, with his moms
supervision, rather than him only being able to work on them at school.
5. Work on handing out more Culler puzzle pieces to students in our class; these puzzle
pieces are awarded to students who display exemplary behavior, and would be an easy
way to track which students are displaying good behaviors in class so that we can tell
their parents.