The Value of Self Determination
In my classroom, I have a rule of encouraging fresh starts. What that means is for my students, what happened at an old school, last year, yesterday or even an hour ago. I encourage this for my coworkers too and how I speak of my students to future students. This belief was affirmed last year when I received a first grader, we will call him J. When this student came in he came with a behavior plan, emergency plan, and a one on one support. I talked to his past teacher to see what strategies were helpful. I was astonished when all she told me was, “He was never in class. I am so glad he is not at our school anymore.” When I met this student, his goals did not align with what I saw. We had a few bumps in the road, but from November to March (when the school closed), he had no escalations and was in class all day everyday. Behavior aside, his academic goals were well below what he could do. Fast forward to now, and he is performing on grade level for reading and m...