Summer Project

All of my students deserve my attention.
All of my students deserve my patience.
All of my students deserve a well-planned lesson.
All of my students deserve a well-managed classroom.
All of my students deserve opportunities to share and learn.
All of my students deserve the best Miss Prinzo.

But...

There is always that ONE student who you have a special connection to. There is always that ONE student who pushes you to be just a little bit better. There is always that one student who more than anything you want to see succeed.

I have a student in my classroom who in three days has become that student for me. He is a little boy who is just so excited about learning that he gets overstimulated and can't sit still. When he reaches this point he becomes a behavior problem. I was *this* close to sending him to the office today. He sat out almost all of my lesson and would have gone to the offices had our clean-slate policy for a new teacher kicked in. It broke my heart to do it, but he had reached the point in which he was hindering other students' learning.

I found out that he spent the majority of math time removed from the class as well. More than half of his day was spent removed from the class. This is not acceptable. This is my issue, not his.

My goal for tomorrow is to start teaching him strategies to self-regulate his behavior. It has to happen. He is an extremely bright child and up for promotion. Our students are divided into three status levels: Retention (returning to kindergarten), promotion ( have the opportunity to move to first grade IF they reach a set reading and math assessment goal), and enrichment (students who are here to build skills for first grade). After knowing him for only a few days I believe that he has this status because of attention and behavior issues.

We have to find a way to make learning happen for this child. We have to maximize our time with him. This is my goal, this is my challenge and this student will become a first grader next year.