Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Lessons in Withholding Information

Madi had a pretty good day today.  Zumba, gym class and normal class stuff.  She worked on her Alamo project over the weekend.  She's finishing it up tonight by cutting marshmallows in half and then glueing them to the cardboard Alamo outline.  She printed off a diagram of the inside of the Alamo and will put it in the middle of the model.  Looking good so far.

She got her things ready for tomorrow morning.  Last night when we signed her planner, we noticed that there wasn't anything written in it.  She said she forgot to write the daily stuff inside.  She brought me her planner to sign and there was a note inside that said "I was talking during class while Mrs. C was teaching" on the side of the notebook.  First I asked what Mrs. Campbell said about the empty column and she said "Oh - she just circled it."  I asked what she was talking about when she had to write the note on the side.  She said she was answering a friend who was talking.  We've talked before about not answering people back as it's often the second person who gets caught.  I asked if she got any laps for it.  She said no.

I asked something else and then she said that she got two laps because she didn't complete her planner last night.  So we recapped the conversation and I asked why she hadn't shared this information when I asked her about it not one minute before.  She said she was going to tell me.  I told her that if she had really wanted to share about the laps, she would have answered the first question about what Mrs. C said about the column and not just talked about her circling it.  We talked about how it is always best to give information and not withholding information in hopes that we just don't find out.

Whenever she gets laps, we have her do one section of IXL.  Since she had two laps, she had two IXL sections.  We gave her a third section because she was trying to get away with withholding information and a fourth section because she was talking in class.  I'm sure this sounds harsh.  She needs strict boundaries and consistent consequences.  So it came to no surprise to her, but she was very much hoping we wouldn't find out and was answering questions very quickly and brief.  Always a sign that there is more to it.  When asked enough questions, she always gives the honest answer.  Just a matter of continuing to ask the right questions.

Madi is supposed to have LEAP tomorrow, but Mrs. Fuller won't be there so she'll be in her regular classroom for the day.  Art tomorrow as well and not much going on out of the ordinary.  We got her birthday invitations and sent emails to most of the parents to give them a heads up so they'll know when the party is.  We'll send the invites out in two weeks.

I'll save the best news for last!  Her choice in friends has improved so much.  She's playing with a few girls that are really awesome.  It's really great to hear her talk about playing with them.  She spends quite a bit of time on recess playing tetherball and is loving it.  So while there are some really frustrating attitudes and behaviors to deal with at times, she is growing and learning and it can only help her in the future.

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