About a month and a half ago, we got a student in from L.A. He is Taiwanese born but lived in California for over 7 years; needless to say he is practically fluent in English which is awesome. Along with this great communication however, comes the American mindset of many students. Nick (that's what I'll call him on here) doesn't like math, and doesn't want to do it, and he will let you know this. Oh boy will he let you know. It is in stark contrast to his classmates who are generally good at math and sweet students overall.
I have been struggling with Nick ever since he came- he doesn't want to do any work and is a distraction to other students in class if he's awake (he sleeps lots in my class too). He feels like he shouldn't be in Geometry and should instead be in a lower class because he failed his last math class, Algebra 1. I don't blame him necessarily, but it's impossible with his schedule to put him in a lower class at our school. Consequently, he has been shutting down a lot in my class no matter what I do to try to engage him.
Today in Geometry was just another day, so I wasn't anticipating anything special. We were working on sine, cosine, and tangent and I split the students into partners to do some problems. To my great surprise, I noticed Nick hunched over his notebook working intently. This almost never happens, so I let him go and waited for him to finish. When he did, he looked up, raised his hand, and asked if I could check his work. When I told him it was 100% correct, his face lit up and said "Wow, I feel so accomplished!" He then proceeded to go around the class helping other students who didn't understand.
It was a pretty cool moment. Who knows what tomorrow will bring, but it's a start to say the least.
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