Actions I've been taking:
1. Making sure he doesn't fail.
2. Posing questions and such as a means to engage in conversation.
3. Showing interest in his answer to the question of the day.
4. Lingering by his desk in hopes he asks me a question regarding his writing.
Impact I'm having / results of said actions:
1. Success...barely!
2. Receiving a series of "I don't know...""I have no idea...""Good."-type answers to said questions. They were open-ended!
3. Apathy!
4. Nervous switching away from games on iPad, followed by fleeting glances and nervous plotting.
What questions are being generated:
1. Why do students not care until the final minutes of the trimester if they will pass or not?
2. Why doesn't this guy want to engage in witty banter with a cool guy like me? I'm even asking him about stuff I know he's interested in: wrestling, hunting, shooting mammals, camouflage, etc.!
3. What's with the apathy? More pointedly, "come on, man!?"
4. What is so freaking good about "cookie crunch?" The game is literally something that a monkey would get bored with. It is tapping the screen repeatedly. It is inane. It is useless. It is a sign of the apocalypse, Fahrenheit 451, and everything that's bad.
I would say that I did not succeed at "putting a dot by his name." I gave it the old "college try," but he was resistant to my efforts. The trimester ended 1 1/2 weeks after I began my conquest of his personality, so that's unfortunate. But, I know he likes cookie crunch.
Well, sometimes we can't connect with everyone. Apathy is a tough thing to battle and even though it wasn't successful, I hope you continue to find ways to connect with the kiddos. I am sure that deep down, the witty banter was appreciated.
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