Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Toys R Us Kid

Nova's shoe laces were always untied. It was the most annoying thing to watch. I'd stop him every time I noticed his laces came undone, which was frequent, to tie them again. Other times it was his shorts that were falling off his body. For most of practice I could see his boxers in clear view. He'd pull them up and minutes later, they'd just drop again.

A month into school he was failing every class. He didn't realize this, however.

Me: You're failing all of your classes.
Nova: What you mean? I got like a "C" in computer class. That ain't failin.
Me: A "C"?? All of your professors said you're failing. I have the emails to prove it.
Nova: I know for sure I got like a "C" in that computer class.
Me: (reading the email directly to him) "Nova's hw grades are as follows: F, F, F, C.."
Nova: Yeh see! I told you I had a C in the class.
Me: You got 3 Fs and a C. How does that amount to a C?
Nova: That's the last grade I got.

That conversation lead me to show Nova how professors calculated grades hoping he would understand the process better. He then asked what needed to happen for his grade to improve. We talked about his study habits and organizational skills, which prompted me to ask Nova for his notebooks. As I was asking him about notebooks, it then dawned on me that I never saw him around campus with a school bag.

Nova presented me with a red single subject notebook stuffed with a mess of graded work and syllabi from his four classes that had little writing in it.

No comments:

Post a Comment