I’ve written about Robby before, he has been a difficult student since the beginning of the year. Just two weeks ago during class he was hanging from the door and pressing his face against the window. If he attended a school in Wilmette, the ease with which he learns and his curiosity would probably have landed him the “gifted” label years ago. Here, he’s known as an instigator and a distracter, someone who constantly calls out and bothers classmates.
For Halloween I brought in candy corn for the students to enjoy. I dumped it in a plastic pumpkin and stuck in a plastic spoon to aid portion control – it didn’t work out too well. Some students, like Robby, horded the candy in their shirts and pockets while others just threw it across the room. As a result, I was stuck with five extra bags of candy since I didn’t want to risk the same results with the other groups. A couple of weeks after that incident, Robby stopped to talk with me after class. He asked where I had bought the candy and how much it cost. He asked if I could buy it for him and said he would pay me for it.
Last week I brought one of the leftover bags of candy to school. That day I asked Robby to stay after class and let him know that I noticed that he had had a good day and hadn’t lost a single point. I continued that if he could go a whole week without losing a single point, I would give him the whole bag of candy corn. I’m sure some will be disappointed and disillusioned (since so many expect teachers to believe wholeheartedly in every single student) to find out that I really doubted that he could do it; I was ecstatic to be proved wrong.
At the end of class today Robby came up to my desk with a proud smile and politely reminded me of our deal: He testified that a week had passed and he hadn’t lost a point. I gladly handed over the bag of candy and asked him to keep it our little secret. It says “Great Value” on the bag of candy corn – who knew how “great” the value really was! If someone had told me that if I bought a bag of candy for $3, I could have a week of calm in class, of course I would do it! When I was reviewing the students’ point cards this afternoon, I was further astounded that Robby is a “Star of the Week,” having improved since last week by an unprecedented 14 points.
