The 30-Minute Challenge

I made S. catch up and do the pH lab since he wasn't here last week and was playing hockey in Mistissini (everyone here plays hockey or broomball, sadly the basketball enthusiasts suffer quite a bit from neglect). This kid is probably undiagonised for ADHD/ADD. Why do I keep working with all these hockey boys that have ADHD??? (Hockey is horrible for ADD while cycling is good for it)

S. is soooo bright but it's soooo hard for him to sit and focus. He is brighter than most of the other Sec 4s and will intentionally not give you the right answer despite pretty much always knowing the right answer. I learned quickly though that he knows and he has a fast memory. It was a struggle to get him to do the lab, which would have really taken 10 minutes instead of 30 minutes. We did it in a classroom, I took down notes for him and he forgot his lab sheet. I told him to go downstairs and get it, knowing that he would probably wander off and forget to come back. He didn't want to. He wanted to mix all the samples and then test the pH of that.

What a great idea! I cheered him on. Let's find out!

He was excited and so was I and then I dangled the carrot ... I'll do it, if and only if you go get your lab sheet first (whining ensued). It took 10 minutes and another one of our teachers to wrangle him back up. I didn't want to treat him like a baby - he's 15 and tall - and follow him to his locker and back. I wanted to give him the opportunity to be responsible and go and come back (for most kids would take 2 minutes). The last 10 minutes were a struggle, wrangling a pair of shoes out of his hands that he tried to toss basketball style into the garbage can and getting him to sit down. But if you can create anxiety in a way that's positive (you've got 2 minutes left I know you can do this!) then you can create healthy pressure for a kid to focus. He scribbled furiously and fast when I finally got him on task. Pumping him up as if he were on the last stretch of a marathon - write your name on the page so I can give you an awesome mark - a high five to tell him I'm proud him for finishing and zoom he was outta there as the bell rang at 3:40 pm.

I did my job. And so did he.