If the name does not sound familiar, Billy Ray is the name given to a student I blogged about a few weeks ago under the heading "Dealing With a Struggling Student.". My problem with him was a lack of motivation coupled with a unique home life outside of school. The last few days have been a change for the better, unfortunately, this change will not improve the grade he will be getting on the memoir project I previously described. Realizing that all the work-time given in class was actually for a purpose, he is scrambling to get things done and submitted to us, even coming in at lunch to attempt these feats.
Granted, the time he comes in at lunch is mostly spent socializing with little work being done, I am happy to see at least the impression of effort on his part. The only thing that worries me is if this surge of motivation to do well in school will deflate once he realizes the work he is doing now (which should have been done weeks ago) is too little too late. I am all for giving him credit for the work he did, but that part of the assignment is over. Now, visual representations of their journals and poems are needed to be binded together in an album specific to each student.
As of today, he did not have his complete (we gave the whole class an extra two day extension for the final deadline). My hope is that he takes this as a learning opportunity that if he just stays on tasks (which he is capable of doing) the final aspects of future projects will not be so difficult