First Period, Difficulties with I.

In our first period class this morning, we went over the basics of file management, just like we did in each and every class. As this was the Computer I class, I started with more of the basics than in the other classes. We made a little file in Microsoft Word for taking computer notes, then we saved it according to all of the file saving criteria, we moved it around, we copied it to my "drop" folder, stuff like that.

I wanted the kids to be paying attention to the instruction throughout the class and not have any other windows open on their computer. One student, I., who sits next to the Teacher's Computer, kept opening Internet Explorer and surfing the Internet or opening Flash and trying to make an animation. I told him about 8-10 times that he needed to stop opening these other programs. He would close the programs for about 2 minutes and then open them right back up again. Even when I told him that if he opened another window, I would have to remove him from the class, he still did it. I removed him from the class. I was not sure what else to do. I can't teach 15 kids how to manage files on their computer while one kid is sitting at the front of the class surfing the Internet instead.

I went to talk with Mr. Caddoo about my problems in this area. Mr. Caddoo is the Assistant Principal and handles a lot of discipline issues. He said that the very next period (by coincidence,) I. had an IEP meeting to review his behavioral issues. The conclusion was that he has some sort of emotional behavioral thing going on that appears to have him compulsively doing stuff, like drumming pencils, rocking in his chair, opening Internet Explorer, etc. He appears to be doing this even when he is given direct instruction not to. Kind of like I ran into in my class.

Mr. Caddoo says that I.'s team has decided that he needs a "Support" class, that will help him learn to control these issues. Because of this, he will be transferring out of my Computer I class, starting Monday.

I guess that this problem was solved before I even knew about it.