Zach finally brought in his main notebook, and I now fully understand why people think he's unorganized. Yes, he has a system, but it's a terribly ineffective system. We talked about ways to organize, and while he tried to find reasons not to do it, I think he's finally seen the worth in it. We then talked about his Caesar questions and I'm very pleased with the thought he's put into it.

Billy forgot to bring the materials for the reading assignment with him. So we worked on a biology study guide and then the bio vocabulary list he was given in class today.

Zach brought in one of his binders today, but it was the math only binder. We talked about the importance of organization and Zach is still very resistant to the idea. He likes his system and thinks it works, and was constantly trying to find a flaw with what I was saying. I do think some of it sank in and if he actually tries it, I'm sure he will see the positive result. We spent the 2nd half of the class discussing his Julius Caesar project. He has a very good understanding of the play, but needs to work on fully developing his ideas. It was a very good discussion.

Billy was 50 minutes late for our session. When he got here we talked about his classes and the schedule for the next couple of weeks of FCATS

Billy came in ready to work today. We went through each of his classes and talked about where he is and what he needs to do. Not much is going on in school right now due to the FCAT's. But he did have two Biology study guides that we went through and completed.

Zach and I had a very good first session. We talked about his issues in school, which he thinks there are very few. I asked about his organizational system (which he didn't have with him), and from the sounds of it, he's on the right track but can fine tune it. It seems like his biggest weakness is not taking the initiative and being proactive in his work. He's unclear about the assignments in in English, but only asked for the syllabus once. When the teacher didn't give it to him, he stopped asking, which directly caused him to do poorly on the quizzes. He's a very smart and confident kid, but definitely can use some fine tuning.

The session was very difficult as the power went out right before we began. Consequently, we couldn't work on the biology study guides as we needed to go online for the text book. We talked about all his classes, but things are in a standstill right now for the FCATs. Billy was able to do his world history assignment and which we were able to get finished.

Billy did not have anything to work on today as the quarter is just starting. I tried to go over what he's doing in each class, but according to him, most classes aren't doing any work to focus on the FCAT. But he did have a lot of math to work on, so we cut our class short so Jackie could start early.

I have to say, Billy's change in attitude over the last 5 weeks has been quite a pleasant surprise. He's much less atagonistic and is now receptive to suggestions and instruction. He actually pulled his grades up in the last 5 weeks, and ended the 3rd quarter with C's in most of his classes. (A marked improvement from when he was failing most of them.) We talked about the need for a consistent effort and avoiding falling into deep holes like last quarter. I've been stressing writing down his assignments each day, and on that, he still seems to be reluctant. But he seems committed to doing the work this quarter and bringing his grades up. I'm pleased with his progress.

Billy remembered to bring in the focus questions for reading and the assignments for the summary. I was very pleased as I've been asking him to bring those in for two weeks. We worked through the material and finished up all of his missing work for that class.