Teachers, do you ever have a student who just...doesn't read....doesn't sound words out....doesn't seem to read the directions until you tell them to.....just...doesn't... try?
I have met this student who chimes "I need help!" about every five minutes, on the dot.  She doesn't read directions.  When I try to get her to read to me, she refuses to sound words out, waits for me to tell her what they are. (I've begun to get fairly good at telling the difference between when a student is thinking and when they are just waiting for you to tell them the answer.)  When we tell her directions, she seems not to follow them, until they are repeated by the teacher, right in her face, with their finger jabbing her paper, voice stern and slightly raised.
  I have a confession to make about this student: I REALLY DON'T like HELPING HER because of they way it makes me behave as a teacher, and the way it makes me feel about her, and about teaching.
  She is a daughter of God, with innate intelligence, although maybe not a genius, but enough to get her through.  Her intelligence can get her through most texts, through enough math that she shouldn't need someone else to balance a checkbook for her as an adult, through hard enough requirements that she can take care of herself and be proud of herself and feel accomplished.  She can observe and think.  She has social intelligence, and when I have truly made her try, I have seen the seeds academic intelligence that can grow, with effort.  She should not have to be 'fed it.'
  I hate feeling like I treat her like she is half blind, half deaf, and only half aware. I hate being that teacher who yells.  I hate being that teacher who glares.  I hate being that teacher who punishes for wrong answers.  I know I'm not normally that teacher.
  So what's the solution?  She's smart, and I'm not sadistic, so what's the problem.  Her regular classroom teacher and I think it's learned helplessness.  So what do we do?....I don't know yet.  But here's what I know so far: It can be unlearned; I think that happens through positive enforcement; ....and that's all.
  Well, in the type of learned helplessness common to my generation I have turned to the Internet for help, and this is what it came up with: (the first two I think are actually pretty good, for the record they come from other bloggers and similar sources.)


http://apeachfortheteach.blogspot.com/2013/10/learned-helplessness-learned.html

















http://www.teachhub.com/learned-helplessness-and-how-we-can-overcome-it
















And then there's this video with a demonstration on learned helplessness, which is pretty good.  For the record, however, I feel like this teacher isn't addressing the learned helplessness of her students equally.  Yes, it's very important to talk about girls and the learned helplessness that keeps them in bad relationships, but what about boys, and the brand of learned helplessness that they feel when it comes to men being stereotyped as abusers who don't control their temper?  I think it's important to address this, that boys often have learned helplessness when it comes to containing anger and not expressing positive emotions, and being the unhealthy element in a relationship.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/gFmFOmprTt0?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Well, I hope this can help me stop being a helplessly angry teacher, and my student stop being helplessly blocked by herself.