I have some new staff, yeah! Very exciting. One is also a staff aide like my 'problem child'. The difference is obvious comparing her one month on the job to his 4 months. She is just excited and willing to learn and talks to everyone on the team. Meanwhile he has not done anything that is worth a write up, just conversations but nothing moving him towards the door.
So I am ready to have his mid-year review and I thought of something great. We go through the plans for the day and my assistant lays out all the supplies and answers any questions. These are usually simple things like combining things to make slime or building with recycled materials to meet a goal. Often he goes to someone else and asks what to do even after that. I have wondered about brain issues, memory or just being checked out, however you can't really ask that. So I wanted to say that he is encouraged to ask questions but they need to be focused ones. So asking 'what do I do' is putting the rest of the team in more of a caretaking role instead of a teaching role, however a question like "this part of the lesson plan is unclear, how do these 2 parts fit together to make the car" is a good question.
So it really isn't that his questions are stupid but they are not ones that show me he is paying attention.