We're fully in the throes of testing now, on Day 2, and it's starting to wear on everyone. The kids are grouchy and on edge, the teachers' tempers are frayed. I was thinking back to happier moments earlier, before they ever saw that darn test and felt real fear.
It was Movement, which is a time of the week that the kids really love. Pedro, who teaches it, has a great way with the kids, girls and boys alike, getting them to be in the moment in an authentic way that they can understand. He had them pair off and do an activity that goes like this: Student A says "one," Student B says "two," Student A says "three," and they start over, two people counting to three. They really have to pay close attention to each other.
One of my students, Jean-Pierre, did something really sweet. He was working with Carlos, who is an English Language Learner. So, completely unbidden, instead of saying, "One, two, three," he did his counting in Spanish. Really sweet. Carlos' English and Spanish abilities are about equal (he has a language delay), but it showed a lot of social intelligence on Jean-Pierre's part to come up with this on the fly.
All the adults in the room (six of them) wanted to high-five Jean-Pierre, and all of us gave him a ton of praise. He looked at us suspiciously, accepting the praise grudgingly. I asked him point-blank whether he knew what he had done to deserve all that. "No," he said, with a frown. I told him what a smart thing it was that he did. He gave me a rare, beautiful smile.
Seeing how these kids are struggling with the testing, I feel like I may never see that smile again.
Showing posts with label movement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movement. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Friday, March 22, 2013
Extreme Teaching
It's Spring Break, finally, and I am looking forward to the break. Not that I don't love my students. My placement at ABPS is wonderful. All the adults in the room work really well together, which is huge, since there's 5 of us. It's a joy and a pleasure and I learn so much watching Mr. Lee. But it is a workout: my husband calls it Extreme Teaching. New sport on ESPN 2.
Seriously: just for starters, you have a few students who need a lot of language to stay engaged, and you have a few who get about two words out of every sentence or phrase you utter. Everyone else is in between, so you have 30-45 seconds to focus their attention on something visual, and about 6 minutes before you lose them- pretty small window for a lesson. Then you have students who are really only engaged with movement or processes; others who hate such things and prefer to draw or look at visuals. I have a reading group that is four kids: two get easily discouraged, two who have noticeably fewer oral-language skills than the other two, and one who absolutely cannot sit still for longer than it takes him to read the text. It's tough. I have a math group of three students and they are in the same group because they don't have place value yet, but there the similarities end.
Individually they're unique, engaging, funny and wonderful. Some of them come from less than ideal circumstances, a few stories that will really break your heart in there as well. Most of them are mercurial in their moods- something small that you didn't catch can throw them into a black, unproductive mood for a long time. They cry a lot. They hit sometimes- too many times. They aren't as nice to each other as I'd like them to be. They're pretty darn hard on themselves, too.
So while I am already missing the morning hugs I get from many of them, I am also ready for a break.
Although I have to say, the moments that they are kind, and the displays of mature, calm behavior, (which are not at all infrequent) shine like stars in contrast to the many, many conversations we have as a group about mindfulness, about conflict and being conflict-solvers, about wasting time and saving time.
It's quite something to watch how they respond to these ideas. Even the students without a great deal of language can understand from the many, many examples we discuss. I think, on balance, these kids try harder for more of the day than your average students: there's fewer of them, nowhere to hide and Mr. Lee does not give them a pass. But it never seems to get easier to see how many things are so hard for them. I know they will miss school, too, although they may not miss me specifically. I hope they have some fun this week.
Seriously: just for starters, you have a few students who need a lot of language to stay engaged, and you have a few who get about two words out of every sentence or phrase you utter. Everyone else is in between, so you have 30-45 seconds to focus their attention on something visual, and about 6 minutes before you lose them- pretty small window for a lesson. Then you have students who are really only engaged with movement or processes; others who hate such things and prefer to draw or look at visuals. I have a reading group that is four kids: two get easily discouraged, two who have noticeably fewer oral-language skills than the other two, and one who absolutely cannot sit still for longer than it takes him to read the text. It's tough. I have a math group of three students and they are in the same group because they don't have place value yet, but there the similarities end.
Individually they're unique, engaging, funny and wonderful. Some of them come from less than ideal circumstances, a few stories that will really break your heart in there as well. Most of them are mercurial in their moods- something small that you didn't catch can throw them into a black, unproductive mood for a long time. They cry a lot. They hit sometimes- too many times. They aren't as nice to each other as I'd like them to be. They're pretty darn hard on themselves, too.
So while I am already missing the morning hugs I get from many of them, I am also ready for a break.
Although I have to say, the moments that they are kind, and the displays of mature, calm behavior, (which are not at all infrequent) shine like stars in contrast to the many, many conversations we have as a group about mindfulness, about conflict and being conflict-solvers, about wasting time and saving time.
It's quite something to watch how they respond to these ideas. Even the students without a great deal of language can understand from the many, many examples we discuss. I think, on balance, these kids try harder for more of the day than your average students: there's fewer of them, nowhere to hide and Mr. Lee does not give them a pass. But it never seems to get easier to see how many things are so hard for them. I know they will miss school, too, although they may not miss me specifically. I hope they have some fun this week.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)