This year I have the last of four little Holidays. Five years ago I had the oldest in the family, the next year the second sibling. We skipped a year then last year the third arrived at my door, and finally the last Holiday arrived this fall. Recently the youngest Holiday came to school with bright red marker all over her face, hands, arms and even in her hair. I asked what her parents had said. She looked up at me with her big blue eyes and replied, "They said that Mrs. G. sure wasn't going to be happy when she saw me." Evidently, I must be the force to be reckoned with in that family!
I had a Professional Development meeting one morning and so I was out in the hall when a fifth grader I had taught a couple of years ago was walking slowly down the hall. When I saw this young man moving so slowly I put my arm around him and said, "Let's hurry to your classroom so you won't be late." I was trying to physically get him to move without forcefully - hmmm, pushing him. Resistant, he began moving even slower, in both manner and voice he reminded me of Eeyore. He answered, "That's what my Mom said. So, I'm hurrying as slowly as I can."
This year I have a special needs student that we want to interact more with his fellow students. One morning I discovered he is interested in Math Bingo. Sometimes he signs the B, I, N, G, O; sometimes he'll say the answer instead of the equation.
We are working at making him "Bingo Master". I was trying to prepare the other students in the classroom before the second game and asked that they not laugh if our friend said the entire equation, or turned his back on them when he called out the fact because it might fluster him and we wanted him to be comfortable with us.
One of my sweetest students raised his hand and with a stern voice looked me straight in the eye and asked, "What was that "F" word you just said about _____?"
What a great kid! His mom and dad should be proud their hardwork is paying off. He was standing up to someone he thought was a bully - ME.
As for me, I'm grateful he raised his hand and didn't quietly go home, telling his parents that I called a kiddo in the class the "F" word!
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