Today was my first day back from spring break and boy could I use another week. Coming back to school today it kind of felt like there was no break because we jumped right into our routines. These kids are REALLY growing on me and I felt like I had some really cool breakthroughs today.
First off, about two weeks before the break, we got a "newcomer" in our class. A newcomer is someone who is new to the country. He didn't speak a lick of English and had never attended school before so he didn't know how to draw or even hold a pencil. In the beginning there was a lot of shrugging (since its a universal sign) because neither one of us could understand what the other was saying in our native language. But I am amazed at how quickly kids are able to pick up language! Today he totally surprised me and we made awesome progress in math. I helped him learn how to write numbers 0-9 and even how to count objects in English. It was one of those moments that I was so excited to be a teacher because you could just see the learning going on inside his head.
The second cool moment was with this little boy who actually scares me...because you never know what he is going to do next. He beats up on his classmates and has actually come after a teacher...and he's in first grade. His emotions are all over the place and he is very unpredictable and paranoid. Today we were reading a story together in the back of the class and he noticed another student look back in his direction so he yelled, " Why you looking at me?!!" Then out of nowhere he started to cry about not being able to join a rotation group (that happens later in the afternoon), put his head down on the table, but in the next instant, he lifted his head up, no tears and started talking about something else. Anyway, so my master teacher told him that if he could finish reading the story with me, he could help me stack some homework. He was a completely different child while he was helping me. This child is a menace to have in class, disrupts others, picks fights, yells, and is all around disrespectful, but when he was helping me, he turned into a working machine! He was all business, no fooling around. It was actually really cute. I would hand him a pile of papers that he needed to organize and stack and then he would go back around to all the different piles and make sure they were perfectly straight. For some reason he reminded me of a little business man and we worked well together as a team. It's amazing what kids can do when they feel important and needed. He comes from a terrible home life where I have heard there is physical abuse and a serious lack of love which is I'm sure why he acts out in school. But the moment he is given a little praise and an "important" job to do, he totally and completely rose to the challenge.
Lastly, I love that in the younger grades, kids love their teacher no matter what and love to do nice things for them. On our way walking the kids out to lunch, two students gave my master teacher a dandilion and a flower. So sweet. Seeing that kind gesture, this very sweet, quiet little girl in my class wanted to do the same thing for me. So when I came to pick the kids up from lunch, she hands me a weed she'd picked out. It's the thought that counts, right?
