Topic: New York City, Mississippi, kids, summer vacation
D.J. was one of my students this past year. He was 7 years old, in a 2nd-4th grade special education classroom. He never smiled. That was one of his most notable behaviors. He walked in with a frown, and the main teacher (I was more of an assistant at the time) would say, “Is everything alright DJ?” and then remark how she never saw him smile.
Alex was another one of my students this year. He was 10 years old, and in the same 2nd-4th grade classroom. He was light-skinned, with long black hair, and proudly Peurto Rican. He would pick up a book, any book, and say, “In Puerto Rico we read this book.” Alex was illiterate, and couldn’t read a single children’s book on his own.
Dominasha was another student of mine. She was also 10. During writing, she would yell at me, “I’m not doing this.” During reading, she would put her head down and sleep, or tell me she’d do it at home. At the start of the school day, when the class was meant to be sitting as a group, she’d be off at a different table with her sugar drink and bag of chips. “I’m not sitting on that dirty rug,” she’d comment. Then I’d find her doing writing in some workbook she had from home. I’d peak at it later, and realize that she was merely copying, “Copyright 1989, New York.” On mother’s day, she wrote a poem in Spanish. She speaks only English. She didn’t seem to care when I pointed this out.
Ryann began the year in a 4th grade classroom. She had her own para-professional to help her stay on task, since she often has behavioral problems, including acting violent towards other students, and disrespectful to teachers. After accidentally hitting a teacher who attempted to break up a fight she was in, I became her teacher. The first week she loved me, and couldn’t wait to help set up her new room. Not long after, she was telling me, “I’m not staying in this stupid class.” “Why you looking at me you black burnt biscuit,” she’d comment to another kid in the class, and then whack him in the head. On at least 15 occasions I had to physically restrain her from chasing another student around the classroom, and deal with her scream, “get your f#%#in hands off me before I slap you.” She nearly drove 3 paras out of our school.
One day, during morning meeting, as students were sharing their goals, I announced, “My goal is to be super positive!” in an overly excited tone. DJ laughed. Later that day, as DJ was playing the game Trouble, I asked him what he liked about the game. After he told me, I said, “Wow, you could write a great story about that.” He looked at me like I was a bit off, but I pulled him aside and told him to write about why he liked the game Trouble. He took his time, asked me how his spelling was, and then wrote 4 sentences. The other teachers were surprised. “He’s never written that much before!” they exclaimed.
Alex continues to walk around with Don Quixote and other 500 page books, but eventually learns to sound out short words. One day, reading a book about a monkey that loves spaghetti, Alex begins to figure out “ay” words, like play, may, day, and say. “I can read!” he remarks, in a funny childish squeal.
Ryann continues to drive others a bit insane with her language and physicalness. Her mom comes in, a woman who I’d been told had threatened our principal, and who once walked into my classroom and shouted, “Who’s the kid whose been bothering my daughter.” For weeks, I’d been trying to get her to come in to tell her that the special education committee and myself wanted to recommend her daughter to go to a different school with a more therapeutic tone to help her with a behavior. It turns out the mom, after years of having phone calls home, had reached a similar conclusion. I pray, for both her sake and our school, that she gets the help she needs.
My first year of working in a school was tough. I had nightmares about some of these kids, woke up with severe anxiety most mornings, and felt exhausted and frustrated most of the time. Kids need to learn simple respect, they need to learn how to read and count (many of their number skills are at 1st grade levels). I recently road my bike through Red Hook, their community, and with new perspective realized how uninspiring the area looks (industrial, barbed wire, trash). More to come…
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