Today I overheard a conversation about “the student” I’ve
previous mentioned in a blog. It was a positive conversation. She was shocked.
She couldn’t believe how he’s starting to behave. I just sat there and smiled
with my, “I told you all so” face on. Not too long ago I sat in front my fellow
educators, tears in my eyes and gave compelling reason after reason why I genuinely
believed in my heart this student could make a learning gain. My words are
coming true day after day.
It’s not been easy. I remember when he tested
me the first month with his foul words and aggressiveness. At first I
struggled; venting like many teachers have about the young man, and then it
clicked: I dug into my bag of tools and discovered how to work with him to make
him successful. What many people don’t know about me is that I have a double
endorsement in Special Education and my specialty is Behavior Disorders. I’ve worked
in the worst of the worst, and my current friend is a fruitcake compared to
other friends I’ve worked with.
The biggest thing that’s been working
is keeping my cool and patience. I learned this the hard way and figured out
getting on his level wasn’t working and understanding because of who he isn’t
he can’t control what he’s doing without help. I remember the first day I didn’t
get mad. My student was as loud as he could be in the room refusing to do any
work. You could hear the students saying, “Oh
no! Here it comes! Mr. Potrzeba is going to lose it. He won’t get away with
this.” I didn’t lose it. I just let the situation be and moved on with my
teaching. You could see the students shocked more at my reason than his. The
truth is, I was shocked at myself; but I’ve never looked back.
I try to check on my friend when I
have the chance in my free time during the day. It doesn’t happen as often as I’d
like. Tomorrow he’s in a for real test: all substitutes in 4th
grade. No worries, we’ll be in the school library planning. You bet I’ll be
checking on him for five minutes here and there; it’ll be more so for myself
than his. Shhhhhh!
-Mr. P
No comments:
Post a Comment