Returning to Elementary School, Thoughts of Junior High

This week I began in my new elementary school site.  Even though the dyad is over, I felt I was beginning to make a bond with the kids.  Perhaps from their eyes, I really wasn't.  They hadn't changed THAT much in the two months we visited them.  What changed, I think, was the way I saw them, and the potential ways to connect with them.  With our short literacy read-aloud, I found myself enjoying and trying to anticipate what would be engaging for them.  Getting to know their personalities and their quirks. Knowing that what happened to them outside the classroom would affect them, and us, inside the classroom. 

The two days I spent with my main site class, a 2nd Grade, recalled me back to something I had heard when I worked as a paraeducator.  One of the para-educator's roles is recess duty.  For a year, I got to watch my special ed students climbing, running, playing, arguing.  Sometimes I could just watch and enjoy their play. Other times I had to step in, and sometimes the kids came back in, frustrated and somewhat escalated.

I am used to chatting about what happens in my daily life.  I would tell the main teacher about some of the student antics if it was unsual. Perhaps the kids had a really great day. Maybe they did something cute or heartwarming! Or maybe the had been reprimanded, and were on a war-path.  I would tell the main teacher these highlights at least once a week.

Then one day, my fellow para-ed took me aside.  You know, she said, (Main Teacher) has her hands full all day with them when they're in her classroom.  She doesn't get to see what happened on the playground, and you know, it's better not to bother her about it.  She can't do anything about it, it would have already passed.  So let's not bring it up.

I asked, Wouldn't it be better for her to know? Since the kids sometimes show growth? Or if they're escalated, that it would give context to what she is going to handle?

I didn't get a clear answer from that conversation, but the overall meaning seemed to be that if the main teacher doesn't ask, we don't tell.

It didn't sit well with me, though most of the year passed without more that the regular amounts of drama.  Yet now, so much emphasis is placed on knowing our students outside our "normal sphere". Being in my 2nd grade classroom, I saw in these two days that seeing only the surface behavior worked only to reinforce the behaviors some students use to cope. It only served to continue my helplessness and frustration if I didn't TRY to understand.

I'm lucky that because I know the background and situations of some students, that I could scaffold my response to them.  When a student was stalling, I could recognize the power play at work, and I could give her a short but firm decision for her.  Each student has so much history it could fill a book.  We owe it to them as teachers, to read past Chapter 1.