So, Facebook reminded me of my first teaching job as a special education resource room kindergarten through second grade teacher. It was my second year teaching (2013), and the second year that I had with most of my students.
At that particular school, to be labeled as being in special education, a target was placed on the kids' backs. If they didn't fit a certain idea that teacher had of what the ideal student was, they were called out, complained about, and teachers always had low expectations of them.
This post is about this one student in particular. He was fidgety, had a shorter attention span than most, and had a hard time reading. Not to mention his self confidence and self-esteem was really lacking; in the beginning of when he came to my class, he always wore a frown. Whenever I would help out in his class, his teacher would call on him in front of the class knowing full well he wouldn't get the correct answer, or would yell at him for daydreaming; she would just share her negative notes of him whenever his name would come up in meetings. There were no interventions and no accommodations being given to cut this kid a break. (Of course, not all of the teachers there were like that).
I had the pleasure and luck of being able to be his teacher for 2 years (when he was in first and second grade). I was able to see so much growth in not only his reading ability, but his attitude as well. His frown slowly faded and was replaced with a toothy grin-smile combo. In the beginning of the second year with him, I decided to write him and his parents a letter (along with my other 5 students and their parents). This letter talked about the amazing growth that I was fortunate enough to have seen, his smiles, his creativity, and well, the huge turnaround his attitude took regarding school. He grew to like to write, and well, his reading also greatly improved. These are all the things that I wrote to his parents about.
I bumped into his Dad a day or two after the letter went home. Tearing, he said to me that
So, I guess the lesson here is that sometimes parents need to hear about something good that their kid does; no matter how "academically low" or "behaviorally challenged" they are. These are probably the same parents who dread going to parent teacher conferences because they know all they will hear are the can'ts, they can't read, they can't sit still, they can't learn. They are the parents who have been conditioned and trained to only hear what their child is lacking.
Remember that us teachers seem to wield a magical power; one that could forever change a kid (and I suppose even their parents) and their outlook to negative or positive. I, for one, want to be that teacher that changes a kid positively.
At that particular school, to be labeled as being in special education, a target was placed on the kids' backs. If they didn't fit a certain idea that teacher had of what the ideal student was, they were called out, complained about, and teachers always had low expectations of them.
This post is about this one student in particular. He was fidgety, had a shorter attention span than most, and had a hard time reading. Not to mention his self confidence and self-esteem was really lacking; in the beginning of when he came to my class, he always wore a frown. Whenever I would help out in his class, his teacher would call on him in front of the class knowing full well he wouldn't get the correct answer, or would yell at him for daydreaming; she would just share her negative notes of him whenever his name would come up in meetings. There were no interventions and no accommodations being given to cut this kid a break. (Of course, not all of the teachers there were like that).
I had the pleasure and luck of being able to be his teacher for 2 years (when he was in first and second grade). I was able to see so much growth in not only his reading ability, but his attitude as well. His frown slowly faded and was replaced with a toothy grin-smile combo. In the beginning of the second year with him, I decided to write him and his parents a letter (along with my other 5 students and their parents). This letter talked about the amazing growth that I was fortunate enough to have seen, his smiles, his creativity, and well, the huge turnaround his attitude took regarding school. He grew to like to write, and well, his reading also greatly improved. These are all the things that I wrote to his parents about.
I bumped into his Dad a day or two after the letter went home. Tearing, he said to me that
it was the first time any teacher has ever said anything positive about his son.They even hung up the letter on their fridge. Can you believe it? Their first time. He was in 2nd grade and had had more than 3 teachers before me (he also transferred from a different school the year before)... More than 3 years and opportunities to hear something, anything, positive about his son.
So, I guess the lesson here is that sometimes parents need to hear about something good that their kid does; no matter how "academically low" or "behaviorally challenged" they are. These are probably the same parents who dread going to parent teacher conferences because they know all they will hear are the can'ts, they can't read, they can't sit still, they can't learn. They are the parents who have been conditioned and trained to only hear what their child is lacking.
Remember that us teachers seem to wield a magical power; one that could forever change a kid (and I suppose even their parents) and their outlook to negative or positive. I, for one, want to be that teacher that changes a kid positively.
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