Making Connections - A School Update

(I'm still doing research on Breyer's early grey Appaloosa color, so that post will be delayed until tomorrow.)

As of yesterday, I completed four of the five weeks that I agreed to spend as the teacher at SOAR, a school for middle schoolers who have been expelled from their regular classrooms. Things are improving with the kids; I think it has been almost two weeks since I heard the f-word or was called a b----.  That's progress, for sure!

I have worked really hard to connect with the kids - I could tell from the very beginning that my contribution to their lives would not be so much an academic one, but that it would be helping them see that there are adults who like them, who care about their welfare, and are doing their best to help them achieve. (We have gotten some academics done, too. Huzzah!)

I started trying to make those connections immediately. Knowing that I had just taken on a difficult teaching assignment, my friend and colleague Kathy offered to come for a visit with the dual purpose of getting to know the middle school and high school programs. They are under her jurisdiction as she is the school corporation's mentor of new faculty, and she had never visited the program before.

I was not sure what to expect as it was only my second week in the classroom, but the morning class was riveted for an hour and a half. And afterward a student asked me for more information about guide dogs and their training!

Another way I made connections with the kids was to invite a girl to bring in her beloved guinea pigs.

 This is Salt who enjoyed hanging out on the kids' desks.

 Ginger was a cuddler and would lie on his back in your arms and go to sleep.

A student who I had known (and bumped heads with) at my former school is in the class. He has a hot temper and is very mouthy. He surprised me by making me a picture of a seal to hang on the wall by my desk.

I don't think that these kids have gotten many compliments in their lives from teachers or the other adults in their lives. It almost made me cry when I saw that one had pinned a post-it note from me up on his work station.

Three kids have not made it through the program and are gone permanently, while ten of the original thirteen are still hanging in there. I am hopeful that they will make it through to the end of next week and be able to return to their home schools next August.

As for me, I have been asked to come out of retirement permanently and teach the class full time, but I have declined. The emotional drain on me has been tremendous, and I have lost a lot of sleep over these kids, worrying about them and how to reach them.

One more week to go. I hope that we ALL make it through!