Hope

Today was my day to be the aid in the classroom and the day started off OK, the boy who we have been having a lot of problems with seemed to have a good time during morning movement. (Kindergarten through Second grade all gather in the mornings from 8:30- 8:45 to stretch and get our bodies ready for learning in the lunch room)

As a side note- this child was the same one who on Friday last week, refusing to follow directions, pushed my co teacher so hard that she stumbled down some stairs- thankfully she was alright)

So today was a new day and I took it as a good sign that he was following my instructions and during morning movement. Unfortunately his good behavior was left somewhere in the lunchroom. As soon as we arrived into the classroom he stoped listening to me and my co teacher and basically doing whatever he wanted to do. I let him know that I would be ignoring him, though I would be writing down what he was doing so that his uncle knew all that he was doing.

He kept trying to snatch away what I was writing, and because he could not get to me, he decided to go and try to provoke our other behavior management child. Our other child was working quietly by himself and the boy who was not listening decides to push the working child. I was utterly shocked because this came out of nowhere. I complemented the other child for working quietly and for being peaceful because he did not retaliate. This seemed to enrage the child who did the pushing and he returned and pushed this child again, with much more force to the point that he almost fell off his chair.

It all became a blur after this, he ran out of the classroom, I ran after him, we somehow made it to the office where I called his uncle and let him know what was going on, the principal finds me and asks me what I want her to do about the situation, would I like her to suspend him for the rest of the day? (I really wanted to shout YES! but at the moment, it felt cruel of me) But somehow the decision was made and he was suspened for the rest of the day. His uncle showed up and then, his uncle, myself and our curriculum director, sat and talked about our boy. During the meeting, I realized that yes, it has been hard, yes, it seems like we have tried everything, yes, it seems like he has not been improving, but he has improved, a little, but he has improved, and we are trying to change 5 years of what he has learned was acceptable behavior, not to mention the fact that he is still seeing his mom, and the expectations and restrictions that she has set up for him are very lax from what we expect of him in school as well as what his uncle expects from him.

I think I just needed to hear a different, optomistic perspective for me to get renewed energy and ideas, and to realize, that not only do we his teachers have it hard, how hard must it be for his uncle and aunt to deal with him day in and day out? And to realize how thankful I am that this child is with his aunt and uncle who obviously care a lot about him and want what is best for their nephew.

Tomorrow is a new day, and hopefully, a better day.