Yet another difficult teaching moment
Jul. 15th, 2005 06:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taylweaverAgain, related to violence, but this time closer to home. Yesterday, one of my students, whom I shall call J, closed a door on the finger of one of my other students (in a different class), whom I will call F. F had to leave school, because the cut was so deep she got stitches. Today, she came in with a thick gauze bandage on her finger. I eat lunch with the fourth graders, including F, and often end up conversing with them. F and B (her friend, whom J teases) told me that they are scared of J. I was not there when the incident happened. I do not know what J's intentions were, or if he really wanted to hurt F. I had no idea what to say when she told me she was afraid of him. She feels threatened by him. He is also a student, so I feel like I can't say anything negative about him to her. All I could say was, "I understand why you are afraid of him." In a way, F's comments were harder to deal with than the questions of the students the other day.
Of course, I also got some interesting questions in my folktales/drama games class. I was explaining a bit about what folktales are, and some kid asked me if Jesus was real. I had an answer for this, but it probably went over their heads (fifth grade.) I answered that we know he existed, historically, and that he was crucified, but whether or not he came back to life depends on what you believe. I said that different people believe different things, and that a belief is different from a fact, because a fact can be proven, and a belief can't, which is why different people can believe different things. But, as I said, it probably went over their heads.
Today, I also made a kid cry - because he made another kid cry. H made L cry, from what I can tell. This, based on the story the other kids told me - that H and C caused L to cry. C blamed it on H, and so did A, who was also there. It seems H did not want L to look at C's gameboy, so he pushed L away. H claims he neither said anything nor pushed anyone, but the fact that he then called L a crybaby - I did not witness this either, but enough other students told me this - leads me to believe that he was not being truthful with me. I asked him to leave the crowd looking at C's gameboy. I explained that he and L needed to be in different places. His response was to feel that I was yelling at him, and to feel that I had punished him by sending him outside. Then he was crying and wouldn't stop. I told him I was not punishing him and that I was not angry. Throughout all of this, I did not raise my voice. I don't think that made much of a difference, though. He was crying, and nothing I said would calm him down, so I left him there to calm down on his own, which didn't work either. I couldn't think of anything else that I could do about it.
Teaching is quite the experience. So many unexpected thoughts, reactions and questions. Every day I am surprised. But it's such a wonderful challenge.
Of course, I also got some interesting questions in my folktales/drama games class. I was explaining a bit about what folktales are, and some kid asked me if Jesus was real. I had an answer for this, but it probably went over their heads (fifth grade.) I answered that we know he existed, historically, and that he was crucified, but whether or not he came back to life depends on what you believe. I said that different people believe different things, and that a belief is different from a fact, because a fact can be proven, and a belief can't, which is why different people can believe different things. But, as I said, it probably went over their heads.
Today, I also made a kid cry - because he made another kid cry. H made L cry, from what I can tell. This, based on the story the other kids told me - that H and C caused L to cry. C blamed it on H, and so did A, who was also there. It seems H did not want L to look at C's gameboy, so he pushed L away. H claims he neither said anything nor pushed anyone, but the fact that he then called L a crybaby - I did not witness this either, but enough other students told me this - leads me to believe that he was not being truthful with me. I asked him to leave the crowd looking at C's gameboy. I explained that he and L needed to be in different places. His response was to feel that I was yelling at him, and to feel that I had punished him by sending him outside. Then he was crying and wouldn't stop. I told him I was not punishing him and that I was not angry. Throughout all of this, I did not raise my voice. I don't think that made much of a difference, though. He was crying, and nothing I said would calm him down, so I left him there to calm down on his own, which didn't work either. I couldn't think of anything else that I could do about it.
Teaching is quite the experience. So many unexpected thoughts, reactions and questions. Every day I am surprised. But it's such a wonderful challenge.
Initials
Date: 2005-07-15 10:42 pm (UTC)Hi, T.
All the initials in this post, and the relationships between them, make it a quite confusing read. I have read it over, and I think that I basically understand it, but I would probably need to draw a chart to understand entirely all the relationships in the classes.
With regard to the existence (and resurrection) of J: I would think that fifth graders should be (barely) old enough to understand the (somewhat relativistic-- yay!) answer that you gave them. On the other hand, I don't have a degree in education, so I might be totally off the mark in guessing what fifth-graders can or cannot understand. (I was precocious, so my own memory of those years, which is faulty anyway, can be no guide to what is typical.)
By the way, I have been wondering: if the school where you teach is in Chinatown, does that mean that many/most of the kids are of C descent? If so, does this affect their command of the E language?
And if so, do you find that the Q affects their ability to understand V detrimentally, whereas the Y of the W gives them the J to be able to learn Z quicker than their M counterparts?
Best,
G