Ch. 3:

Recently, a student overreacted in a quite surprising and violent manner to a situation with a fellow classmate—they were teasing each other about progress on ST Math; the student took his Ipad and slammed it repeatedly to the floor.  I was very shocked and taken aback by his behavior and hauled him out to hall.  He was screaming and crying, “I don't care, give me a Fix It Plan”.  My initial reaction was to take him to the office (or at least see if the Social Worker was available).  But, after the initial outburst, he calmed down a bit and I could quickly assess that it had little (if any) to do with the altercation.  Rather, it was a spillover from this student’s previous night and morning.  He has a tumultuous home life and is constantly being pulled between two angry parents (who aren’t together and never have been) and a caring grandmother stuck in the middle.  He is dealing with worrying about his mom verbally and emotionally abusing him and wanting to stay more with his dad, who hasn’t always been in his life.  I believe this child is dealing with a combination of unmet needs.

I think I got lost in the behavior vs. the need, but was able to salvage the situation by helping him to meet his unmet needs, specifically his emotional need.  If I can remember this more during “the heat of the moment”, a lot of time, energy and stress can be minimized.   And most importantly, I will be able to help the student when they need it most.

Chapter 1

I feel that our school and district is heavily invested in SEL and addressing trauma -savvy practices.  I also feel that my school because it’s a small K-8 school, we can create a family environment.   Teachers can and do follow former students and students can and do visit former teachers.     We have students come from high school and college and I even had a former student of mine who is now attending St. Olaf College send his high school sister to visit me!   That’s a sense of community.    

I think, however, we, or at least me, tend to battle that curriculum push.   I know our district is moving away from the testing push and giving us permission to think “outside the box”, which I love and am excited about.  However, it’s a paradigm change.  We had been stuck on NCLB and testing, and I have to consciously remind myself that we have recognized that school and learning are so much more than test scores.

I feel we need to embrace those brain breaks more, as the authors name them.   Recently a student of mine, wistfully commented that he just wanted to read without analyzing the story.   So, we did.   We set up a 45-minute read what you want time.    I then asked them why we need to continue this.   It took a few minutes for them to answer.   I had to keep reassuring my students that they weren’t in trouble and I planned to continue but I wanted to know what benefits they saw.  One student talked about the benefits of de-stressing.   Interestingly, he backpedaled from that word, immediately.   We talked about the gerbil wheel.   Got to keep accomplishing.   We acknowledged that was stressful.   Another student mentioned that reading was a form of escape.   He had nothing particular in mind when he said that, he just liked to escape.    We agreed that we will continue this at regular intervals.   A final note, the students were startled that I was reading too.  I explained that I wanted the same benefits they did.   

Chapter 2 – factors that contribute 

Oddly enough, I feel our tendency to vent can contribute to the problem.   Teaching is stressful, now more than ever.    Sometimes at the end of the day, we just have to let it all out.   Venting is one thing.   It can move quickly, however, into a darker realm (sorry to be dramatic).    I'm just as guilty.   Teachers can begin to mock the parents or the students, rather than attempting to show patience and goodwill.   It’s so easy to forget that everyone is carrying some sort of burden and we need to be understanding.   We don’t know what may be driving a student or a parent’s behavior.      

Bitch fests are easy to join.   We can’t though.   We need to find another way to deal with the stress of teaching.    Maybe instead, express our empathy and hope for a better day then move onto a much more cheerful topic?  

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