In the past few weeks, we have received a new student in my class that I'll call Jack. He is quite large and looks older than most of the children. He is very quiet and withdrawn. He struggles to keep his temper under control. The students quickly picked up on his mood and avoided him as readily as he avoided them.
I have another student who I have blogged about before, Shawn. He is eager for attention and has a genuinely big heart. He also misses social cues when it comes to another student. We've had to talk repeatedly that when the little girl he's crushing on screams, "Shut-up" at him over and over, he probably should consider leaving her alone. Shawn also is fairly small and has more of a little boy appearance to him.
One day, my co-teacher and I were in the middle of a conversation off to the side of how to begin to incorporate our new student into our class and into a group. Suddenly, my para came over to get my attention. Shawn had pulled his chair up next to Jack and was animatedly telling him a story. Jack looked unsure, but was tolerating the story, for lack of a better word. I couldn't tell what Shawn was saying, but it was the most I'd seen him talk to anyone but a teacher in a long time.
Watching them, I had this image of my brother-in-law's black lab who once lived with their toy dachshund. They were brothers and protective of each other. But sometimes, the tiny one would yap and yap in the big dog's face, and the lab would just stare at him. We were always happy they got along but terrified that at any given moment the lab could snap and eat the dachshund for breakfast.
Thankfully, at the moment, there is still peace in the backyard.
You don't know how many times I look at my Jack Russell and see my students. I don't mean that in a negative way ... instead, they have all this energy and are so very anxious to please ... May sound weird but it helps me understand their behavior and I try to treat them as calmly and with as much understanding that I use with Jack.
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