Have I mentioned lately how much I adore my students? They really are the most amazing little munchkins in the whole world. Yes, they make some moments of my teaching experience less than enjoyable, but . . . they’re kids. Each student has a wonderful little personality. Some are outgoing and quite the entertainers. A few have senses of humor that make me burst out laughing, much to my chagrin at times. I even have one or two students whose complete understanding of the written language astounds me. I get so excited when I read one of their stories or paragraphs that I must dash from room to room and excitedly exclaim to the other teachers about the amazing talent that I have in my class! Then there is the little munchkin that must come in every morning before he goes to breakfast to give me a good morning hug. Bless his little heart. I also have an amazing artist. His drawings are so absolutely detailed and clear. I’m so impressed by his talent. I have students whose generosity is heartwarming. They are the first to say, “Sorry, Miss H, that our class isn’t listening to you.” They are, of course, rarely the ones with the need to apologize for something like that!
I could easily sit here and list off at least one outstanding thing about each and every one of my students. They are that great. As a teacher, some of the best things that I learn about my students come out in their writing. I haven’t done as much writing this year as I have done in the past. Writing is my thing. I love to teach writing, and my biggest hope is to instill a love of reading and writing in my students. To think that I haven’t done that this year is unsettling for me.
But I digress . . . as usual.
Although I haven’t spent as much time on writing as I would have liked, we’ve still done enough for them to grow and become good little writers. A good number of them have really learned how to put their voice into their writing and draw out simple emotions from the reader (which is usually me!). They make me laugh. They make me chuckle. They sometimes even make me tear up a little. (And it’s not always because they continue to write run-on sentences or forget their end marks or beginning punctuation! And indent? What’s indenting a paragraph?! Heh.) I think I might share some of their writing in here, just for me to remember it, and of course for the sheer joy of letting others see why I enjoy it so much.
Most of the time I find myself smiling at the students’ writing, be it for their content or for some of their creative spelling or even because of silly mistakes. (May I just say my loins roared? Yeah. I should keep all of their silly mistakes in a book somewhere!) However, as I stated previously, sometimes their writing brings a tear. Usually because it reveals something sad about the student or something that is going on with them. Bad grades, not having any friends, sibling rivalry, etc. However, I’ve just read one that really has me concerned.
One of the writing activities that I like to do for St. Patrick’s Day is “I Wish”. The students choose three wishes to write about. They may have one wish for themselves, but the other two must be for others—family, friends, the school, the world, etc. I truly enjoyed reading them. Of course a good number had wishes for lots of money or riches. Who can blame them? Most movies and stories dealing with wishes have to do with riches, right? However, some students showed a little more depth in their wishes. They revealed worries about grades and passing to the fourth grade. (They are all well aware of the rigid laws about third grade and passing the CRCT Reading test, etc.) I even had a few that made wishes about making themselves better people. ”I would like to be a good boy. I want to be a better person. I want to help little old ladies cross the street.” And of course, there were wishes that the class would behave better so that Miss H wouldn’t have to count down. After all, a happy teacher makes a happy class. Heh.
The one that concerned me the most, though, was a little girl’s wish for her parents to have more money so that they could buy food. ”Because we don’t have enuf food.” Each of her three wishes had to do with hunger. One was wishing that all the hungry people would have food so that there would be no more hungry people in the world. These three wishes and some of the other things that she’s said this year all started to make sense. I am not really worried that her family is struggling to even have food on their table.
I will talk to one of our school counselors tomorrow, but I am really wanting to do something for this little girl on a more personal level. However, I’m not sure how to really go about it. Would she be honest if I talked to her privately and told her that I was concerned? Would her parents be receptive to suggestions for community programs or help? I just wonder. Is she reaching out to me? Is she crying out for help?
Or I am overreacting?
Writing brings out the thoughts and wishes of people. It provides a safer way to “put it out there”. I don’t want to miss an opportunity to help one of my students, but I also don’t want to cross any boundaries. I’ve never been in this position before. Hopefully things will seem clearer once I’ve discussed it with one of our school counselors.
Anyway, I cherish these little munchkins of mine, and I’ll always do what I can do to help them. And that, my friends, is all she wrote! Heh.
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