Love.

(I started this post last night and got distracted by a good friend and a bottle of wine, so I'm finishing it up tonight!) 

I've talked often in this blog about how much I love my kids.  From the kids of Room 29 to the kids at the daycare I work at 10 hours a week, I come home at night with over thirty little ones on my mind.  I wonder about what happens when they leave my classroom and the ways that those experiences impact the way they are while they're with me.  I get at least 30 hugs every day, and I make sure I hug them all a little tighter when I'm saying goodbye for the day.

I went to school early this morning to meet with my CT, the speech/language person, and C's mom.  (Although I've referred to him as "The Wanderer" in the past, I've made a conscious decision to start calling him by his first initial instead.  The wandering label purely describes his behavior, and who is to say that he won't stop wandering next week?  Or the week after?  I don't want to define who he is.  That's his job.) In the last two years, C's mom has been at school three times.  She works nights and I don't believe she has her own vehicle, which makes getting to school for meetings more challenging.  It doesn't help that so often we ask parents to come to school to list all of the negative things happening with their child at school.  I'd be reluctant too!  Anyway, we had a good meeting.  Mom was again surprised with his behavior, but said that it was more consistent with his home behavior this time around.  It was hard for me to be honest about the way that he acts.  I love the kid.  I don't want to just list out all of the things he does wrong and have those things outweigh his amazing personality.  However, I realize that he is a problem in our classroom and he takes up more teacher time than any other student purely because of his behavior.  I knew that I would be shy and only list the really great things about him, so I let my CT do much of the talking.  Besides, she's a pro at talking to parents and kids!

The thing that really got me was how C said NOTHING for our entire meeting. He made little eye contact and looked so uncomfortable.  His mom was all over him to "Look at her when she's talking to you" and "Speak, say something.  I know you're not shy.  Don't be acting shy now that you know you've been doing bad in school."  Parent/teacher conferences are awkward in situations like this one.  It's hard to navigate conversations when the way that you talk to a student is different than the way their parent talks to them.  I can't change the way that they parent or the way that they relate to their kid.  I really, truly believe that it's not my place unless a parent asks for tips or advice.  I just kept talking to him as I usually do, reminding him of all of the awesome things that he's done or instances where he did the right thing.  Still, he had very little interaction with the rest of us.

For the rest of the day, C was doing his usual things.  His behavior wasn't any worse than usual, but I certainly wouldn't say it was better.  He's a tough nut to crack! 

-Ms. T