During our reading period last Wednesday, I felt that the class was extra loud. One of the teachers who pushes into our room for literacy came into the room. She is a sweet woman, but I think she just got fed up with one of my students and his talking back to everyone. I was in the back of the room working with a student and writing down something. I heard her say something like, "You are a nobody."
He continued to talk back to her, but I could not hear what he said. She replied, "You should be in the first grade!" The boy said back to her, "Well, Ms. Mitarai does not think that I am a nobody." They continued to have a conversation, but I could not hear what they were saying. After she left, we started to get ready to leave for computer. He came up to me and said, "Right, Ms. Mitarai, you don't think I am a nobody..."
We then had a conversation about how you cannot control what other people say to you. We can only control how we react to what people say to us. I told him I did not think he was a nobody. I asked him how it made him feel to have someone call him names. He said, it made him really mad. I told him that is how other people feel when he says mean things to them. We talked about how in life people will call us names, but it is how we react to them that makes the difference or something like that. I then told him that if he cannot say his words to himself in the mirror, he probably should not say them at all.
It did make me happy that he knows how I feel about him and the rest of the class. . . a little light to brighten up my day. I am happy that they know they each have worth. I just wish they realized how much their education meant to them. :)
I have not posted for a while mostly because I have not felt like there was a lot of positive things to write about. But perhaps, I am not looking hard enough or even thinking to write reflections. I think I shared this story with some of you in Utah, so I will try and post something new for you soon. I am grateful for all of your support that you give me.
*I posted a picture of a few of my students when we went ice skating in Central Park in December.
