LOVE.

One of my goals for my 15 weeks in this classroom is to love on the kids. Today I had a great opportunity to do just that. During our morning calendar time we pick from a group of notecards with the kids names on them. The deck of cards fell on the floor this morning and all of the names got out of order. One child claimed he was set to be the helper this morning, but because of the falling cards my CT wasn't sure and picked another child. I knew right away this wasn't going to end well. The child immediately got upset and started calling the child who was just picked to be the helper many unkind names, and then proceeded to throw classroom items. I isolated him and tried to talk to him. I realized very quickly that he was too steamed for this to work right away. I gave him the space he demanded, but kept a close watch.
Later, I met up with this child again, who was moving around classroom furniture in a rage. I could tell he was still upset about the incident that took place an hour before. I sat next to him at his desk and told him what I do when I'm mad or upset. I told him that I like to write. He responded quickly with, "I ain't doing that!!!". (Like I didn't see that coming, haha). So I quickly thought up a new plan. Coloring, yeah coloring will work. I told him to take out a sheet of paper and using any color or color combinations he liked to scribble all over the page. To my chagrin, (I mean, have I ever done this myself??  no...) he took to this "activity". He chose black and red and feverishly scribbled on his page. I told him that once he was done drawing his "mad" picture he needed to draw a nice picture on the backside of the page. He kept scribbling and mumbling under his breath. I just sat next to him with my hand resting on his chair. I wanted him to know I was there, as his friend and someone that cared about him, but not invade his privacy or this process. He finished his scribbling, flipped his paper over and began drawing his nice picture. He began drawing a person, complete with a smiley face. He then drew another person, and connected this persons hands with the previously drawn person. I asked him who he drew, and he replied with, "This is me and you, Ms. K!!". Oh my word. My heart at this moment was full. For the rest of the morning I kept tabs on him to make sure he was doing okay. Many times during the morning I would walk up to him and tell him how proud I was of how he was acting and that I cared about him.

I'm so thankful for today.