Warming up at Johnson!

The week of March 19 brought me to Johnson School twice.  The weather as beginning to be beautiful and though I was feeling overwhelmed from school work, I knew I had to get my service hours in, and further I really just wanted to see the kids, specifically the 2nd graders.  I did not expect to have such a drive to want to go to the school and help Miss Ivy, but now that I was able to understand that my presence truly made a difference in each individual student's success, I felt as if had become my duty to these kids to make sure they succeeded.  Monday I arrived early, knowing that I would have to leave a few minutes early to make it to my class at 5:10.  I entered the cafeteria and could sense the excitement in the air from the warm, nice weather.  It clearly brightened their day.  I worked one on one with IB that day; I had worked with him before, but had never realized how much guidance he really needed to get through his work.  Not so much guidance as just someone keeping him focused.  Kids have a very contagious effect upon each other.  When one acts up, the next one does the next one and so on.  A truly ripple effect.  So being a representative of the Kennedy Center, it is my job to work specifically with those who suffer from autism or are at risk, and help them complete their work.  At times this requires me disciplining the other students as well because they are not only a distraction to themselves, but the entire class.  This Monday I actually was led to call down to the office because one girl was fighting with another, and of course getting everyone riled up in the process.  I was taken aback by the fact that these were second graders, yet they knew how to deliberately pull each other’s hair to get each other to the floor!  I was shocked and on my toes the rest of the afternoon as a result.  Wednesday was the nicest day of the week and the kids had the opportunity to go play outside.  The usual schoolwork went very smoothly.  I worked with a kid F, in Kindergarten, whom I learned very quickly how distracted he gets, from what was on my finger, to the color of my shoelaces, to the type of pants I was wearing, he truly required me to keep him focused on his work and get through it as quickly as we could before he started getting upset and then shut down.  That is something I have sensed immensely among the students, that taking a long time to do something, truly shuts them out and down.  They need the help because they have trouble staying focused, but their focus is so short that they are checked out so easily and then they are just done.  Some are manipulative, though young, and know that if they 'forget' their homework in their desk in their classroom, they won’t have to do it that day, being that this was such a nice day, this seemed to be a bit of a pattern, and from what I heard it was an issue the day before as well.  Before we went to the playground that day I was able to get through to D and remind him that if he didn’t have his spelling on Monday when I came back I was going to be very upset, he promised me he wouldn't, and I believe him, because if you instill a faith in them, they want to reciprocate it.  They do not as if letting others down, and it is interesting because it seems like so often they are let down by those around them.  It is not always an easy experience, when it seems they just do not care, or tell stories about how their sisters take care of them when they get home, because it is a new experience for me.  I can see their sense of need to have control and always be defensive even just playing on the playground, or by refusing to take their jacket off at anytime.  It is almost as if they fear something will happen if they let their guard down too far.  I think I have gotten to quite a few students, IB and D for instance always come to me, and seem to understand that I am there to help, asking if I will be there the next day and then seemingly disappointed when I tell them I won't be.  It makes me feel warm and rewarded, and excited for what is to come next.  I only have three more days left at Johnson School, for service learning, but I want to continue on, and I don't know if I am ready to leave the kids, rather I would love to see them grow further than they have, and truly see them be able to succeed in life.  This has been and is such an enormously rewarding experience!