I have a little guy in my class who never sits still. It is not uncommon to find him under the desk, on the desk, under the neighbor's desk, on the neighbor's desk... you get the idea. It's not really his fault and he really does try very hard to pay attention and get his work done. Now that we're nearing the end of the school year, we are figuring out which battles to fight and which ones to let slide. Most days we make it work and we get through the day with no problems at all.
This morning, however, after 20 minutes of crawling around on the floor around his desk and not one sentence written in his journal, I had to send him out in the hall where he could work with fewer distractions. I told him he could come back in as soon as he'd written 5 sentences. Then I continued to teach the rest of the class.
Ten minutes later, he came bursting through the door and shouting at the top of his lungs. Now normally, I don't allow shouting in my classroom, but as soon as I realized what he was shouting, there wasn't even a chance I could get after him. As he marched up to me with his completed journal held high and an enormous grin on his face, he was yelling:
"I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad."
We all had a good laugh and I sent him back to the vicinity of his desk. It was the most perfect thing he could say. I don't think he's a 'bad' kid and I make sure he knows that every day. But it was like he was saying to me "I'm a little wild and that's ok. I will probably always be wild, and that's still ok." And it is. His over-enthusiasm about everything is part of who he is and I wouldn't change it for anything. He is comfortable with himself, the good and the bad. I could take a page out of that book.
No comments:
Post a Comment