During the first week of school students don’t have specials so I am a vagabond traveling amongst all the classrooms. My focus? Rekindling relationships and developing new ones. I stopped into one second grade classroom during a conflict resolution lesson and caught the tail end of it when students were drawing on the back of their papers. I visited one of my special friends, he is one of our tougher students behaviorally, and knelt down beside his desk to ask him about his picture. He proceeded to tell me it was one of his friends and him playing soccer. I immediately recognized the name as one of our new kindergarteners who was having a particularly rough time adjusting to the routines and structures of school. Suddenly, an idea popped into my brain and after listening to the rest of the story I thanked the boy for telling me about his picture and walked down to the kindergarten classroom of the previously mentioned boy. I knelt down beside him at his table and told him I was just talking to the one second grade student and his face immediately lit up! I could tell he greatly admired the older boy and really enjoyed the time he spent with him at summer camp. I told the kindergartener I would tell the second grader he said hi.
I then went back to the second grade classroom and asked the teacher if I could borrow the boy for a couple minutes; luckily she agreed (I honestly wasn’t sure what she’d say). I took the second grader down to the kindergarten classroom and let him talk with his little friend for a few minutes. When he was done he gave the kindergartener a high-five and we walked back to his class. In the hallway I debriefed with him and asked him what he told the kindergartener. He told the kindergartener how he needed to make sure that he was listening to his teacher and following directions so he didn't get in trouble. The kindergartener thought the big kid wouldn’t be his friend if he wasn’t listening to so he asked the second grader “or you won’t be my friend?” to which my second grade friend told him he would still be his friend but he needed to listen and do his best...cue heart melting music!
I am definitely going to be utilizing this peer mentorship to hold both students to a high standard and make them feel part of our community. This all stemmed from being willing to be authentic with students and inquire about a simple drawing.
ML 8/26/18