A child's life...

This week, in my second grade class the teacher whose father has been very ill received a call in her room and began to cry. I knew at this point that something was wrong and she most likely needed to leave the room or leave the school to drive to the hospital. I took over her class for a short time until another teacher came to get her class. As the teacher left the students were asking if she was okay and what was wrong. A few students got out of their seat to give her a hug and tell her they were sorry. I wondered if the students understood what was going on and how many of them have experienced death. The class knew her father had been sick and were empathetic and worried for her. Her father later passed away later that day and I am assuming she may be out for a period of time. When does a person start to feel up to returning back to work after a death in the family? I am sure it is a very slow process and hard to get up in the morning.

I have so far spent each day with my students since January and I have learned so much about their families and personal lives. As we all know, children are very open people and have no boundary for what they share. So far a kindergartner told me her mother died when she was little because she was sick, a third grader told me he was adopted when he was a baby, and many students (mostly boys) have told me about their dad living "somewhere else". Hearing these sad glimpses into the student's lives reminds me that each child is dealing with a difficult situation or possibly tragic at home and to always take that into consideration as a teacher.

Lastly, on a lighter note- the student who recently told me he was adopted has been behind his class on multiplication (he is on his 6's, while most of the class is on 9's). I work with him a little bit each day on flash cards and most days he just gets frustrated and shuts down. The last few days he has been studying and practicing his 6's. When I came into his class today he called me over to his desk and with the biggest smile said "I passed my 6's and I didn't get not one problem wrong!". I was so relieved that he passed and so pleased that he had worked hard to study and it paid off, I know that made his day-maybe even his week!