September 13, 2023

I’m treading lightly with this post, and it’s gonna be LONG. Two weeks ago, there was a kiddo who caused a lot of chaos the first time they were in my class, I could not figure out what went wrong or how things went wrong. There was another kiddo in the same class that day, and it was clear they should not be anywhere near each other, but it was too late. I had never had an experience like this with a student or class. There was a lot of yelling not only on the part of those two kiddos, and other kiddos jumping in to try and help, but embarrassingly from me too. It was the last class of the day and when it was over…I cried. Several faculty members heard all the chaos and came in to make sure I was okay…I wasn’t. Not even close. Ends up this particular group of kiddos has been difficult since Kindergarten. I also learned that the culprit kiddo has so much going on in their life, more than ANY kiddo should have to go through along with having recently been diagnosed with Oppositional Defiance Disorder and Gender Dysphoria. When I found this out, I. Felt. Horrible. Absolutely horrible. I couldn’t stop thinking about them and what I could do to make the situation better. I came up with a plan to write them a card. When I got to school the next week, I noticed a hand-written note of apology on my keyboard from this kiddo. I had my card ready to give them when they came into class…BUT, on my prep that day they came in and asked if I wanted to play ping-pong with them (the school psychologist suggested this). I gave them my cute, tiny card and they said they were going to keep it in their phone case so they always had it. We played ping-pong for about 20 minutes as we got to know each other. Their class was - again - the last class of the day. When the other kiddo came in a little late wanting to cause chaos again, I firmly laid some ground rules, they were not happy and made the decision to sit out…but still tried to distract, but everyone ignored them. When they noticed how much fun we were having, they slowly joined in. Class was awesome, in fact I got zero points and kiddos left with jibbitz/stickers. Every time this kiddo has seen me since they have gone out of their way to say hi and to give me compliments, I have done the same. Today? I was working on some lesson plans on my laptop during my prep, so my head was down, when suddenly I heard a familiar voice (which would usually startle me), “Hi Ms. Karlyn! I just came in to give you a hug!” They gave me a hug, and while running out of the room said, “see you in class!” Class went well again today. #thankgodforawesomeschoolpsychologists #dailyelementarymusings #itsgonnabeagoodyear #focusonthepositive