Today was just about average on my scale of maintaining a successful learning environment. Nothing abnormal or exciting happened today. I spent the morning giving a reading assessment and returned to a calm classroom (thank goodness!). My class doesn't have the best track record with subs. Needless to say, the day was off to a great start...tests were done, I didn't have an awful sub report, and I wasn't worn out from a morning of teaching.
I did have one story that was told to me today that truly disturbed me. It came from the girl who has a pretty bad home life who I've written about before. Knowing where this story comes from makes it worse. She comes up and says, "I saw someone die this weekend." WHAT?!?! "He was very drunk and fell off the boat. He hit his head when he fell. He was bleeding everywhere and he died." I asked a few probing questions, but didn't find out much more. I had 2 main concerns about this story. 1 - How is her emotional well-being after seeing a person die this weekend? 2 - Why is a 4th grader with adults who were drunk enough to fall off a boat?
I referred her for further inquiry only to find out the story was one big lie! The only thing that was true was a guy did fall because he was drunk, but he hit is head on a nail, not the side of a boat...and he's still alive! Her story kept changing and I'm not even sure if I know the truth.
Was this a cry for attention or what? It makes me sad that she has to contrive such an awful story in order to get attention. I know that I could give her more attention in my classroom, but unfortunately, I have a whole classroom full of kids that need more attention. I know that she probably doesn't get much attention at home so what she gets from me is all she gets. Trying to help her before she goes through a life of struggles is what I became a teacher for.
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