Time to Reflect

I have waited till now to post this because it has been half term week and I wanted some time to reflect on the first six days of the new venture. It has been really important to take stock so that when everybody asks me, as they inevitably will do, how it is going I know exactly what I am going to say. There were times during the first week when I really was not too sure, but then common sense took over as I realised I was expecting too much too soon, I am trying to live in this reality you see of instant miracles!!

There seems to be so much that I could say about events in the first week, but I am just going to summarise them, as they come into my head.

Two of the boys with real anger management problems had been absent on the first day and so when they returned it very much changed the dynamics of the group. It was not long before the anger came to the surface with one of the boys and I had to think quickly as to how I was going to deal with it. I had taken into school some duvets with the original intention of using them for sitting on during the private reading session of the day. However, when one of the boys was intent on going for another one in a very violent way, I quickly thought of another way to use them. I took the boy and one of the duvets into the corridor and made the boy 'beat the duvet' until he had calmed down and released his anger. Ideally I will want to work out what is behind all this anger, but as a temporary measure it seemed to work and the boy was then able to return to the classroom. I have to say that, had the incident occurred in another lesson then it could not have been dealt with in this way as the teacher could not have left the class and what normally happens at this point is that the boy starts to throw chairs around the room!!

On another day there was a similar incident with another of the 'angry' boys. This built up from snapping pencils to wanting to go for the jugular of another boy in the room. Again I took the boy out but he was determined he was not going to beat the duvet so I had to think quickly of an alternative way of dealing with the problem. I had a long chat with him although I am no closer to knowing what causes the anger here and I realised that he was very keen to get back into the group. So we reached a compromise and back into the room he went.

This contrast in actions and reaction has really been the theme for the whole week as it is always a case of thinking quickly for solutions but being aware that what works for one will not necessarily work for another. I know that there is a lot of therapy type work to do with children like this and I will just have to be very patient, as I have to gain their trust before they start to open up to me.

There were lots of positive things that happened during the week, which cannot necessarily be measured by the 'official from the Education Department' but I know it is progress in a holistic sense. They are as follows

The boy who 'had a bit of a face on' the first day, spent most
of the week smiling and laughing.
A boy, who uses the word boring every other word, then went
a whole day without saying it once.
The girl who has never put up her hand to answer a question
in a term and a half, by the end of the week was putting it up
every few minutes. The same girl has had few conversations
with her peers but by the end of the week she was chatting
away to several of them.
The boy who gave over his character in a History game to
another boy so that the lesson could progress without an
argument. The second boy then realised what the first had
done and so he shared his sweets with him.
The girl who commented on a talk I was giving the group on
Choices, that really there was free will and choice for
everything as long as we suffered the consequences of our
actions!
The boy who stayed in at dinnertime to clean a desk, which
had been written on as, he did not want our room to be
messy. This same boy had been caught trying to climb over
the school railings to escape two weeks before!
The girl who told the whole group the meaning of the Yin and
Yang.
The boy who then realised that they had something at home
with the Yin and Yang on too and he brought it in the next
day to show the group.
The boy who brought in his crystal and asked that it is kept in
the room so that it can be the group's crystal.

There are also other memories I have of the week, which do not necessarily fall into any particular category.

The fun we all had trying out the stocks in the History section
and having our photos taken. Each pupil went home with an
individual photo plus one of 'miss' in there.
The laughter they all had when trying to guess my age, as it
was my birthday on Tuesday.
My amusement as I received a letter of thanks from the
Chairman of the School Governors for all the work I am doing!
The constant need to reassess everything depending on their
level of understanding e.g. the Geography teacher wanted
them to put things in alphabetical order and several of them
could not do this, as they did not know their alphabet. This
then meant that the lesson I had planned on capital letters
then had to go on hold, as we had to address this issue first.
The feeling of being plugged into the 'National Grid' as I have
to be so aware and on top of things the whole of the time.
The realisation that I have enjoyed the whole week at school,
even though I was rather tired and somewhat glad that it was
half term.

Half term has been a real mixture of things.

Catching up with some, but unfortunately not all of my friends
as I ran out of time.
Manifesting a replacement car for my husband after his coming
too with a tractor had written off his other one. The car was
literally down the road at a garage and meant it eliminated
what can be a very lengthy process as garages are few and
far between where we live!
Having a couple of days out.
Doing quite a bit of schoolwork, particularly with new ideas,
which just seem to keep on coming. I am working out some
balance and co-ordination exercises to do with the group and
no sooner had I thought of these than I went into a charity
shop and there were 88 small balls, which I will need for the
exercises.

Summing it all up, not a bad week at all. I wonder what Monday will bring?