Springtime in public school can be overwhelming due to a myriad of reasons. Banquets, performances, competitions, as well as state assessment all work to culminate a year’s worth of work in and out of the classroom. With each event, the expectation of one’s best is priority. As public school educators, we begin with students in August and teach them as best we can until the last day of school. Throughout the middle months is the most important part of all. That’s where BEING THE EXCEPTION counts most.
I heard a story once that I have never forgotten. The story is about Lissel, Henry and Ms. Dantrel. Ms. Dantrel was a third-grade math teacher. Henry, a boy in the classroom, was very hyperactive and rarely stayed in his seat. Henry also had a habit of interrupting the teacher every time there was a question that he knew the answer. Ms. Dantrel was typically a very patient teacher, and since the other students had grown up with Henry, they took his behaviors in stride. As time passed, third grade math concepts became harder and word problems became longer. Henry also became a little more hyperactive because math frustrated him. In late January, Ms. Dantrel seemed to be getting a little more frustrated herself because Henry’s hyperactivity appeared to be really trying her patience more than normal. One Thursday afternoon, the teacher had had just about all of the movement she could take. She knew she and the class needed a break. So all of a sudden, she had an idea to stop the lesson and move the classroom around in a totally different way than she had ever done before. Henry landed in the back of the room with his desk right near Lissel. Lissel was a very quiet little girl but she appeared to have a really good grasp on math concepts. The next day the class was working in pairs and Henry and Lissel were partnered together since their desks were close. As Ms. Dantrel finished with her second small group, she didn’t remember having heard Henry in about the last 20 minutes. As she looked around, she noticed him on the floor counting 10 pushups then sitting and working beside Lissel. This went on quietly for 10 minutes. She didn’t dare interrupt them to ask questions because they were working so well together. So she waited until the end of math when they were switching classes and stopped Lissel. Ms. Dantrel was so excited because she did not have to get on to Henry at all during the time he and Lissel were partnered together working. So she simply asked Lissel how she and Henry did in group. Lissel, in her quiet voice, said that since Henry loved to move so much that every time they worked a problem, afterward, he had to quietly do 10 push-ups. If he wasn’t quiet, then she wouldn’t watch. Lissel explained to me that Henry told her that his brain worked better when his muscles were moving. So Lissel told him that while they were sitting working the problem that he could be the one to write so his muscles would be moving then after they got the problem done he could do push-ups. Ms. Dantrel was so moved by this inspiration that she really paid more attention to how students helped one another and started researching movement in math class. She came up with many different strategies to let Henry, along with some of her other more active students, learn in a variety of kinesthetic ways. Behaviors went down and math scores went up. Moral of the story…when help comes to you from an unexpected source…take it, expand on it, and BE THE EXCEPTION!
As the bamboo seed seems stagnated under the ground, with constant food and water, it is getting ready to grow into something extraordinary. However, it takes time. Five years to be exact. Our students are much the same. For some, they flourish early. For others, they may be absorbing, absorbing, absorbing, then one day, they bloom! Don’t become frustrated and write them off, listen to what they are saying. Time put into caring enough to teach a student is never time wasted. BE THE EXCEPTION.
For the next two months, although the urge may hit you to complain about something, BE THE EXCEPTION. When you feel exhausted going from event to event, rather than lamenting about it, BE THE EXCEPTION. When you feel like you have taught the lesson every which way but sideways, BE THE EXCEPTION, teach it sideways.