Thursday, February 23, 2012

blessed are they...

I arrived at Mass this morning and I noticed with an internal chuckle that the lady who occupied "my" seat for the past two Lents is back again...in the exact same seat.  Just for the record, I gave up fighting it last year and just changed seats.  I rather like the new spot better...it was there that I met Brother for the brief time last fall that he joined us.  It is always good to see all the new faces at Lent, but it is too bad that by the week after Easter, we are all back to the "regular" crowd.

As I prayed today, "Lord, show me how to be a giver of hope to these children,"  the answer spoke forth from the Responsorial Psalm.  Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.   If nothing else, it is a reminder to me to stay close to the source.  It is always kind of neat when you get an answer just like that.  Who says the Lord doesn't still speak?  But He could say a little more...a few more specifics would be helpful!  All in due time, I suppose.

I had a moment with one of my fifth graders today.  He is 13 and just totally disruptive in the school setting.  I do have some compassion for his circumstances, but I am totally at a loss as to how to deal with him and how to keep him from disrupting the classroom for others.  Today he was sitting in his desk in the way-back of the classroom, and I pulled up a chair next to him.  The teacher was giving the specifics of an assignment, so I went back to my room (2 doors down) to get my iPad, so I could could have the info to help my students.  By the time I got back, she had switched to a short lesson on using quotation marks and writing dialogue and was having the students copy what she was doing.

I thought for a second and put my iPad on his desk and told him to type in what she was writing.  The gasp from him was audible, since I rarely let the kids touch it.  (It is mine. It was expensive, and if it gets broken, I want it to be my fault.)  I showed him how to put in the quotation marks and commas.  It was just a moment, but sometimes you just have to savor those.

1 comment:

  1. Good thinking! All of the SLPs and Self-contained teachers got iPads right before Christmas. The kids like them, but I left mine at home Thursday...forgot it on the charger. I used picture cards instead, and some of them actually preferred the cards instead of the articulation program I've been using.

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