There is a student. I will call her “T.” On the first day of school, she skulked in, buried in a black hoody, avoiding eye contact, sequestering herself in a far corner of the room. I remember this day clearly because she also had on these tights that were really cool. Black tights with the skeleton legs printed on them. I remember approaching her at the end of class asking her where she got the cool tights. This was disconcerting to her. She took advantage of our private conversation to let me know she is “socially awkward” and has severe anxiety. “Ok, ” I reassured her. “I am not going to call on you or make you say anything in front of the group. I do need you to show me you understand by using the gestures and at leas lip synching “yes / no” or giving me a nod.”
A couple weeks later I decided to try the “star of the day” (I call them “Oprah interviews). Guess who was the first volunteer? I was practically in shock. She came to the front of the room and answered a bunch of questions. In front of the group! She plays the guitar. She plays every day, all sorts of music. She has a pet snake and a lot of cats. She works at a hair salon for kids. The salon is in Massachusetts near her Dad’s house.
She began to approach me randomly at the beginning or end of class to share various things “My Dad is Puerto Rican.” “Last weekend at work I heard people speaking Spanish and I understood most of what they said.” “I’m having a really bad day today.” “I am probably not going to be here on Monday because I am going to a concert Sunday night with my Dad and I won’t get home until after 11.”
I don’t remember when, but it seems like suddenly I noticed she sits in the front of the room now. Her hand shoots up to answer questions. She smiles and laughs. Her head is more up than down. She talks. Fairly loudly now, in front of the group.
AND YESTERDAY…in the last 15 minutes of the class when I said we were going to play a counting game she said “I have a good one!” She explained the game and I said “will you lead it?” It was like, no big deal. So there she is in the center of the circle leading the group in a confident voice, smiling and having fun. Other students were laughing and enjoying the game. One said “I am laughing so hard I might pee my pants.”
There is another student. I will call him W. W. was in my infamous “Block 3” class. A slight willow of a boy, he also approached me day one to let me know of his anxiety. I reassured him. Told him very clearly I would not call on him and I would not make him speak. He kept reminding me every day not to call on him. and that he needed to sit in back.
He ended up dropping the class due to the clinical anxiety and related severe health issues. Also due to the fact that a big source of his anxiety is his extreme worry about his mother who has some sort of extreme arthritis, is in a wheelchair and on oxygen.
We had a phone conference with mom before he dropped the class, in order to come up with strategies for W to make up work he missed due to his frequent absences. When it came to me, I said I did not want to send him work to do in the learning lab. I explained “the best thing he can do for Spanish is to meet with me after school, since what we do is interactive. I would be happy to do that. Maybe he can bring his friend R along so it will be more fun for him.” Mom said “Oh yeah, I don’t see how you can learn a language without hearing it spoken!” I kind of hooted and hollered in the phone conference because that woman was the first on who automatically “got” what this is all about.
W. dropped the class because his schedule was altered so he could go home early. He stops by my room every day between block 1 and 2 with his small posse of amigos. They pop in and chat, W asks me how my day is going, etc. Every day. Two of the kids are not in Spanish, yet they are picking up a few things because I greet them every day “Hola amigos!” And just silly stuff I say to W. in Spanish His friend R serves as “translator” for the other kids because he is still in the Spanish 1 class. I think R gets a kick out of this because he can translate. I think the 2 non-Spanish kids are at least mildly impressed that R can translate. And at least one of the non-Spanish kids realized he understood something I said yesterday!
So…yes I see a bright side and will try very hard to keep that in my view!