Raw moments

SELA (strategic English Language Arts) is a difficult class to teach. Although there are only eleven students in the class, they are the "hardest" students to motivate, encourage, and push to learn and grow as readers and writers.

It is not their fault.

They have been labeled annoying (which they can be), discipline issue (which they are), stupid (which they definatly aren't) and have internalized those labels so deeply that they rarely see a reason to put in the slightest effort. They are experts at distracting others, including the teacher, to avoid having to try and possibly fail. Their skills at "survival" has paid off with a promotion certificate from middle school, poor grades, a placement in my class, and very little skills for success. They have taken the roll of "stupid" and ran with it, creating

The average GPA in third period is a 1.2. Every single child is in danger of failing three or more of their classes; three are in danger of failing all of them. Homework is something to forget about. Tests are a joke--I've been told on multiple occasions, "I'm going to fail anyway, why try."

Some days are harder than others in third period; but sometimes, we have mini-breakthroughs. Today was a mini-breakthrough day. They start the period with a journal everyday--today's journal was about feeling nervous or anxious and how it affects our lives (based on the story we're reading). Each kid has to read his journal outloud to the class after five minutes of writing.

C is one of the strongest kids in the class verbally and often makes an effort. He read his first and told about a time when he was worried about his aunt. They hadn't heard from her in over a week and couldn't get in contact with her. After spending a few days worrying, he wrote that he and his mom spent 12 hours in the car searching all over Riverside for her. The other kids sat speechless. He started to tear up as he read that they couldn't find her and so they went home. As he continued, he explained the phone call from the police that they had found his aunt and she had died. The others reacted with empathy and thanked him for sharing. D told me that he was the bravest guy he knew for sharing that in class; S told him that his writing style showed passion and had a tone of saddness that made her feel what he wrote.

After C shared, the rest of the period was somber, but deep. The tone has been set that we were going to look deeply at the stories and try to express ourselves in a say to make others feel.

As the kiddos walked out the door on the way to fourth period, A put his around around C's shoulder and said, "I love you, man."

Periods like today make the SELA class worth it when I feel like I'm running into a brick wall over and over again.