2 years ago during my quick adventure as an Early Childhood Special Education major I took a class which required us to spend some time at Sugar Salem Central Elementary. I started out in a the first grade class at the end of the hallway on the right with lots of windows, colorful walls, and a lot of books. My class was great. We spent math time going on safari hunts searching for the 5 elephants, 4 giraffes, and 8 lions I had hid around the classroom, spent recess racing up and down the fields and pushing swings, and practicing walking down the hallways without harassing the kids next to each other.
Once their year was over, the college still had 7 weeks in the semester, so a few of us were assigned to summer school. The first day we took our places in the room with no windows, nothing on the walls, and worksheets that could bore anyone to tears. We had 12 first graders trying to make their way to the second grade with all their friends.
Almost 2 years ago I blogged about a little girl named Kodi, who was six at the time and sat in the back of the room wearing her dad's extra large black sweatshirt on in the middle of the summer. As I got to know this little girl, and as I felt I had earned her trust, she began talking. Her mother had been killed in a car accident and was watching out for her from heaven.
Reason #234358713 why I know that I'm not supposed to be a teacher is because I get way way way to emotionally involved. As far as I was concerned, the teacher had less interest in her than he did in us being there.
Being an intern at the counseling center at Sugar Salem High School has it's benefits, although not the most productive internship. Over all, I've had some good interactions with kids, but for the most part its a constant reminder of how glad I am that I am no longer walking the halls of my high school. On Tuesday I had the opportunity to eat lunch at the same time as the counselor who travels to all of the schools to work with the students. I asked him about Kodi and why nothing was done to help her and he was shocked that he had no idea what I was talking about.
As we did more digging, we found out that she had 2 step sisters that attended the high school. He pulled one out of class and asked about Kodi.
2 years later, this (now) 8 year old was finally receiving the counseling that she needed and is doing much better. After several years of thinking about this little girl and the things that could've been done to help her, I was brought to tears (....betcha didn't believe the crying thing). I was so excited and so grateful that she has a family that cares enough about her to get her the help she needed.
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