During the first morning of school, I was in a 1st grade classroom, and this little girl was crying. I went over to her immediately and introduced myself. She said, "I miss my mommy."
I said, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I know how you feel. I miss my mommy too (been deceased for 12 years, absent from my life for 40 years). "But you know what, the good news is you are going to see your mom again in at about 3 o'clock, but until then, we have to be brave and strong and do our best for our teacher."
She nodded that she would.
Then, I had this new student of mine in my classroom, and he was decompressing, and he started doing a count, and I hear him say, "Step four to getting married is meet Mr. C."
I said, "Oh cool, so people have to meet me and then they'll get married?"
"Yep!" He said.
Another awesome little buddy was in my room, and he was struggling with some school changes, so I brought him to my room, and we did "Good Things", and then I told him that part of life is making "More friends", not "new friends because we're not replacing our old friends with new friends, but we're adding to our collection of friends." He was in tears at first which totally broke my heart, but he chippered up quickly after our talk.
And another kid that I worked with last year was so happy to see me back that he gave me a big hug in the lunchroom! He then skipped away and said “You look a lot older than how I remember you.”
One little student of mine was walking with me and we were discussing how similar we are, and I told him we were similar but not twins because he had hair and I don’t. He said, “Yeah, I got lucky by not being bald. You only have a one in one million chance in being bald and that chance got you but it didn’t get me.”
This 2nd grade kid and I had a very connecting conversation today. He shared with me that his dad passed away when he was three years old (He was actually in bed with him when he passed and woke up to his mom giving him CPR) and that his mom lost his sister (through a miscarriage) afterward, and my heart just broke for him hearing him say this, just crumbled. I knelt down and told him I lost my mom in a different way when I was seven years old, and so I can relate a little to how he feels, and I told him if he ever wanted to talk about it with me, I would be there for him to talk to. And then, we hugged.
This kiddo struggles with an emotional disability, and has a lot of behaviors as a result, but I made a major breakthrough with him a few days later. We are definitely clicking and bonding.
At the end of one school day, he was so good that I gave him a piece of candy. As he caught it, I said, as a hint, "Thank you, Mr. C. You're the best."
He followed the cue and said, "Thank you, Mr. C. You're the best!"
Then, he said, "If you ever forget that you're the best, I'll always remind you, okay?"
He continued, "Remember today when we took our picture (we took school picture this day)? Well, if I go to a different class, I want a picture of you so that I can always keep my memories of you, and I'll never lose it, and if I do, I'll always look for it and find it, okay?"
Then, as I was playing my classroom anthem, "Don't Worry, Be Happy", I asked him if I can sing along.
He said, "Yeah."
I said, "Okay, I just want to check because some people don't like my singing."
He said, "Your singing is kinda good."
As I walked him to his ride, I gave the little guy a hug, and he said, "When I see you again, I'll give you another hug again, okay?"
Anytime, buddy! Anytime!
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