Teaching Hope: Rejuvenation

This chapter in teaching hope was one that I really enjoyed reading. The first passage of the chapter was one that stuck with me and I kept reflecting back to the entire time I was reading. I really liked the concept of the boys including Blake, a special needs boy, the play basketball with them. The chapter begins with the teacher coming back to school after missing a day and reading a note from the sub who did not have many nice things to say about the class. Then there was a second note from the special ed. teacher who praised the students for including one of hers in the game outside. When discussed in class, they said that they felt bad for him and wanted to include him in their game. For the teacher, this meant more to her than a note that a substitute left for her. She knew that she had good students, regardless of how they may have acted for the sub.

The second passage I chose, 111, which involved Temika being a troubled student always starting fights and being disciplined at school. After going a long period of time writing in her journal without marking any entries that could be read by the teacher, one finally appeared. Through reading it, she realized that Temika probably has reason for acting the way she does. Though she was a troubled student, and even after marking that entry was such, the teacher vowed to never give up on her as others had done to her in the past. When a student like that is in your classroom, all you can do is model how one should act and find small ways to help them cope with what they're going through until one day hopefully something clicks.

Finally, passage 112 was very intriguing to me. Partly because it was not in a regular ed. classroom, but a psychiatric youth center, and reason being that Chuckles and Max goes crazy the entire time in the background, yet the teacher keeps his cool. He even gets punched in the face by Max, and remains calm. Granted this is an environment where this behavior may be commonplace, however I admire his willingness to not be aggressive in any way. At the end of the passage, where he tells Max that the reason he was still in class was because he did not say anything to those who would prevent him from going, Max understood that the teacher was looking out for him and respected him for that. Little things that help your students go along way. I feel that if they know that you look out for them, they will try harder to be successful.