Prep
My school is small. By now I know every single student's name in the building. Naturally, I know a lot of the spec ed students. Their teachers are pretty cool too, cool enough to hang out with during personal time.
One student, renamed Jack, and I have talked about playing our guitars together for a long time. He's only a ninth grader, but man - he's a huge kid. I get to be like the aunt type person. We have fun together always, because unlike his case worker, I never have to deal with him on his bad days.
Two weeks ago I made a promise to him that I would bring my guitar and play with him on my prep hour on Friday (yesterday Friday). Friday preps are great. You know you have the weekend to do planning, so that hour can be spent doing things more interactive in the school.
He never forgot our conversation, which his case worker said is a great feat for his wonderful mind. I walked into the room with my guitar, and he had the entire room setup for us. I told Jack to just start and I'd follow. His hands started slamming the strings and making wild noise, so I did too. Thirty-seconds later, his eyes are locked into mine and his head is swaying and he is jamming out like the Jack Johnson he wants to be.
About two minutes later he stands up, stops playing. He's facing the wall and starts taking these deep breaths and repeatedly says, "Okay." As soon as he turned around there was magic. I felt like I was living in a world where possibility oozed out of the crevices of life. He started to mouth silent words to imaginary band members, hand pointing and shaking in each member's direction, giving them very specific directions for our song. Then he looked at me, nodded, and we started to play our guitars again. We went on and on like this for about forty minutes.
We played nothing, but we played freely. I taught him how to tune his guitar with an electric tuner, but otherwise we just pretended we were rock stars.
Now this friendly giant doesn't just say hi to me in the hallways, he actually walks with me and puts his entire weight on his forearm resting upon my shoulder. He laughs at everything I say.
Jack has rhythm, he knows how to keep it too, he just doesn't know how to strum or play chords. I think, with his love for his guitar, that he could learn this. Despite his partially paralyzed hand, he could do it. Then I think, when kids feel this good, they can learn anything, no matter what the spec ed tests say about their brains or bodies. When something matters to a person, there is always a medium to success.
One student, renamed Jack, and I have talked about playing our guitars together for a long time. He's only a ninth grader, but man - he's a huge kid. I get to be like the aunt type person. We have fun together always, because unlike his case worker, I never have to deal with him on his bad days.
Two weeks ago I made a promise to him that I would bring my guitar and play with him on my prep hour on Friday (yesterday Friday). Friday preps are great. You know you have the weekend to do planning, so that hour can be spent doing things more interactive in the school.
He never forgot our conversation, which his case worker said is a great feat for his wonderful mind. I walked into the room with my guitar, and he had the entire room setup for us. I told Jack to just start and I'd follow. His hands started slamming the strings and making wild noise, so I did too. Thirty-seconds later, his eyes are locked into mine and his head is swaying and he is jamming out like the Jack Johnson he wants to be.
About two minutes later he stands up, stops playing. He's facing the wall and starts taking these deep breaths and repeatedly says, "Okay." As soon as he turned around there was magic. I felt like I was living in a world where possibility oozed out of the crevices of life. He started to mouth silent words to imaginary band members, hand pointing and shaking in each member's direction, giving them very specific directions for our song. Then he looked at me, nodded, and we started to play our guitars again. We went on and on like this for about forty minutes.
We played nothing, but we played freely. I taught him how to tune his guitar with an electric tuner, but otherwise we just pretended we were rock stars.
Now this friendly giant doesn't just say hi to me in the hallways, he actually walks with me and puts his entire weight on his forearm resting upon my shoulder. He laughs at everything I say.
Jack has rhythm, he knows how to keep it too, he just doesn't know how to strum or play chords. I think, with his love for his guitar, that he could learn this. Despite his partially paralyzed hand, he could do it. Then I think, when kids feel this good, they can learn anything, no matter what the spec ed tests say about their brains or bodies. When something matters to a person, there is always a medium to success.
There's something so great when you reach out to special ed students... My students always keep a smile on my face and they are a lot smarter than what most people give them credit for. Sometimes you wonder what is going on in their brians, but you just come to realize that it's just a cool part of their personalities and they know how to make us laugh. I can be a very patient person with my students compared to most other people, and it's tough. But when you have moments like what you had with the guitars, it's worth it in the end. Damnit! I'm rambling and probably not making any sense. I guess all I'm trying to say is that Special Ed kids are pretty damn cool!
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Anonymous |
7:32 PM