Last period before Thanksgiving break, you can imagine the atmosphere in the classroom. Ms. Martineau classifies this class as the rambunctious group. It is the class that she has the most behavioral problems and IEPs in and she has a hard time keeping the class on task for more than five minutes at a time, I give her tons of credit for her patience! There was so much going on in the classroom that she ignored. because she didn't give the students who were misbehaving any attention or reaction, they eventually stopped on their own. It was genius! Not sure I could do that myself.
After an hour of commotion it was time for Abby to leave the class five minutes early. (Side note - Abby is a student with special needs who is included in the class. She has an aid that travels with her to her general education classrooms and they leave five minutes before the bell to avoid hallway traffic.) When she got up to leave the classroom, about eight students (including some of the "bad boys" of the group) said "Bye Abby!" or "Happy Thanksgiving Abby!" HEART MELTED. The stereotype of special needs students being picked on in school went out the window for me in that moment. These students were so warm towards Abby, I couldn't help but smile.
With this I go into this week with an open mind. As rambunctious and out of control middle school students might be, they are still just young adolescents with a sweet side. I can't wait to experience more things like this one!
Those Coventry kids are incredibly kind to one another. When that one kid came in late to your class on Wednesday, the little girl sitting near me volunteered to help him :).
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