Wednesday, September 8, 2010

The Power of One

It is amazing to me how powerful the number one is.  It can make the difference between a great day and a not so good one.  If you add one more student to a group, you totally shift the dynamics of that group.  I took a really great class in college called Small Group Communication.  We talked a lot about how groups interact with each other and the dynamics of group interactions.  I thought that it was a fascinating class, and I learned so much!  I think back to that class all the time.  I find that when working one on one with students at different times, their personalities stay essentially the same, but when I am working with groups, the addition or subtraction of even one student totally changes everything! 

Last week we added a new student to our classroom on a temporary basis.  This student has a lot of medical needs that our school just isn't capable of dealing with.  He was with me until they could work out a school situation that would better meet his needs.  Adding that new student totally changed the atmosphere of my classroom.  We had done a great job of teaching procedures and rules so that our day flowed smoothly.  With the new student, it threw us all off kilter.  Students who had not been showing behaviors started acting out, and it felt like chaos was reining in my room.  This was so frustrating to me.  I had hoped that we could just get through that one week with my new student without turmoil.

Needless to say, this week we went back to the beginning and started learning procedures again.

I also lost a student who moved to a new school last week.  She was one of my two girls.  Losing her has really made me sad.  She was my oldest student, a 5th grader, and she was such a delight in our classroom.  She was really starting to open up and becoming a real leader in our room.  I will really miss her smile and her stories everyday.  I believe that I have something to learn from each of my students, and V really taught me the power of a simple smile. 

So now my classroom is down to 6 students.  This worries me because I always say that whenever you lose one, you will probably get 2 more that are twice as bad move in.  So we await our next addition with baited breath...  I am sure that we will find a better way to help the next ones feel at home in our room and keep the peace that we have fought so hard for! 

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