RE: Observation

Wednesday's observation was nothing too out of the ordinary, but I wanted to comment on Poetry club. The club keeps growing and growing, and it seems like such a positive thing for the students. It provides them with a safe environment where they can share their thoughts with each other in a more unstructured fashion...no hand raising....so it fosters good discussion skills- respect, good listening, etc. Also, it encourages creativity and critical thinking about the poems presented. But something that interests me is watching the students interact with each other. The room is set up with all the desks in a big circle so everyone can see everyone else. The placement of the students in the desks is very intriguing. There is one student in particular, who I'll call Emily, that interests me. Emily always tries to sit very close to the teacher. She is VERY eager to talk about anything, especially poetry, her own poetry, others poetry, and how she feels about poetry. She reminds me a lot of myself in middle school, a little to eager to learn for the other kids tastes, and too interested in impressing the teacher. While it doesn't bother Emily, the other kids can be brutal. I haven't seen it much to her face, but they seem to be talking about her behind her back when she is constantly raising her hand or sharing with the rest of the class.

Watching Emily is almost an out of body experience for me. I can just see myself in her place and feel the rejection coming from my peers. It hurts me to watch her, because regardless of the teasing going on behind her back, she continues to "overachieve." You see, it's not that she's doing something wrong. In fact, she's doing something right by working so hard to do well in school. She's probably a bit more mature in some ways, and knows it, so she exercises that in school. And the fact that she's seemingly not bothered by the teasing is refreshing, though I remember myself at that age, putting on a good face at school, and being completely depressed at home. I can tell that even Ms. H senses the tension from Emily's peers when Emily is taking the spotlight, and I sense that she wishes she could do something about it. I wonder, as a teacher, where the line is. I would love to take Emily as a friend and talk to her about how she really feels about school. I would like to ask her about her friends and her experiences. I would like to find out if she is as confident away from her peers as she is in front of them.

Middle school is a tough place. I'm glad, for the kids' sake that it only lasts 3 years.