PTA Program

2/8/11
Although you may think that this would be easy and wonderful because parents would be involved, but that was not the case. This PTA program was put together entirely by us teachers. We paired our classes and decided what to do. My class and Mrs. Do's class did a dance for the Vietnamese New Year, as many of her students are Vietnamese. The other pairs of classes performed a piece of Martin Luther King Jr's I Have A Dream Speech, danced to Stars On The Water, and danced to a children's song in Spanish about the hot Texas sun. Everyday for two weeks the classes would practice on their own time, then in the week before the program we started to practice on the stage as a grade level so the students would have experience with the way the program would run on the night of the program. It started as once a day the first time then we bumped it to twice a day. It made for a very long day because we put the second practice during the kids specials time and our conference time, which is when I eat lunch, so I had to eat in 15 minutes or less at 10:30am. It really affected how the day went because no one was used to the schedule.
It may have been difficult to prepare for, but it turned out great in the end. I enjoyed that night despite the craziness in trying to get back in time after my weekly seminar. I made it in time to help the kids get into the vests and traditional Vietnamese outfits that we had for some of them. Everything went great and everyone enjoyed it.
I did have one experience with a student in my class that really got to me and I wrote about it in my journal that night. It is something that I think a lot of students in my school run into from time to time and the bleeding heart I did my best to lift her up and to continue to let her know that I loved and cared about her.
What follows is straight from my journal my thoughts that night before I went to bed.

A child in tears never makes me feel good and tonight was no different. Tonight before the PTA Program Karla, one of my students, was ushered into the room by another Kindergarten teacher sobbing. I asked her what was wrong, but a sobbing child never speaks coherently so I just assured her that it was going to be ok and had her pick out the color vest she wanted to wear. The tears weren't stopping, the other children tried helping, but the attention didn't help. Hugs, Hugs, Hugs, when all else fails Hugs. Some of these babies just need genuine love and a hug is the best way to show them that you really do care about them. Karla calmed down enough that I was able to put her vest on and curl the ribbon to hold it together. As I curled her ribbon she really opened up to me. Not only did she confide in me that "Mommy" made her wear shoes that hurt her feet and that she didn't think they were pretty enough to wear to the program, but she told me that "Mommy" is actually her Grandma(I already knew this because of my teacher, but I never said anything to Karla about it.) and that she didn't think her Mom would ever come back from Mexico to see her because she didn't love her at all. :( It crushed me knowing that at 5 years old she has these thoughts and feelings. Because of the area that my school is in I know that many of my children and the other students in the school have "non-traditional" living and care situations. The realization of this fact really hits home when you are faced with a situation like I faced tonight. I know I can't reach them all and I can't save them all despite my wish to be superwoman. So for now until I magically become superwoman I will settle for reaching out further everyday to my students with an extra hug, an extra smile, a little more patience, and a lot more understanding that we all have difficult things to deal with even at 5 and 6 years old. We may not all have good days, but that extra smile, hug, patience, understanding, and encouragement can change our day. So I'm resolving to try every day to know and understand my students even better than I already do so that I can be a better teacher and maybe some day I will be superwoman to my students.
*One thing that Karla mentioned keeps nagging at me and keeps me wondering. She told me that "Mommy" called her shoes homeless. I have no idea what context her Grandma said this in and I didn't get a chance to talk to "Mom", but it really makes me wonder what her home life is really like. And where she would be if Grandma hadn't taken her and become sole provider.