AVReading Newsletter November-- Preparing the Heart Along With the Head
I had one of those days a few years back that really tested my resolve as a teacher. We were about three weeks into the year, and my 5th hour, had been a pretty difficult group. In working with my co-teacher, we were hoping to create an environment of engagement and collaboration versus one of submission and control. But our attempts were proving to be ineffective. On one particular day, I walked into the room to find a young woman wrapping the cord of the window blinds around her neck, a fellow classmate who then went into some type of anxiety triggered seizure, and a third student who felt the need to pull down his pants and reveal his underwear to the class. When both my co-teacher and I returned to our room after dealing with seizures and pantslessness, we discovered that. . . the young woman who had been wrapping the cord around her neck had now locked us out of the room! It was a moment of absolute absurdity. And my...