APPLE!

[parasitegirl]

Four rounds of the Ninja Game with 6th graders and we top off the week with 12 or more special needs students from 1st-6th. I am knackered. It is Friday.

 

I love working with special needs classes (in part because the teachers get my style in ways normal teachers often don’t) but this group should have been broken into two smaller groups (1-3 and 4-6) for sanity sakes. Still, we touched colors, talked about fruit colors, talked about color mixing, and then mixed colors in our hands and made a handprint flag. Then I answered questions…which were more about trying to understand and then reacting to whatever a child with a raised hand wanted to say to me and thanking them…for example the question of “Haruna…Banana!” get answered with “Haruna, nice to meet you. I like Bananas too! Haruna likes bananas! Thank you, Haurna.”

 

Like 1st and 2nd graders, they still find magic in hearing what words are in English and they still need a great deal of repetition and structure. Those students, unlike more grown-up students, don’t crave new experiences…because it’s all new and confusing for them. You have to work the new in carefully and then repeat repeat repeat.

 

Next time I am here I know the special needs teachers will be requesting me, they are very happy right now.