Nada Te Turbe

Hola! Hope all is well, another quick check-in to fill you in on the last week. I survived my first week of student teaching as the lead teacher! YAY! That basically means that, starting this past Monday, I was the primary in charge of planning, teaching, disciplining, and other the other goodies involved with teaching (minus taking attendance... Mr. Gamon helps me out with that one :) ). We still team teach, meaning that he takes parts of the lesson throughout the day, but I'm the primary decision-maker as to where the lessons/unit heads and how instruction is given. My biggest challenge with that this week, as you can imagine, was classroom management. I stumbled a few times and, as much as I would love the escape from it and Mr. Gamon offered it to me, I stayed on the horse and kept trying. By the end of the week, I had a much better grasp of it and my students are beginning to recognize me as an authority in the classroom. It's one of the scariest parts of teaching for me, so to be growing so much and shaping my discipline philosophy helps make me feel like these next seven weeks will fly by and I will be proud of the progression of my students. All is good on that front :)

He wasn't kidding though, he said that I would be exhausted by the end of my first week. And he was absolutely right. Only part of that was due to my classroom. Outside of the classroom, however, has been both heartbreaking and stressful. You all have heard me mention my Sudanese friends the Zakis, yes? Well the 11-year-old Sarah, whom I've grown very close to especially over the summer, has been hospitalized for the past week and will continue to be so possibly for another three weeks. She has severe third-degree burns on her left underarm and back. Not only has it been extremely painful for her (she waited three days before telling even her parents that it had happened) but there is also a lot of confusion and mistrust behind it. CPS and the police have been involved; there aren't many self-inflicted, accidental oil burns that harm a person's armpit and upper back, especially by the way she explains it. We've always had trust issues with her father, but through our investigations we've discovered that he beats the kids. Steph and I feel betrayed and compelled to advocate for these kids, but we also don't want them in the system and it's a hard line to draw as to what is cultural and what is universal. Anyway, the way in which it occurred is an understood lie and we think we have an idea of what happened thanks to the 6-year-old, but CPS has considered it a closed case due to budget cuts and I'm trying to find my role as a support. Needless to say, our relationship with the family will never be the same, especially the father. Her parents see this as more of an inconvenience than anything so I've been going every day to the hospital after school to sit and talk with her. Thankfully, she's had an immense number of visitors so she's been preoccupied. I usually come in the evening after I'm done with school and other meetings and visitors have slowed; makes it easy for me to talk to her, braid lanyards and sing her to sleep when she's ready.

I stayed at the hospital with her last night so her mom could go home and care for her house (also have a good night's sleep in her bed), but it was a rough night; she's been having anxiety attacks and the itching/pain is driving her crazy. So I think I'm going to go take a nap. I would deeply appreciate your prayers and good juju vibes for her; it would mean the world to me. Anyway, didn't mean to be a Debby Downer. Hope you're all well, I love each and every one of you, and (side note) two months from now will be my last day of school. Oh holy crud!

Peace and love,
Chels