Love My Students

Before I was a principal, I was a third-grade teacher. I remember many of my students and enjoy seeing their accomplishments as they have families of their own. I will take the time to remember certain students on this blog—without names, of course.

One year, I had a student who used to scream at me and then put her fingers up on top of her nose and wiggle them. That was her usual stim. I had a good connection with her. However, not a day passed without her yelling at me when she was frustrated and did not want to do the non-preferred activity. She would sit and yell, "You're ruining my life!" every single day. One day, I had had enough. I walked to her seat and whispered in her ear that she was not allowed to yell that at me anymore. I told her if she wanted to say things like that, she'd have to write it down. I handed her a black and white composition book. From then on, she wrote her thoughts down without yelling them at me. Who knew that it would be such an easy fix? When this student got to high school, she was on the power of the pen team and could write beautifully with good content. Maybe third grade was the beginning of her writing career when she was writing about how I ruined her life. Who knows. I like to think that anyway!