Putting my Camp Skills to good use 10/26

So last Thursday at my Dyad placement, I had just finished my read-aloud and we were moving to the next activity. So the teacher was taking back over and explaining what the students were going to do next. There were was one student E who started yelling at two other students. So I decided to just go sit behind them, and whisper, “make sure you are listening to your teacher..”  Next thing I know E is crying in the corner, so I went over and sat down next to him. I started asking him questions about what was going on. What happened, how are you feeling, what was going on.. It was first hard to piece together what had  happened. (I would like to state E is very focused on everyone using manners and can get upset when people do not use them. E also has a hard time understanding why some people can do things and others cannot.) So what had happened was he was picking at the wall, and making a hole, a few of E’s classmates had asked him to stop. They did not use manners so he got really upset.

Before I new what was happening my counselor mode had kicked in. I had him deep breath, so it might help him clam down. All though he really did not do it, ( I was starting my process of calming him down.) I started asking the normal question I would ask a camper to help get their mind off of what ever was going on. (ie, do you have any pets at home?, what is your favorite TV show?, do you play video games?, What is your favorite book?....). While these questions for most kids would get them talking, he found a way to answer them all with a no….

But then we started to talk about what we should do if people are mean to us. E said that they were not saying that he was trying to them to say please, but they were not so he need to say it louder, (yelling at them). I explained to him that if someone yells at you, it makes them feel bad and not want to listen to you.

So I came up with a three things that we can do when people are being mean

1)    Ask them NICELY to stop

2)    Walk away

3)    Then go tell a teacher

I went over these many times with him, had him repeat them to me. But I also wrote it down on a paper with him, I told him that it was just between the teacher, him and I. I ask him where he wanted to keep (in or on is desk), so if needed a reminder of what the rules where he would remember where to look. He got really excited and we picked a place out in his desk.

I am excited to go back this week and see how it worked….