This past Summer I worked in a classroom of incoming third graders at the local elementary school. The students in this class were kids who needed some extra help with subjects like math and reading before entering the next school year. I had the opportunity to spend quality time in a classroom setting alongside a teacher. Overall, the experience I had with the children made it one of the most memorable jobs I’ve had. 

In this class, there was one particular student. This student seemed to have a difficult time following along in comparison to the rest of the students in his class. This student would often storm out of the classroom, say disrespectful comments to both the teacher and I, and most frequently, I would often find this student damaging objects in the classroom. Later into the Summer I found out that this student was dealing with a difficult divorce at home. The situation took a toll on him mentally and I learned that the way for him to take his emotions out was by physical aggression. 

Towards the end of the Summer, the kids started to learn multiplication. The teacher handed all the students a handful of styrofoam tiles. The tiles were intended to be used to create a grid to show multiplication equations through a picture. The student that was having a difficult time decided he didn’t want to follow along and began damaging the tiles with his pencil. At this moment I realized that this student wasn’t in a good mindset to be put through a challenging subject. But also I understood that this student couldn’t keep disrupting the class by stabbing the tiles. I had an idea and pulled the student aside in the hallway. Instead of forcing the student to stay in class, I needed to change his focus. I sat down next to him on the floor and told him, “Let’s have a competition. Let’s see who can stack as many tiles before they fall”. The student looked at me. First puzzled, but then a smile. As he began to stack the tiles, his focus changed into something else. 

At this moment, I met the student where he was by taking the time to understand his needs at that moment. The student had too much on his mind with the situation at home that it made it hard for him to focus on math. Even though some may argue that this solution didn’t teach him the lesson that the rest of the class learned that day, this was what he needed in order to regroup his thoughts. After our competition with the tiles, the student was able to go back into the classroom and began to participate with the group.