Something I posted today. We started talking about normalization and I just went to a workshop about it today by Kathy Carey. So this was in my mind. ------ There is no such thing as a perfectly normalized classroom. Or student. Or teacher. Or beer, but the Belgians are close on that one. A child will be normalized one day, then off the next. Maybe he did not get enough sleep the night before. Maybe he is going to a baseball game tonight and is excited. What is nice is we give the child a largely consistent environment. So they can connect with our expectations, procedures, rules, etc. Then they come into the classroom and have a good understanding of what their role is in the environment. Often times, their home life might be chaotic, but their school time is normalized. I had a student years ago who was always a tester of things. One week, he came in and was just borderline obnoxious. Well...beyond borderline. That week, I was talking to some twins in our class. I asked if they had their own bedrooms. They said they did. There were other students there who had siblings, so I asked them too. This boy that just started acting up a lot said, I did have my own room. Now I share it with my sister because my dad got his own bed and sleeps in my room. Ahhhhh. Now I understand why you are not normalized this week. We offer the child a great, consistent environment. We offer love and support. We observe and let things happen. And we just, overall, understand they are going through a lot of confusion and misunderstanding of their world...all of them. Then we let us be someone (not the one. Someone) who is there to help them through it. And it will be the best anyone can do.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 11:27:51 +0000
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