Little Miss S

So school has begun for us. Last week I worked pretty much all week. Monday and Tuesday were staff inservice days. Monday started at 8 am and ended at 3:30. I then worked in my room until 8:30 pm, as the next day was a "Meet and Greet" event frm 4-7 pm, and I wanted everythng to be up on my walls with my desks in place. At the Meet and Greet, I met Miss S. Miss S. and her family are not only new to the school, but they are new to the country. They are from the Netherlands, and are here for a year for the father's job. They came just one month ago. When I first looked at my class list, I saw Miss S.'s name, and assumed it was Middle Eastern. It is long as begins with an S and ends with a "jn." There are a a few vowels in there somewhere as well. On the first day of school my goal was to learn how to say her name, but by the end of the day I was still calling her, "Miss S." Well Miss S. is having a hard time. On the first day of school, her mom came into the room with her. I greeted them warmly, and called the girl "Miss S." She smiled, and her mom told me that they had all begun calling her Miss S. at home. So I knew it would be ok to continue that moniker. Since I have 28 kids this year, I quickly became quite busy trying to help everyone get settled. I also have an autistic boy, and another boy on the Asperger's Spectrum. The autistic boy's mom also was hanging out trying to talk to me. I know they are all concerned, but I've got 28 to deal with RIGHT AWAY, and have no time for their tidbits of wisdom in how to deal with their child. Miss S.'s mom came up to me at one point and told me how nervous Miss S. was. I said something about totally understanding that. Still she didn't leave. A bit later she came up again, telling my how nervous Miss S. was, and that she was afraid I'd ask her a question in class and she wouldn't understand me. Well, let me tell you that Miss S.'s English was really quite good, so I wasn't too worried. But I looked over at Miss S. as I was trying to take attendance and she was in tears. Mom came up to me a third time, and I told mom that Miss. S. would probably be much better once she left. She knew I was right, and eventually did leave. She stayed in my class for a half hour... Miss S. continued to cry. I think she can't read english, and I didn't want to question her about it right then to make things worse. So one of the first things the kids had to do was to choose a book of my shelf to read, and I had her just choose from my picture book backet or magazine basket. Miss S. cried while she chose. She cried while she looked at the magazine and cried while she colored. Finally, at about 11 am, one and a half hours after school had begun, we began an activity where each kid had to write four clues about himself or herself on an index card. I called Miss S. over to my small groups table, and had her tell me the clues while I wrote them down. Let me tell you that she seemed to have no trouble understanding what it was she was to tell me. I told her so, too. I told her that she was going to do just fine. And she didn't cry the rest of the day. Then came the second day of school. When the bell rang for school to begin, I went out to pick up my large class of 28 children. As I came out, one of our paraeducators came over to me. "Miss S. is in the office crying," she told me. OK. I took the kids into class and started my day. After about a half hour Mrs. Librarian brought a tearful Miss S. back to my room. I hugged Miss S., told her I was so glad to see her, and told her to get settled because we were going to learn a game. I then taught the kids how to play Nim, a strategy game. It's easy to learn, and we played two games me against the class. I won the first game and lost the second one on purpose. I knew she understood how to play. It's simple. So I then had the kids partner up to play each other. Miss S. came up to me crying, saying she wanted to go to Mrs. Librarian. I told her she had to play one game first, so one of my boys asked to play with her, and she agreed. I watched them, and she seemed to be doing fine. I didn't think she'd still go to see Mrs. Librarian, but sure enough, after she played one game, up she came to me. So I had her sign out, take the pass, and go. Later, a PTA mom came into my room. She waited patiently until I could talk with her. "I just want you to know that Miss S. is helping with lunch in the MPR," she told me. "She was in the library helping Mrs. Librarian. Now she's helping her little sister's class at lunch." I decided that was a good thing for her to do, and started to think about working out a daily time that Miss S. could go to her little sister's class to help out. Soon though Miss S. came back. It was right before our lunch, and Miss S. was crying. I told her we had to go to lunch. She said she wasn't hungry. I said I was sorry about that, but it was my lunch time too, and she had to go to the MPR with the class, so line up. She did, and we went over to lunch. Miss S. continued to cry. In the lunchroom I introduced her to Mrs. Lunch Lady and to Mrs. Office Helper, and then gave Miss S. a hug and left. When the kids came in from recess, Miss S. wasn't crying, and didn't cry the rest of the day. What will next week be like?