Today I subbed as a classroom para. This was in the junior high in the self-contained classroom. I had worked with some of these students before, but I was surprised at how some of them were reluctant to work with me. One student just flat out ignored me, then later I was supposed to give him his spelling test and he ignored me again. His teacher then told him that he had to answer my questions and to stop being rude, but I was still surprised. I had helped this student with his ceramics class a couple of weeks ago and he was fine, but today he wanted nothing to do with me. I guess these students are just extremes of the students that are in the regular classes. Sometimes students get frustrated and they just don’t want to work with you, but they aren’t as obvious as the sped students. As a teacher I need to be more observant of my students to understand why they are acting out they way they are. I didn’t know this student very well so I wasn’t able to figure out why he wouldn’t work with me, but it reminds me that every student has a reason for what they do. Maybe this student just wasn’t comfortable working with me and so he didn’t want to talk to me. Sometimes when a student does something we just write it off as not important, but what is going on in the student’s life is important to them and it can really affect the way they interact day to day.
By the end of the day most of the students were comfortable working with me. One student who seemed frustrated when I was helping him with his math engaged in a conversation with me while we were waiting for his bus. In one of their classes they talked about Dr.'s visits and towards the end of the class I realized they were practicing having conversations, that these students aren't used to having conversations.
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