Humor:First Day of School

[Josephine Dervan <rderva@infi.net>]

Dear All,
Earlier this week someone posted a humorous story about trying to
get a girl's attention on the first day back. It reminded me of
last year when at first period first day a Third grade came in for
their scheduled visit. I went through the class introducing myself
to new students. When I came to one Black child I asked for his
name and he said "Ruben". I asked for a last name and got no
response. I asked a second and a third time before I noticed tears
in his eyes. I moved on to the next new child and assumed that
there was some problem that I wasn't aware of. Usually the kids
will fill you in but this was to early for them to know. At the
end of the period I mentioned the reaction to his teacher. She
then apologized for not telling me that Ruben had recently arrived
from Paris and only spoke French. We have the ESL program for our
district and are usually advised of non-English speaking kids in
advance.

At the end of the day I had bus duty and ran into Ruben once
again. This time I used the little French I knew to communicate
with him. He was delighted and his face lit up. Ruben immediately
became my good friend. Within a few months he was speaking good
English and was even suggesting ways that classmates could liven
up their Readers Theater parts by using inflections. Unfortunately
he has moved again and will not be with us this school year.

Many of our ESL children either return to their neighborhood
school once they learn the language or move on when their parents
get established. So on Wed., our first day, we will have a new
crop of names (ESL plus 5 Kindergarten classes)
to learn all over again.

Have a nice year everyone,
Jo

***********************************************************
Josephine G. Dervan, Library Media Specialist
Strathmore Elementary School
Aberdeen, NJ 07747

Home- rderva@infi.net
School-jdervan@marsd.k12.nj.us

He who has a garden and a library, wants for nothing- Cicero

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