Breaking Through

Grant Helping Students

Here I am in my second day at the De La Salle Blackfeet School in Browning, Montana. Thus far my experiences have been very unique. I first met the 5th graders in the cafeteria, during the morning assembly where the whole school gathers together. Some of them were opening right up to me while others were very shy.

Our first class was math. The kids recently took a math test and they were split in two groups based on how well they did. I decided to join the group that did not do as well. This is when I first started to learn about the kids. Some of the more rambunctious students initially made fun of us by giving us nicknames and fooling around. However, other students were shy and did not say a single word for the duration of the day. When my classmates and I gave no reaction to their jokes they soon learned that they did not need to act this way for us to like them. I knew that the energetic students would eventual calm down so I decided to focus on the kids who were more shy. Despite my efforts, by the end of the day, I had no luck getting the shy kids to interact with me.

For example, during reading class I went to help a boy on his project. He read a book called Bears that he was doing a diorama on. One of his tasks was to write a paragraph. I kept on asking him what the book was about but he would not talk to me. In order to help him, I decided to quickly skim the book myself. I ended up suggesting ideas for him to write about which he agreed with by nodding his head. The day was now over and I knew that I really needed to keep working with him before the week was over.

I got to school on Tuesday and again sat down at the table in the cafeteria. He was sitting on the bench all by himself so I decided to go sit next to him and see if he would talk. Once I asked how he was, I got the first word out of him: "good". I took this as my opportunity to break him out of his shell. I asked him more questions such as, "How far away do you live from school?", "Where was your favorite place you have ever visited?", "Do you have any siblings?", and "What is your favorite class?" He responded with full sentences. Slowly but surly I was starting to bond with him. Later that day, Science Class came around. The students were given a worksheet to complete and once they finished it they could play boardgames. To my surprise, Zachary came up to me and challenged me to a game of "Connect Four".  I told him that no one has every beaten me in "Connect Four". He then said "Well you are going to lose because I am the king." Needless to say, I lost all of the games, but what I really won was his friendship.

By the end of the day, he ended up talking to me about school and his life. I knew that if I kept at it I would get him to open up. It was just the second day here at school and I already accomplished this task. I cannot wait to experience what the days ahead will bring.

G. Hettinger '13