He Speaks!!!!

There is a student in my class who my mentor teacher and I think was a select mute.  Now if you are not sure what a select mute is, as I was not before meeting this student, here is an always trusted article from none other than wiki!     Wikipedia

This student, David, would not communicate (verbal and non-verbal communication) with any person in our classroom; not his peers, not my mentor teacher, and especially not me.  For a while my mentor teacher and I were really concerned as to how to deal with a challenging situation like this, but ultimately decided that we would continue to try to engage David in activities, and let him decide if he would like to communicate or not.

I am here to tell you that David spoke today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not once, not twice, not even three times, but multiple times.... AND HE RAISED HIS HAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I'm convinced this is just shy of a miracle!!!!  The actual reason I think he decided to speak was because my mentor teacher built an awesome, non verbal, non threatening, relationship with David by playing tic tac toe with him during dismissal every day.  It's incredible to see a student respond to someone's simple gesture of playing a game with them with such a huge sign of respect as breaking your silent streak.  I think this also speaks volumes to my mentor teacher's ability to reach the "unreachable"students.  Kudos Jen!  I have to admit I nearly fell out of my chair when I heard David's little voice offer an answer to the math problem on the board.  Already seeing the importance of this job... changing lives!!!!

Be the Change!
Sarah