Hugs for Teachers Stories, Sayings, And Scriptures to Encourage And Inspire

Chapter 1 A Whole New World "Mrs. Shearin wants you to come to her room. Hurry!"Marcy was out of breath from running when she appeared in myoffice door at the small private school where I was thecurriculum coordinator. I quickly followed her through thelibrary and down the elementary hall to Mrs. Shearin'ssecond-grade room. Marcy opened the door, and we stepped into aclassroom frozen in awe. Nine students stood motionless behind their desks facing thereading table in the back corner. No one moved or looked in ourdirection as we softly closed the door. A child's voicesmoothly intoning sentence after sentence--never missing aword--was the only sound in the room. The other children,still seated at the reading table, were no longer looking attheir books but were watching in amazement as their classmateread the text flawlessly. Mrs. Shearin glanced at me with anastonished expression, nodded toward the reader, and turned herattention quickly back to her manual. The reader was Allen, a child who entered our school after havingattended five other schools in the previous two years. Hisrecords showed excessive absences, poor academic progress, andfrequent discipline problems. His mother had pleaded for hisadmittance, citing his needs to be in a stable atmosphere and tomake friends who were interested in learning. After promising tocooperate with the staff during his adjustment period and makinga commitment to his regular attendance, his mother's requestwas granted. The first few weeks were difficult. Sheri Shearin was known as aconsistent, loving but firm disciplinarian whose goal wasrestoring children to productive learning. Allen stretched all ofthese qualities to the extreme. In the beginning, he wouldsometimes get so frustrated with schoolwork that he blurted outwords that would normally evoke a swift and severe reprimand. Butinstead, Sheri would call him to her desk, put her arm around himand say, "Those words are just not tolerated in this school.When you don't know what to do, raise your hand andI'll help you. Now, tell me what you are going to do thenext time you feel like that." After he rehearsed thecorrect procedure, Sheri would assure him that she loved him andbelieved in his ability to do the right thing. The rest of theclass would listen to the softly spoken exchange with raptattention, knowing that they would never get off that easy. Onhis third day, he punched a third grader in the stomach atrecess, and his absence for the remainder of the school day wasgreeted with sighs of relief. Sheri knew that she could not effect lasting changes in Allenwithout the understanding and cooperation of his classmates. Shealso knew that if they could accept him, honor his good points,and love him in spite of his difficult behavior, they wouldbenefit even more than Allen. Negotiating a fine line between giving Allen the attention heneeded and breeding jealousy in the other students, Sheri madetime for celebrating the uniqueness and individual successes ofeach child in the class, and the students responded with newlevels of appreciation for each other. She worked hard toorchestrate chances for Allen to be successful in the eyes of theother students. She used Bible stories to teach forgiveness andcompassion. She created an atmosphere in which Allen feltaccepted--even when he returned from one of his frequenttrips to the principal for infractions committed outsLoveless, Caron Chandler is the author of 'Hugs for Teachers Stories, Sayings, And Scriptures to Encourage And Inspire', published 1999 under ISBN 9781416533382 and ISBN 1416533389.