So! Allow me to introduce student #1: 6th grader, J.A.R. (He's got a double name, just like me, so I decided to put him first.)
This kid is at once adorable, hilarious and he makes you want to pull your hair out.
First of all, he looks like this munchkin (except Mexican, not Asian) and, really no matter what he does, you just want to squeeze his cheeks:
Oh, and he wears transition lens glasses. So when he walks into the sun, his glasses darken and he kind of looks crazy. But hilarious.
JAR speaks fluent Spanglish, but not much English. His notes in class are riddled with "y," "en," and spellings like "parque." But he tries so hard! Whenever I ask him comprehension questions, like, "Why do you think Rule by Many is better than Rule by One?" he wrinkles his brow, looks directly into my eyes and stammers through a random collection of words picked up in his social studies lesson. He waves his hands around emphatically, lists his arguments on his fingers and seems to be asking me with his eyes whether I understand the complex point he is making. When I ask another guiding question (to clarify the gibberish I just heard), he shakes his head, "No, Missa Graf, este people can vote, many." Ohhh, I see. He gets it! Right?
And I didn't really anticipate McGrath to be a difficulty, but, oh my goodness, it is impossible! A few kids get it and berate their peers for their struggles with the Mc and Gr and th. At this point, though, I think this is a battle I'll leave alone, and from here on out, as long as I'm not just "Miss," I'll take "Graf," "MissaGrah" and "Mc...Miss!" There are other things to worry about...
For instance, how to get JAR all caught up after missing about a week of school! He's a social butterfly and cannot spend two seconds quietly if there are other students in the Learning Lab. He makes eyes at them, making them giggle. He pats his belly and makes a pained face, begging for cookies (really). He mimics a teacher tone and tells everyone, "Good job!" nodding his head and just being goofy and ridiculous. He jokes with the teachers, asking Mr. O why he was eating sunflower seeds, didn't he know those were for birds? Is he sure he got those at the grocery store and not at PetSmart? The worst is that most of the time, I can't help myself and I laugh, too. This makes it difficult to reign him in and make him focus on something that's hard for him. Which is basically everything. I've been trying to take a tougher stance with him, but sometimes when I look into those slowly fading transition lenses, I can't help but smile. And then he smiles (with those cheeks!) and its all over...
Two other very interesting facts about JAR:
#1: His dad does light shows as a job. Like a light technician or something, for shows or performances. So JAR does this, too! He works on the computer and makes light shows and competes on the weekends. Super cool.
#2: The reason he was out for the majority of last week is crazy. This poor munchkin was in a freak accident of sorts last summer. He was at a carnival/fair thing and went on the ride that just has a lot of swings attached to it and it spins around (see image below). Mid-ride, his swing broke and he flew off of it, breaking both his legs. Just take one moment and imagine that...
So he had rods put into his legs. And this past week he got them taken out (he showed me the surgery wounds...I gagged). I'm pretty sure I'll never, ever ride one of those things again. And hell will freeze over before I let anyone I know ride one, either.
So, that's JAR. I hope you guys enjoyed meeting him!
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