Today my day at Sunnyside was a very interesting one. My short lesson with the class was DPA and since there was a short break in the rain, I decided to take the class outside to get some fresh air and run around. For a few weeks now the class has been asking me to play a game called manhunt, a game in which one person is ‘it’ and as they tag people the newly tagged people become ‘it’ as well. It’s a great game because every student is actively involved the entire time, unlike a lot of other tag games. Additionally, this particular class absolutely loves this game and they often play it outside during DPA, recess, and lunch. Since I was not 100% positive of all the rules involved in the game, I got the class to teach me how to play before we went outside. This is the second time now that I have asked my class to teach me how to play a game, and I think it worked out really well. Not only were the students excited to explain the rules to me, but it also provided me with the opportunity to make sure everyone understood all the rules and the boundaries before going outside to play.
Overall the game went extremely well. Every single student in the class participated in the game and it appeared as if everyone had a great time playing. After the game was over, I called all the students in from the field and began to line up the class before walking back towards the school. While I was waiting for a few lingering students to come in off the field I noticed that one student was starting to kick puddles of water at other students. As I began to walk over to ask him to stop, he started picking up large handfuls of dirt and throwing it at other students while yelling and screaming at them. This student’s sudden change in behaviour came out of nowhere. I quickly ran over to him and tried to calm him down, but it became immediately clear to me that this was not just an act of anger but that this student was starting to have a meltdown.
Although I didn’t really know what to do in this particular situation, I did know that I had to get all of the other students safely away from the escalating situation as quickly as possible. I asked the class to all go immediately inside the school and into the classroom to wait for me there, meanwhile I stayed with the student having the breakdown. As the class headed toward the school entrance the student’s yelling turned to verbal threats towards other students and then escalated even further to him violently kicking, punching, and throwing his body into the exterior walls and windows of the school. Since I don’t have a lot of experience with situations such as these, I didn’t quite know what to do. For my own personal safety, I tried to talk him out of his escalated state. I said things like: “please stop”, “you’re going to hurt yourself”, “just take a few deep breaths” and “try to relax and talk to me about whats making you upset”. Somehow between the screaming and the physical hits to the walls and windows I was able to get out of the student that he was mad because someone cheated right at the end of the game. Once I had this information I tried to calmly talk to him about how frustrating and annoying it can be when people cheat. I tried the best I could to be relatable and understanding so that he would stop physically hitting and kicking the cement – I was really afraid he was going to hurt himself or somebody else. Eventually, I got him to calm down enough to walk with me to the side of the building where I could get help from other teachers.
My SA, as well as the teacher in the classroom beside us, were fantastic. They knew exactly what to do to help this particular student calm down. My SA had a bag of toys and books for him in a sort of “calm down” package that he could play and relax with outside the classroom. Additionally, both teachers and myself all took turns talking with him and calming down his emotions. Eventually, after about 30 minutes outside in the hall, he was able to calm down enough to move past the situation and come back into the class. This student did have a few more meltdowns throughout the day, but they were much less intense than his big one in the morning. As a teacher candidate in the class, I was aware that this particular student sometimes struggles with his emotions and appropriate reactions to certain situations; however, I had not personally witnessed it first-hand.
Although this event was challenging for me, I feel that it was very timely in the sense that we are learning about violence and violent outbursts in some of our courses at UBC right now. At UBC we are only just beginning to discuss this topic, so undoubtedly my experience this week left me with some questions.
- As a future educator, what types of things should I say to a child having an emotional and/or physical meltdown?
- Did I handle the situation appropriately?
- Could I have done something differently to help even more?
Overall, my day at Sunnyside was a really great one. Although it was challenging at the time, I am really glad for the experience I had during my DPA lesson as I hope it will help me become a better responder in similar situations that I may encounter in the future.