Eyes Lit Up

I have the honor and privilege of student teaching in a small classroom - a classroom of 11 unique, bubbly, knit together perfectly, wonderfully made 4th graders. For the most part, they are all friends and accepting of one another. However, there is one student who does not have many friends and is interested in different things - and in a small classroom, it is noticeably evident. This student is different, not part of the "norm" of the rest of the class. While the rest of the class plays tag during recess, he plays by himself, in his own little world, as he fights off bad guys to protect his Pokemon friends.

Last Friday, 5 of our students had a field trip and were out the entire day, leaving my teacher and I with a whopping 6 students. If you aren't familiar with the game of tag, it's not that fun or exciting to play with only 6 people - especially when you're used to playing with 11. Therefore, I decided to play tag along with the class. Before I started playing I begged this student who normally does his own thing, to join us in playing tag. He said he didn't want to and would rather play his game. I told him that was fine but wanted to make sure he was having fun. A few minutes later I asked him again - are you sure you don't want to join us? He declined my offer. However, a few seconds later he came up to me and said this - "Ms. Teddy. I don't want to play tag but I would like someone to play my game with me." Well...my heart about ripped in a million pieces and I immediately told him I would love to play with him. He proceeded to explain to me what was going on in his Pokemon game and the different bad guys I needed to fight off. I told him I was excited to play with him and asked if it was alright if I helped him fight off the bad guys while also playing tag with the rest of the class. He was okay with that.

As I played two games at once, I noticed how excited this student was now that he had someone to play with. His eyes lit up. He felt a part of something. He was not alone. He had a friend. He felt welcome.

Later on during recess he began playing tag with the rest of the class - eyes still beaming with joy. This is the 2nd time throughout the entire school year that he has played with the entire class during recess. I'm expectant for the 3rd...