My Beautiful Sachika ...

I have one of the most precious students ever. Her name is Sachika and she is adorable. I've worked with her for a year and a half and I think she's fantastic. There's just one slight hang up ... she doesn't talk.

I mean seriously ... look at how adorable she is:

No, she does not have some sort of disability or need a speech pathologist, she is just incredibly shy with minimal confidence in her English and an inability to take even the slightest linguistic risk on her own. When we had large group lessons together (15 children, 2 teachers) she participated just like everyone else, so I know she's more than able to produce noise, but since we've had small group private lessons together (3 or 4 children without a translator) she has barely said two words, although she has an awfully sweet smile. I'm calling her selectively mute, which reminds me of adorable 3 year old Dani from Sherri's class like 5 years ago, although I'm 99% sure she talks up a storm outside of English lesson. The kids and I have all gotten used to her being unresponsive, although I have never ever left her out of a conversation, holding firm to the idea that she was still learning, still processing, and still making relationships between languages without being vocal. We have a good relationship in a trusting environment with interesting activities and I haven't given up on her, I've just had do make some serious adaptations and accommodations. Definitely not the first time I've done such a thing. :)

Her and her sweet (now toothless) smile:

Anyway ... all of that was necessary as a preface to this really short, but incredibly sweet story that very few people outside of my group of colleagues will be able to fully appreciate. That's ok.

So, during Sachika's group lesson we were reading a story about a family with pet monkeys. Sachika was curled up under my arm on the couch and the 3 other kids were sitting around the book and everyone was throwing out their best (yet random) English as we picture walked the book for the first time. Everyone with the exception of the always silent Sachika. We got to a page full of people and monkeys and I asked the kids how many monkeys there were. I got a wide range of answers, from 5 to 15, so I asked one of the little girls to count the monkeys for us. Everyone was silent as she pointed very carefully to each and every monkey while doing her best job to count in English. It was at the exact moment when she pointed, and counted, the mother as a monkey that Sachika laughed out loud and very casually said, while everyone started at her wide-eyed in amazement, "It's not monkey, it's momma." Her laughter was contagious and everyone started laughing with her, although mine was more from the astonishment of what had just happened. We continued reading the story and Sachika didn't say anything else for the rest of the lesson but I do know that when she was leaving and I said, "Goodbye Sachika, see you next Thursday" she smiled bigger than she has ever smiled at me before.

It's those moments ... when Sachika not only spoke, but formed a coherent sentence - when Cameron won his first game of Connect Four by actually getting four in a row (and not on accident) - when Maliek was finally able to recognize his name on the board - when Devante learned how to hold his pencil like a pencil instead of like a chopstick - when Noah finished his first chapter book and told me, "This is the only book I ever really liked. I think I'm going to read another one." (he was in 5th grade) - when DaJoniss finally learned how to 'turn that J around' when he wrote his name ... it's all those moments, the little ones, that make me feel really proud of the work that I do. And even more proud (if that's possible) of the kids that are doing the real work. I love being a teacher. ♥

much love

-tara-

xx