Struggles of a Bacterial Meningitis Survivor

Spotlight on Karen :)

My Everyday Hero

Words cannot begin to explain my appreciation and admiration for Karen Crespo.  When life began to give her lemons, she fought hard to make a delicious lemonade, lemon meringue pie, lemon cobbler, etc.

My students have been studying people in the community who make a difference.  We were reading an article about a Para Olympian and triathlete Rudy Garcia-Tolson that led to a discussion about diversity.  We began discussing how people living with impairments can still live their lives and fulfill their dreams.  I shared the story about how my friend Karen is taking her experiences and turning them into teachable moments.

For the most part, I have able-bodied students who don’t have a lot of interaction with diverse populations.  We are lucky to be in a school that serves diverse populations but our small community is just a small portion of diversity.  Our school is diverse in terms of ethnic diversity, socioeconomic class, and physical capabilities.  There is a special orthopedic class for students with physical disabilities, man of these students are restricted to wheelchairs. 

My students were on the edges of their seats as Karen spoke to them.  I could see them taking in all the information and trying to make sense of everything in their mind.  The students had a lot of questions surrounding how Karen lives from day to day.  Everyone was astonished to know that Karen is still doing many of her regular things like watching tv, going to the restroom, and texting.  Seeing and feeling the connection that Karen had with my students reminds me of why I teach.  It was a beautiful thing.  Simply Beautiful.

I’m so happy to hear that Karen is advancing and well on her way to achieve her goals….  Yesterday she shared her dreams of snowboarding, driving, and total independence.  I know that Karen is a hard working young lady and she will achieve any goal that she sets her mind to!

This morning, the students wrote Karen a thank you letter.  My class has a wide range of intellectual capabilities that stretch from super advanced to students that require much teacher assistance.  There are a few students who are reluctant to produce work.  When it came time to write a letter to Karen there were no reluctant producers today probably because this assignment was so near and dear to everyone’s heart. Everyone had something they wanted to share with Karen.

I did not place any restrictions on the content.  Some of these letter show that my students understood Karen’s message.  My little Lee thinks Karen is “sweet” and he decorated his letter in hearts.  Another student was giving words of wisdom, “If they tell you you can’t do it, so what!  You keep trying no matter if they tell you you can’t do it!”  One of my girls described her as “amazing.”  A couple other students really understood the message of following your dreams.   Their thoughts were not censored and I cannot wait until I get to meet up with Karen and personally deliver these letters.

Karen is a true celebrity in our room and is welcome back anytime.  We are already trying to plan an event so that we can invite Karen to visit again.

Her words of hope are sure to linger on in our minds for an eternity and continually inspire us. 

If you would like to learn more about Karen, please visit these sites please click on one of the links below:

Caring For Karen

HelpHopeLive

Struggles of a Meningitis Survivor

Finally Feeling Like Home

Finding out your teaching assignment 2 days before the start of the school year is challenging.  There is so much to plan and prepare.  Most teachers like to have a decent looking classroom to welcome the new batch of students.
Switching schools 6 weeks into the school year has been a trying experience as well.  It feels like I've been playing catch up since August.  There are always so many things to accomplish and so little time to execute.
That last 6 weeks at my current site has gone extremely well.  My students are still the sweet little kids I met on the first day.  I've gotten to know about their little personalities.  I have one student that is very hyperactive. I debated for days whether or not this student should sit by himself.  This is one of those kids who is really smart, I mean he has a lot of common sense.  He is also one of those kids who thinks everything is easy but scores a consistent 20% in all areas.  My challenge has been to have him focus on himself instead of being so preoccupied with the other students.  This kid, let's call him Lee, is the teacher assistant I never requested nor wanted.  When I speak to students in the class, he commonly chimes in, "Yeah, I told you!" "I can't believe you don't know that" "Oooh."  Lee's comments can occasionally change the dynamics in the classroom.  The rest of the students are more adept at reacting to his mini outbursts, but Lee can still disrupt the flow of the lesson.
 This is the first year I actually had to separate a student from the vast majority of the class.  Lee sits near my teacher station with no students sitting near him and the likelihood of a student going near him is 5%.  Lee has been able to focus so much better.  His class outbursts have stopped completely.  I even gave Lee a chance to choose his seat but he wanted to stay where he was.
I'm still trying to understand what makes Lee tick.  Walking in line with the rest of the class usually poses problems so Lee is usually my walking partner.  This is what I've learned about him so far...
Lee is extremely competitive, he likes to be first.  When I ask him why he is running in the building, his response is that he wants to get to the line first.  Lee likes to be in control of things.  He constantly bosses his peers around.  Strangely enough, his peers appear to respect his authority.  This leads me to his leadership skills.  One day I asked Lee what he wanted to be when he grew up, here is our conversation:
Lee: I want to be the President so I can make everyone my slave, except my friends.
Me: What about about me?
Lee: And you too.
Me: Why would people want to vote for you if you will make them your slave?
Lee: Well, I'll lie to them and tell them that I will give everyone $1,000 to vote for me.  When I'm President they'll be my slave.
I may have a little politician on my hands.  Lee and I have this conversation frequently and I'm not sure how I can open his mind to another plan while he's President.  Never the less, I am so happy to have met Lee and I look forward to our little conversations.