Story time
So hlaar wanted to hear this story, so I might as well share it with all of you.
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Okay, so, there was this one girl in one of the Grade 5 classes who was so shy, that she could barely speak her own language in front of her friends and classmates, nevermind English.
Part of this was because her father was killed in an accident just a few years prior, and her mother moved the family from Barcelona to my city because the mother had family there. So this girl lost her father, and was suddenly put into an unknown city and school away from any familiarity.
I had been trying to help her speak in private since I got there back in late October, and I could only get her to speak barely louder than a whisper and we had to be totally alone or else she couldn't do it. It also took constant encouragement and saying things like “I know you can do it”, “come on, just this one little sentence”, and things like that and ending with smiles and high fives. It was so quiet I had to be inches from her head in order to hear her.
Some time in April, I was taking students in pairs to do a reading activity and I got her to mumble and whisper some English to me with another student (a friend) in the room, and her friend was shocked and impressed. Later on, when I had returned to the class to get some more volunteers, the shy girl had her hand raised. I asked her if she wanted to do it again, and she said "yes" in Catalan. She was very playful and affectionate toward me ever since that day.
She's been especially fond of flipping my hoodie up whenever I wear one. One day in late May, I had class with her group and she really wanted to flip my hood up over my head, so I held her hands "hostage” so she couldn't do it herself and told her I'd do it for her if she could ask me in English.
With only a little encouragement and help, she said "can you put your hood up please?" She did this at an almost normal volume, and with minimal mumbling. In a class full of students. In English. It drew some nearby attention, which was so positive and had shocked several other students because it was so out of character for her. By this point in time, she also spoke normal volume Catalan with her friends and classmates. This girl had made such a turn-around in eight months, I was so happy for her and proud of her.
It made me feel like the Lionel Logue of Spain.
