"Aha!" Moment [1]

My "Aha!" moment for the week actually happened while visiting with my sponsor. I got the chance to see two "socially uneducated" children interact with each other. The first child, Nathan, was having a melt-down from being picked on that day. He didn't really know how to control his temper, so him having the chance to leave the class was actually a good idea. Ms. Ryan then called another student, by the name of Jeffery, to the guidance office. I was told that Jeff, as the counselors called him, recently started working with Ms. Ryan on his interaction with his peers. When he first came into the office, Ms. Ryan followed my name by, "and what do you say when you meet new people?" He turned to me and said, as if rehearsed, "Hello. How are you?" I thought it was pretty interesting that a fifth grader had to be taught things like that. Ms. Ryan explained to me that Jeff was an only child and didn't have the chance to spend time with other children much. I realized that this may be a major factor in the behavior of children. Jeff then went out to spend a little time with Nathan. They played a game of Connect Four. Ms. Ryan and I sat close by to make sure everything went smoothly. I could tell that Ms. Ryan was doing a pretty amazing job working with the two of them because there wasn't a silent moment at all during the entire game. I liked to see that the two boys were working on their listening skills as well as "conversation starters".