This year I had the best teacher ever, he teaches Latin. He has this progressive open classroom set up where there aren’t any desks and we all sit in a giant circle and he teaches in the middle. It helps me dealing with ADHD because I have room to fidget and move and it feels so much less restrictive. He always helps me keep on track not by yelling at me or scolding me when I can’t focus but by making me WANT to focus, his class is just that fun!
Once when I was feeling particularly overwhelmed, I was trying really hard to focus but he could see how every little sound and touch was freaking me out, and he sent me to take a walk outside after a little while he came out to join me and asked what was wrong and comforted me when I started crying.
He doesn’t get annoyed when I’m spastic he just helps me calm down and let’s me know there’s work to be done. He lets me sit on the floor, move around the room, and sit on pillows while I do my work! He doesn’t get on to me about fidgets or humming or anything! And he doesn’t hate me either!
Most importantly he sees me as any other passionate student full of potential. It’s important to me because I have so many adults who have given up on me, my own mother is on the verge of giving up! But this teacher, he hasn’t given up on me, he sees my potential, he sees my hunger to learn, he sees that I need some help that he gives, he doesn’t see me as a broken brain as so many do.
He’s made classroom learning fun again.