Introduction: Hurricane Harvey impacted every one of my students in some way. While some lost their belongings and had to relocate, others gave back and volunteered in their community. We were out two weeks and students were watching the news, dealing with the disaster first hand, studying at home trying to stay focused on school, and many were dealing with the situation by just being kids: playing video games, reading books and catching up on their favorite television shows. No matter what activities they participated in over the unexpected break, now each student is dealing with the affects in their own way. Throughout this week, our first week back after the storm and flooding, our actual second week of school, I sat down during one-minute check-in's, at table talks and even yesterday at our first quiz bowl tournament of the year and asked my students questions, listened intently to their responses and gained a lot of insight as to how a catastrophic event like Harvey truly perturbs and alters the outlook of the children who live through it. These are their words, their thoughts and their emotions. For this post, I will keep them anonymous, but will use their responses to create a first person narrative, a combination of emotions, demeanor and temperament.
It's A Jungle Out There: I was excited at first when school was cancelled for Friday August, 25th. I was able to stay up late because we were told we wouldn't have school at around 8:30 at night, before my week night bed time. My parents told me there was a storm coming and I had watched the weather channel, but they didn't seem worried, so I wasn't either. But then by the next evening, the rain started pouring down, it was a hard rain for hours and hours. This was when I started to see my parents become a little worried. They reassured me that our house was not in a flood zone and that we would be fine. But, we didn't go out to eat for my brothers birthday. Instead we baked a cake and made dinner together as a family. Then we watched a movie. My parents decided it was best to keep the television off because it might scare my brothers and sisters. I am the oldest, so they were giving me the task of keeping my younger siblings entertained. I couldn't help looking out the window though, the water on our street just kept coming closer and closer to our front porch.
The trees were blowing and the tornado sirens kept going on and off all night. We kept going into my parents closet over and over. Then my parents decided to just bring in our sleeping bags and have us sleep in there. The wind just kept howling and howling. The trees were smacking against their bedroom window. It was not a pleasant night. I was worried the water would come into our house while we slept. But my parents told me to sleep, we were upstairs and we would be safe. The next morning, there was a lot of water in our downstairs. You couldn't see the carpet, a brown, dirty water was splashing around. My parents wouldn't let us come downstairs. We spent the whole day in my parents bedroom watching movies on Netflix. We were lucky our power never went out. Our neighbors did and they had to leave. It was scary but we were dry and safe and my parents brought us popcorn and microwave pizza so at least we had good food.
The next day, the water got higher and my parents told me that the district water department had to let water out of the reservoir near us to make sure it didn't overflow. They were worried we would get more water in our house so we had to go to my grandparents house. A boat with some men in it came up to our yard and asked if we needed to evacuate and our parents said "yes." My mom and my two younger sisters went on one boat and then another boat took my dad and me and my brother. We couldn't drive our car because it was under water. So when we got out of our neighborhood, where it was dry, we had to ask someone to drive us over to my grandparents house. I sat in the back of a van with my brothers and sisters. My mom just kept looking out the window and saying, "It's a jungle out there, it looks like a wrecking crew is just chopping down trees in the Amazon, it looks like a devastated jungle." and she cried a lot.
Fortitude and Gratitude: I was excited to go back to school because I wanted to see my friends. It is boring at my grandparents house. I also have to share a room with all my brothers and sisters, it is really crowded. I also wanted to have a place to go and something to do. My parents have a lot to do and having us back in school gives them time to make sure our house is getting repaired and our car is too. I was a little nervous to come back to school though because I thought we would have a lot of extra work to catch up on and that we were really behind in our classes. But, my teachers were really nice and we do not have any homework for two weeks. We are doing lots of reviews and group work and this makes me happy. We get to talk with our friends and ease back into school. All of my teachers are smiling and greeting me in the hallway. I am excited they know my name and are happy I am back in school. I am happy to see them and my friends.
One of my teachers asked me "How are you? What can I do to help you get back into the mindset of school?" I thought this was really cool because sometimes, they just talk to us about what happened and give us copies of notes. Sometimes we need to just be asked that question. What we really need is to do is have time to talk to our friends and get comfortable being back in the routine of our school day. We need to be kids and have time to just smile and laugh. I have been through a lot and not being able to live in my house is stressful. But, I know we will be back in our home in a few months. So what I need, and my friends need, is to have a distraction from what has happened. To be able to learn in a safe place and feel comfortable and happy in our classrooms. I am grateful to my teachers for making this happen. I am looking forward as my teachers remind me to do, because looking back prevents us from growing. Fortitude and grit my teachers say. Not only does learning make me happy but being back in school with my friends I feel safe and that is what kids need to feel. Safe and happy.
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