Today, my afternoon students had just arrived from their home schools and were getting ready to go to lunch. As one of my students took off his coat, he was proudly wearing this little plastic badge on his knit turtleneck that spelled "Batavia" on it. Batavia is our neighboring town very close to Geneva. I complimented him on such a cool badge and asked him if a police officer from the Batavia Police Department had visited his kindergarten classroom. He said "No." "Well then," I said, "where did you get such an awesome badge." He told me that the policeman gave it to him when he stopped to talk to his mom on the way to school.
Awe...Alexander had no idea that his mom might possibly be in trouble in this situation. I don't know what totally transpired during that encounter at the side of the road, but I'd like to think that this police officer handled the situation the same way I do when kids are making bad choices in my classroom. It's a gentle conversation. A discussion about choices and then helping students help to set a plan to make a better choice the next time. It was so cool to know that Alexander came away from that experience feeling safe and proud of his new badge. We all need some reminders sometimes to "slow down" and make better choices. It's great when the reminder can be a gentle one.
Thank you Batavia Police Department for making a negative into a positive!!
until later~
b~
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