by Travis Vermulm
AV Travis Vermulm poses with two St. Anthony’s Students during a Christmas Party
ANNIKA
Children have a habit of saying very impactful statements without ever realizing they are doing so. Annika is a silent troublemaker who recognizes that she is well-liked in the classroom and often uses it to her advantage by having the children follow her lead in games and activities. She is pleasant in class and very intelligent. It is no wonder that she is a natural leader, but sometimes she tries to sneakily break the rules and have others do the same.
One day she convinced her entire row of students to read books hidden in their desk when they were supposed to be doing a project. I would look up to see her gazing down at the opening in her desk and I would give her a glare until she put the book down and started doing her work again. As soon as I looked away or went to help another student, she would return to the book and I would catch her again only to repeat the process. Every time this happened, she would look at me and grin knowing exactly what was going on, needless to say I was mildly annoyed.
During one of the math assignments the class was having a particularly hard time listening. I was rushing around to every student trying to ensure they were staying focused on the task at hand instead of throwing things or shouting across the room at each other. I made it to Annika’s desk and saw that she was not listening to instruction at all. The assignment was to order colors on a picture of a shelf, so if the teacher said Blue on top, Orange in the middle, Red on the bottom, the students were supposed to color in the shelves with the appropriate color. Annika had skipped ahead of the teacher and was coloring in a shelf early. It was also the wrong color.
“No, Annika, that isn’t what we are supposed to be doing yet, you have to wait to hear the color. That shelf is supposed to be blue, okay?” I said in a tone I thought was calm.
Some of my earlier annoyance with her must have leaked into my voice, however, because she put her crayons down on her desk looked up at me and said in a very serious tone, “People make mistakes Mr. Travis.”
I was at a loss as to how I should respond. She was right. I had probably not noticed my own tone of voice due to the entire class’s behavior and I certainly had not exercised patience. Annika was talking about her own mistake, but her words pointed a large arrow right back at me without her knowledge.
I spent the rest of the assignment by her desk helping her work through each shelf. It is easy to get caught up in a movement and forget how actions might be affecting people around you, but I will continue to remind myself of Annika’s simple sentence, “People make mistakes Mr. Travis.”
NOTE: The names of the children were changed in this story.