I made a student cry today

Yeah…it was one of those days. Several ALTs have told me stories where they have had entire classes close to tears, and luckily I’ve never had anything that bad. I’d only made one student cry before today and that was in junior high.

Today I was at elementary and was teaching my fifth grade class. I’m not a huge fan of this class as they can get really rowdy and difficult to handle. We had a ton of extra time today so we started reviewing the vocabulary for the next lesson. I went around the room and had each student name a flashcard. I have 2 students in this class that I never know if they are going to participate or not. I’m fairly certain both of them have slight learning disabilities and I know English class is difficult. Usually we help them along as best we can. Well I got to the second of these boys (the first one answered fine) and I was met by a blank stare. I gave him a few moments to look at the card, and when I got no response I asked the whole class to say the word together. This is my normal protocol for kids who hardly ever speak in class.

Anyway, I moved on and finished the kids and we decided to play a game. It wasn’t until the kids started moving their desks for the game that I realized that the boy was crying at his desk. The home room teacher was with him and I didn’t know what else to do, so I went on with the game with the rest of the class. He cried the entire game and was still crying when class ended. -_-;

I feel really bad about the whole thing. I’m honestly not sure if he was mad at me or just frustrated with himself (as was the case with the last boy I made cry). I feel bad, but there wasn’t a lot of time left and I didn’t feel I could stand around and wait until he decided to answer, if he even did. Anyway, I’m now worried that I have scarred a child for life and that he will hate English class from now on. Way to go Amanda-sensei.