<br/><hr/><div class="floatleft">(http://i.imgur.com/JhIggyw.jpg)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Bridgette Desjardins<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Ms. Desjardins’ psychology classroom -<strong>COPING SKILLS</strong><br/><strong>Date/Time:</strong>Tusday September 9th - 7:35 AM<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Gabriel Summers, Tessa Cantrell, Neena Thurman<br/><strong>Content:</strong>Bridgette starts to do the hard work of categorizing the emotions in Gabriel's story. She also fits a few lessons in before this starts, and tries to give Neena a response from her own mouth. See chalkboard spoiler at the end of the post for obvious reasons. It's crappy, I made it in paint, but it functions.<br/><hr/>Bridgette always looked forward to the challenge of this class. She’d held it three times previous to this one, and she was glad for it every time. However, the first few weeks were always the hardest. In order to hold a class about complex and difficult emotions, everyone had to be on the same playing field. People had to know who they were talking to, what they were talking about. There was perhaps nothing more difficult, and nothing more important. She could already sense quite a bit of apprehension in the room, and as she listened to the timbre of the pupils before her, her brows started to crease. There was a lot of pain in the room, and as the incoming conversation drew closer, she could sense a lot of the trauma in her students.<br/><br/>When Neena spoke up, Bridgette nodded. This particular young woman was one of the more disturbed songs in the room. Bridgette had noticed her doodling, and she was all but encouraging the behavior. Ms. Desjardins was different than most teachers. She didn’t want to force anything out of students. What they did with their time was their business, and if it wasn’t relevant to the class or the conversation, she wasn’t about to force anything. In addition, she made an observation, when Neena was doodling, she was calmer, less concerned, it was a therapy for her. As Bridgette listened to the annoyed young woman talk, she thought about that form of therapy. Bridgette was happy that Neena had found something to keep her calm.<br/><br/>Girls like Tessa only had one option, to hide from the past constantly. It was no competition, being with these wonderful young people, helping them through their traumatic pasts, being available to them. That was more important. And she wanted to give Neena a fair response for the class.<br/><br/>Gabriel managed to start before her. She had all but expected that, he was obviously the most unphased in the classroom. Even more calm and hopeful than her three experienced students. It almost worried her, but she hadn’t expected him to answer for her. Most of what he said was correct, but she could hear something disparate in the classroom, she aimed to clear it up as soon as she felt it.<br/><br/>But the natural flow of things went elsewhere, And Gabriel stood, his music was loud in the room, and Bridgette braced for him. It was good to let this valve open now, to open early. She didn’t know what kind of story he would tell, but it disturbed her deeply. As he went into it, Bridgette did her best to guage the tone of the room. She made eye contact with Neena at least once with a shifted nod to say<em> ‘I’m sorry’ </em>silently. And then she used that expression, that tone, that outward calming effect, and broadcasted it instead of the dread she was feeling in her heart.<br/><br/>Bridgette had a good power for this class. She was a sensitive woman, so emotions truck her deeply, only with her power would she be able to function. As she vividly imagined each part of Gabriel’s alien existence, she let the pain sink in tightly, and privately, to Gabriel, she showed him her understanding.<br/><br/>Bridges was trying to show the class that she was fine while she expressed to Gabriel that she understood his pain. It was a difficult tightrope to walk, but she had learned a lot about her powers, and it was becoming easier for her to focus emotions like this. She thought for a moment how nice it would be, and how unethical it would be if she could control their emotions, which she could not do.<br/><br/>When he wrapped up his story, Bridgette looked around the class to make sure everyone was ok.<strong>“Thank you for that, Gabriel. That seemed remarkably easy for you.”</strong>Bridgette turned to the class and used this expression of his as a teaching opportunity.<strong>“Now, zat stirred up emotions in me. I’m sure it did for some of you as well. And we will use dis story as an example for everyone. dhere is…”</strong>She turned her head to the side for a quick moment<strong>“A lot to work wihz”</strong><br/><br/><strong>“But first,we can touch on politics for a moment so that we can avoid zhem in dha future. Bohz of you were correct. Gabriel,”</strong>That name, came very cleanly and beautifully from her lips,<strong>“You are right, we are human, just with a few extra features, individual to us, like the shapes of our faces, or the size of her feet.”</strong>She was a chipper person, but a sense of intense importance was planted into her sentences. She was an intense individual as well, and making her point was easy for her.<strong>“However, Neena,”</strong>Another name that worked well in her mouth,<strong>“I believe your concerns are very well placed as well.”</strong>She shifted her weight in the front of the class and took a moment to drink her coffee.<strong>“We live tuheataeeous, T-retueha-” </strong>Bridgette could not say that word at all,<strong>“-dangerous lives, obviously, by Gabriel’s story, but an important zing to understand is zhat all pain is pain. No matta ‘owe’ it is caused. When zah body and zah brain tell us zaht we are in trouble. It is natural to hide zeese feelings. To lock zehm away.”</strong>She almost turned to face the board, but another thing came to mind.<strong>"No one is required to stand when they speak. You may if you'd like to, but you can talk while sitting if you'd like to share anything in the future."</strong><br/><br/><strong>“So, let us begin. I will put down a few items on zah board. Feel free to help me. We can put the same idea into multiple emotions. For instance.”</strong>Bridgette wrote the word enslaved under ‘Fear’ and then drew a line that went from left to right, under every single emotion on the board.<strong>“I think… zaht hit almost every zihng for me.”</strong>She reached for an eraser and brought it up,<strong>“Except for maybe zhis one.” </strong>Ms. Desjardin erased a segment of the line under the word ‘Pride’, and then she put a well sized ‘X’ in that place.<br/><br/><strong>“Zhere, I will keep adding, if anyone felt something,”</strong>and Bridgette knows that some of them had,<strong>“let me know what made you upset, and under which emotion it fits. We must learn zah difference between zehse things if we want to conquer zem.”</strong><br/><br/>Bridgette added what she felt she needed to add without making things too intense. She didn’t want to be too specific. The words on the board were stirring up emotions on their own, putting the specific memories that Gabriel had brought up and giving them space in front of the class was not the focus of the exercise.<br/><br/>“Knives make me nervous,” Said Shane, calmly from the corner of the room. There had been a small details about knives in Gabriel’s story. Bridgette added it to the board. Haily was new, but she understood the exercise and wanted to contribute. She liked the idea, and she could feel herself minimizing her own problems as she investigated the difference between the symbols in the story and the emotion she was feeling. “The um…” It sounded clean in her head, but saying out loud was difficult, “the murder in the story makes me angry…” Bridgette wrote it down on the board and continued putting things in their place as she examined them on her own. ‘Death’ ended up in a few different categories. But she didn’t think to make a line like she had with the idea of slavery.<br/><br/><div align="center"><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Chalkboard at end of this post.</div><div class="spoiler_body"><div align="center">(http://i.imgur.com/cCJAiVS.jpg)</div></div></div></div>