California Educator

g calm o off to war "I walked over and said, 'Let's take a deep breath and look at it again,'" recalls Solomon. "I know that concentration can be a challenge, so I decided to give her a hand." Later, says Solomon, she learned the girl's father had just been deployed to Iraq. "Their emotions are very close to the surface," says Melissa Norquist, a sixthgrade teacher at the school site. "With that comes frustration and being distracted in the classroom. Sometimes there are tears — especially when their dads first leave." Norquist knows exactly how they feel. Her husband of 20 years is a Marine and spent 14 months in Iraq, returning home in 2005. She has taught military children for the past six years in three different states. "I have a lot of empathy for kids whose parents are deployed," she says. "Sometimes you have to allow them extra time to get things completed and make sure they understand a project before you send them on their way. Sometimes I'll invite them to talk to me during recess. I'll share a treat with them and ask what's going on. I'll let them know that I understand that they may be a little sensitive right now, if their mom or dad is gone." Testing can aggravate stress, especially if a parent has been recently deployed. "It's hard for them when they have a high-stakes test and they are not thinking ab out t he test," s ays Norquist. "Sometimes something on a test can trigger a meltdown. It's a lot for somebody who is 11 or 12 years old and just starting puberty." The children of Marines at Condor Elementary School, Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms. School on the base Five miles away is Condor Elementary School, located right on the base and accessible only after passing through a security checkpoint. Approximately 95 percent of the students there have a parent in the service, and at any given time a third of these parents are deployed in the Middle East. Many of the school's teachers also have spouses in the service, such as kindergarten teacher Marisa Alderdice, whose husband is a Marine and has deployed three times to Iraq. (He is now at Twentynine Palms.) "They are so young, and what's going on affects their routine and stability a lot at this age," says Alderdice. "You can always tell when a dad is about to leave, because they get very irritable and cry easily. It affects their day and they can't concentrate." She can relate. "When my husband was gone, I was liv ing on t he e dge emotionally. I did ridiculous things like cry at Hallmark commercials. Little things made me angry and I would get sad at something that didn't warrant that reaction. The level of stress put me right on the edge, and it's true of my students as well." june 8-21 June.09.indd 19 2009 | www.cta.org 19 6/4/09 1:58:08 PM

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