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4th Grade Ida Experience

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Fourth Graders wrote about their Hurricane Ida experiences in Mrs. Thibodeaux's class, combining their stories into a book. They were featured on Fox 8.

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Rain, damage, and destruction had a big impact on kids, many going through the storm for the first time. Well, for all of us, part of recovering from a Hurricane Ida is just processing the experience and one fourth grade classroom was writing the assignment that asked the kids to describe their Ida experience and that has turned into an actual book. We're joined by the class from Saint Matthew the Apostle in River Ridge and teacher Jeannine Thibodeaux joins us. I was looking at the book and the book itself is just amazing So Mrs. Thibodeaux, how did this all come to be? I mean this was a really bad storm, a lot of kids have never really been through a storm like this, tell us how it all came to fruition. Well, it was a terrible experience and for my 9 and 10 year olds, I knew that when we came back, they would need some support and I didn't really know how much support they would need, but I figured, let's talk and we tried to talk about our experiences a couple of my students really just didn't want to talk about it. They just felt like it was just too much. They lost everything. So, I was like okay if you don't want to talk, let's write. It went from being just a simple writing assignment and it really grew to being a writing project. As it grew, I was like, you know what guys, what do we think about making this into a book? And of course I had to explain yes, it's going to be like a real book. A cover and everything. So, they were very excited about that and my fourth graders really progressed in the writing process very quickly this year. It's really amazing some of the pictures even paint more than the actual words that they wrote. Power lines down ,the damage you know, just the different things that they experienced. I understand that you lost your home and it runs deep throughout the River Ridge community, throughout the entire Metropolitan area Northshore and Southshore. So, when it came down to it, it sounds like this was more kind of like a Psychotherapy type situation where let's put it down on paper, let's talk about it, draw your experience. Just to bring it out and just kind of understand happened, but I think it really got to a point where it's like you know this really is something that we really need to kind of document for the future because Ida really was in modern history one of the strongest wind storms that we've ever experienced. I was teaching through Katrina and in my experience with that, I had a class of twenty-six, that only eight students returned. Wow. Not here, at St. Matthew's, a previous school. But, I was blessed, all of my students returned, at different times and not on the very first day. But, they all came back and they all had a story. So I thought it was important. Absolutely. Do you find that when you ask them to put a pen to paper and you ask them to actually draw maybe some of their feelings, you really find that that kind of helped bring them out of their shell to really talk about and understand it? Because sometimes if we hide behind our feelings, you never get the healing that you need. So do you find that this project really kind of opened up a conversation of what really happened and how we can move forward? Yeah, absolutely. One of my little guys, the only thing he could tell me on that first day is all my stuff is gone, all my stuff. And then, he didn't want to talk about it and he was very tearful, very emotional. But, once we started writing, he came to me and said thank you. Thank you for letting me do this. I'm so proud of the amount of work that they put into this and it really was about a month long project. The writing process went from them writing and doing rough drafts and having peers edit their paper and then to a personal conversation with me going through and editing their work as well. It's amazing.  We're just about out of time and again, the book is really amazing and you know something that I really enjoyed growing up in New Orleans, we have hurricanes and all that and I kind of seeing their stories, kind of brings back memories too, but I'm sure it does help. Well, kids behind your teacher, congratulations to you guys, give a big wave everybody on TV. There you go and so well behaved too and good luck to everybody and good luck to you as well, your home was pretty much non-livable, if not destroyed and many people are going through that as well. So, you guys have a great day, congrats on the book and let's keep moving it forward. You guys have a great holiday season. Thank you.

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4th Grade Ida Experience

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