Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Graduation Weekend

A couple weekends ago was graduation weekend here in my town....

*** Let me take a little space to say -- this was also College Girl's graduation. So darn proud of her. As her dad said, she did better than both of us, She went to the University of Kansas and they have a wonderful tradition where the graduates walk "down the Hill" and the spectators line the sidewalk and cheer them on. Her dad and I were standing there, waiting, waiting, waiting... and all of the sudden he said, "There she is!" I got a couple of nice pictures and she was off. {Kind of like in real life, if you know what I mean.} Anyway, back to the regularly schedule blog post....

So when we got home from College Girl's graduation, we got a bundle of newspapers from when we had been gone. One night, when I couldn't get to sleep, I started looking through them. 

And inside one of them, were pictures of all the graduates from our high school. Our newspaper is nice enough to do this. So I was looking through all those faces and names -- and all of the sudden, I thought, I know this one! I know her! And I realized these students that were graduating were my very first class. I started at semester, teaching 3rd grade. And here were those little babies. 

Some of them, I thought "hi you." And some, I thought "yay you!" or "good for you" and then I looked through our elementary school yearbook for that year, and realized some were missing, and wondered what happened to them.

And of course, like any teacher looking back at their first year, I wanted to apologize to those little 3rd graders - there was so much that I didn't know what I was doing.
 









Sunday, May 7, 2017

Do-Over

So, it's been awhile. There are cobwebs in the corners of this blog site. I've thought of different ways I wanted to start a post -- but haven't actually taken the time to type it out. 

I'm a little afraid -- afraid I'll post today, and then... not again. And if I make this start, I want to be more consistent. 

So here goes today: 

We've got 10 days of school left, and I want a do-over. 
This has definitely been the most challenging year I've had. I've had 3 that have challenged my thoughts on behavior management, and then 3 others that ran a close second on that. One boy, in particular, really affects the mood of the classroom. That's compounded by the fact that I have the largest class I've ever had. 

I've started most every morning thinking: I want to do better. I want to meet them where they are. I want to look for the positive. I want to give the grace that I'd like. 

And I come home thinking: argh - not the way I wanted. So frustrated. 

My do-over would involve me really taking time to get to know my students. I try - but I'm not as successful as I'd like to be. My do-over would have me asking "why" more - and hopefully have students think about the reason behind the behavior that makes it hard for me to teach, and students to learn. 

Well, I won't get a do-over. And I can't even say next year will be better. I'm changing positions and will only be teaching science next year -- it's a special in my district. The desire to have a do-over is fighting with my desire to try something new. I'm not sure how much I'll miss having my own little class of 23 or whatever. We shall see.