Sweet Spots

I'm one of those nerdy teachers that likes brands on Facebook and actually interact with their Facebook pages or Pinterest boards.  So last night's Scholastic Ten O'Teacher question was from a middle school teacher who is currently stuck in kindergarten.

There were some helpful comments about how to handle the challenge she was actually facing, but there were many really, really unhelpful comments.  There were teachers telling her she should be grateful to have a job, that she would like them by the end of the year, and criticizing her for not liking kindergarten.

I have no advice for her for this year.  Kindergarteners are like nieces and nephews: cute, but thank God, I can return them.  There are grades or subjects that I hadn't considered teaching before and enjoyed and ones that I have sworn: never again!  There is no guarantee she will like them by the end of the year.  To say that she'll like them by the end of the year might make her feel guilty for not liking teaching kindergarten now.  Trust me, there are enough things we can feel guilty for on our own without any assistance.

To tell her she should be grateful to have the job is not much better.  I didn't see what she had written that led people to feel that she was ungrateful.  She sounded like she accepted that she is teaching kindergarten this year and is trying to make it a great year in kindergarten for her kids (why she was asking for help.)  She's trying to make a different plan for next year.  She's reflected on these few short weeks and realized she prefers middle school.  Good for her: we all have our sweet spots and hers is middle school.

Kids are great.  They are creative, funny, talented, inquisitive, and amazing! (Except when they're not.) Since we agree, I'm assuming, that kids are great...let us see if we can't agree something else is great.  Like ice cream.  She prefers chocolate chip cookie dough and people are telling her that she will love butter pecan by the end of the year.  "I would give anything to have butter pecan." say some.  "Why are they giving you butter pecan? Are they trying to put you on a lactose-free diet?" say others. "Butter pecan is the most important ice cream."

I like ice cream, but I really don't like butter pecan.  I would rather have no ice cream than butter pecan. (Is it butter pecan or buttered pecan?  I don't honestly know, I called it butter pecan when I was a kid....it may be something completely different.)  There are plenty of flavors of ice cream I haven't tried that I probably would like and plenty of favors that I wouldn't like.  To tell me to like a flavor I've tried and don't like is a waste of my time and possibly negatively impacts the bowl as well.

I prefer chocolate chip cookie dough too.  Middle school is my fave.  Other kids may be cuter.  They may smell better, but mine are the weirdest and I mean that in the best way possible.  Mine want to like their teacher and want their teacher to like them, but they don't want to hug it out.  They can be awkward and want to know that falling flat on your face isn't permanent (which this teacher has inadvertently proved by occasionally falling on her face.)  They want to figure out who they are as result of or reaction to their parents.  They ask weird questions (what is it with middle school and cannibalism?)  They make tons of choices ranging from stupid (get your feet out of the trash can!) to caring (being kind to people who are hard to like) to inexplicable (if you did the work, why didn't you turn it in?) Some try out sarcasm.  Some get it; some don't.  YouTube videos and candy bring them extreme versions of happiness.  They are my kind of people.

If I tried to be a butter pecan kind of person, I wouldn't appreciate what makes them them.  Don't force your flavor on someone else.  Let them enjoy their flavor of ice cream.

Wicked Insights

I love Wicked, it's my favorite musical...until I start talking about musicals and realize how many I love.  So during my prep on Friday, I'm singing at the top of my lungs (there are benefits to having a portable) when two of my girls come and get me.  One of my boys has gotten upset and run out of class.  The teacher who was teaching the class wanted more help.  Ok...I  don't even register embarrassment about singing loudly (and a little pitchy.)  I run outside thinking that we don't know where the student is, but we did.  He was sitting under the canopy and in clear sight.  We'd sent for the principal as well.

I have no idea, really, how I'm going to handle this because I don't really know what this is.  The principal and I decide that since the student is really upset and says he can't talk about it yet that he should go to my classroom and calm down before we chat.  We go back to my room, I turn down the music and think, "Maybe I can still get some vocab graded." Nope, he decides to start talking as soon as we get back to the room but it is hard to tell what is true and what has been construed.

So after school, I'm reflecting on what happened and trying to figure out what I need to do when "For Good" comes on.  If you haven't memorized every single song (like me), then you may want to know the lyrics I'm referencing,"I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason, bringing something we must learn and we are led to those who help us most to grow if we let them and help them in return." The profundity of the statement hit me yet again.

In my short teaching career, I have met a bunch of students, their parents, and extended family.  I have grown so much: learned new content and ways of instructing students, different ways of managing organization, navigating professional relationships with my colleagues, and a better sense of who God has created me to be.  I have grown, yet I know I have much more to learn.

I still don't really know what to do with Steve Prefontaine, but it is clear to me that we're being given the opportunity to grow some more.

Geocaching

I am a geek.  I would say what type of geek I am, but I'm a unique brand of it.  I hate sci-fi (books, movies, t.v.), but miss X-Files and Eureka.  I've never read a comic book, but freak out for the Marvel Comic Universe.  I haven't seen the latest and greatest movies, but I have a Netflix queue full of documentaries.  I read, but am late to the "trendy" books (Twilight, Hunger Games, 50 Shades of Gray.  Tbh haven't read 50 Shades or anything after Twilight.). I still rock my iPhone 4 (that I got a year after everyone else.)

I geocache, but I wouldn't call myself outdoorsy.  Geocaching.com was giving away a digital souvenir for every day that you log a found or event cache in the month of August.  So DirtyBlonde830 (her geocaching name) and I were hunting for a geocache every day. Midway through the month, I thought for sure I would have already beat my streak of consecutive days geocaching.  One day, I was looking for one to find this morning and I was wrong.  There was a stretch where I found a geocache every day for 17 days.

Quite honestly, I would have considered quitting if I had beaten my streak.  I'm tired.  School started and I have worked my butt off this summer getting stuff ready and I'm thinking I need a little bit more fun to end the summer and start the school year right.  Geocaching everyday was supposed to be part of that fun, but I was not enjoying the kinds of geocaches I'm was finding to try and maintain the streak.  Of course, part of that is the geocaches I'm looking for are park and grabs and I'm looking after dark so they need to be well-lit and in a safe neighborhood.  I need to start earlier, but I also need to do a ton of stuff in my room, work on lesson plans, and some school responsibilities.

Who knew having fun was so hard to schedule?