Drum roll please...I had a pretty good week at school. It's been a while since I could say that. Plus it's been a while since I actually HAD a week at school. This was my first time teaching five full days since the end of January.
I am feeling more like a legitimate teacher, or like the teacher I want to be after this week. Instead of pressing on through the very boring Saxon curriculum, I put it on hold to do our Day 100 celebration and fun stuff for Read Across America Week. Does that mean I might not finish my math and phonics curriculum? Yes. Does it mean my students will be unprepared for first grade? I think not at all. I did fun things that made them interested in learning and reading and integrated different subject areas. Something my prescribed curriculum does NOT do.
Sorry, I did not intend this to be a rant against Saxon. So I think I'd better change the subject.
One of my students (one of my very favorite students--but of course I love them all!) prayed this week that he'd be nicer to his sons someday. I'm not sure he knew what he was saying, but it really touched me. He had just rambled a very long, fairly nonsensical prayer, and I was just about to cut him off because the class was getting restless, and then he finished with, "And I pray I'll be nicer to my sons someday." I've heard his dad is not nice to him and is not a nice person in general. I've never met him, but I haven't heard anything good about it. This kid has a lot of anger issues and sometimes reacts violently (throwing things, kicking people, etc.) and his mom says that he's learned that from his dad. So whether or not he was really intending to say what he did when he was praying, he said it, and I share that prayer for him. He is a wonderfully kind-hearted and bright child and I really, really pray that he has a great future ahead of him. It's hard for me to think of my students as someday being adults or even teenagers, but they will be sooner than later. And they will likely come across many, many negative influences. Will they sell drugs? Use drugs? Get pregnant when they're teenagers? Drop out of school? Go to jail? Will they go to college? Get married? Pursue a career? Live as a Christian? Love and support their children?
This may sound overly dramatic, but I know the statistics for inner-city kids growing up in poverty. I know the dysfunctional families some of them come from. I want them to overcome, and it can be frustrating that I get them when their five, and then their future is really out of my hands and probably will be unknown to me. I guess I am planting seeds. Let's pray others will come along and water them and plant more seeds. I pray I will be faithful to the role God has given me and that I will trust him beyond that.
I am feeling more like a legitimate teacher, or like the teacher I want to be after this week. Instead of pressing on through the very boring Saxon curriculum, I put it on hold to do our Day 100 celebration and fun stuff for Read Across America Week. Does that mean I might not finish my math and phonics curriculum? Yes. Does it mean my students will be unprepared for first grade? I think not at all. I did fun things that made them interested in learning and reading and integrated different subject areas. Something my prescribed curriculum does NOT do.
Sorry, I did not intend this to be a rant against Saxon. So I think I'd better change the subject.
One of my students (one of my very favorite students--but of course I love them all!) prayed this week that he'd be nicer to his sons someday. I'm not sure he knew what he was saying, but it really touched me. He had just rambled a very long, fairly nonsensical prayer, and I was just about to cut him off because the class was getting restless, and then he finished with, "And I pray I'll be nicer to my sons someday." I've heard his dad is not nice to him and is not a nice person in general. I've never met him, but I haven't heard anything good about it. This kid has a lot of anger issues and sometimes reacts violently (throwing things, kicking people, etc.) and his mom says that he's learned that from his dad. So whether or not he was really intending to say what he did when he was praying, he said it, and I share that prayer for him. He is a wonderfully kind-hearted and bright child and I really, really pray that he has a great future ahead of him. It's hard for me to think of my students as someday being adults or even teenagers, but they will be sooner than later. And they will likely come across many, many negative influences. Will they sell drugs? Use drugs? Get pregnant when they're teenagers? Drop out of school? Go to jail? Will they go to college? Get married? Pursue a career? Live as a Christian? Love and support their children?
This may sound overly dramatic, but I know the statistics for inner-city kids growing up in poverty. I know the dysfunctional families some of them come from. I want them to overcome, and it can be frustrating that I get them when their five, and then their future is really out of my hands and probably will be unknown to me. I guess I am planting seeds. Let's pray others will come along and water them and plant more seeds. I pray I will be faithful to the role God has given me and that I will trust him beyond that.
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