Moments

Friday a student of mine made an illegal choice on school grounds, no one was hurt, it didn't happen in my room but of course I can't talk about it. Either way reading about the incident I was sad and angry: sad/angry that the student will not be at our school for the entire next six weeks, sad/angry that a teenager was issued a ticket, sad/angry that the student made the choice and sad/angry that the student's parents weren't aware of what was going on.

This job has the power to change you. 

It can make you cynical, judgmental, fear the future, break your heart and leave you feeling overwhelmed with the amount of 'bad' in the world. 

But if you don't dwell on the negative, let go of all the sadness and just focus on the little moments you can see the possibilities.

So rather than remember last week for the negative I choose to remember it for the little moments:

one. A 'heavy hitter' in the school has had an amazing six weeks in my class. He passed, kept his tardies down and had no discipline problems. He might not make it through any of his other classes but I know for 48 minutes he can and is successful. He kept using the word gay the other day and it was driving me insane. I asked him to use another word...on his own he choose fabulous. During homeroom that day he used the word fabulous at least 20 times...I thought the class was ready to strangle him but I couldn't stop laughing.

two. In Robotics we started a new project Wednesday, the students needed to build a new robot and I gave them nearly the whole 90 minute period. We have lunch after class on Wednesdays and a few boys asked if they could stay during lunch and keep building, I said of course. Before I knew it there were 12 students choosing to keep working rather than go to lunch and socialize with their friends. Proud teacher moment.

three. Tuesday we were told every teacher needed to collect two writing samples for every student by this Friday for our TELPAS (a rating system for our ELLs) ...sure no problem says the teacher who never makes her students write. So on Friday I had every single student sit down and write, such a fun Friday. This is my third time doing TELPAS but my first time getting 100% of them to write a full page and take it seriously. You could literally here a pin drop in my room. 

four. Often time in Robotics the students need to get extra lego's from the main lego table cabinets, it can be a bit of racket as students are digging through all of those lego pieces. A student was searching for the piece and moving his hands back and forth in the bin, he started saying "you gotta make love to the legos...you have to make love to the legos." It was probably a little inappropriate but I couldn't stop cracking up.

five. A history teacher stopped me to share a funny story: they were reviewing for a upcoming test and she asked the class "who is John Adam's wife" and one of my 8th grade boys yells out my name. Then face palmed himself, shaking his head muttering "that's my Robotics teacher, why am I thinking about her...that's weird."

If I were to let every little minion who skipped my class, cursed, rolled their eyes at me or made poor choices get to me, I would probably look like this every evening:



But with little moments like these sprinkled throughout my week I don't always just feel like I am surviving the day or the kid but seeing the possibilities of something a little brighter. 

A good gym routine and a bottle of wine doesn't hurt either!

Linking up with: Bre, Carly and Logan.

- The Babbling Box!