Challenge #18~Syching my self up for the next nine weeks

It's Wednesday and all I can think is the fact that I have had 2 very sick kids during Spring Break, I have not had time to read the professional text- because I checked out some entertaining books from the Library-(what I call no brain required reading), and then I receive this email from The Sisters.

Fair Is Not Always Equal - The "Tigers" in the Classroom

After a lengthy rehabilitation following knee surgery, Tiger Woods made his big return to professional golf a couple of weeks ago at the Accenture Golf Tournament in Tucson, Arizona. The event was highly anticipated by golf enthusiasts all over the world, all of whom wondered, "Would he be able to perform at the same level as the pre-surgery Tiger?"

Since we're married to golfers and enjoy dabbling a bit in the game ourselves, we tuned into the tournament with the rest of the world to see how Tiger would do.

Did Tiger win the tournament? No. Did he do as well as the pre-surgery Tiger? That answer is still under debate. Regardless, Tiger Woods is still one of the best golfers in the world.

So what does Tiger Woods have to do with our lives as classroom teachers? We all have "Tiger Woods" type students; those high flying children who excel academically, functioning above some or many of the others in the room, often times in spite of us!

We believe our "Tigers" deserve wonderful instruction, and endeavor to divide our time fairly between all our students. This lofty ideal can lead to a sense of guilt when our more needy students consume a greater portion of our time. What we've come to realize is that "Fair is not always equal."

Every student needs and deserves a great "coach" in the classroom. Even Tiger Woods has a golf coach who works with him periodically to fine tune his swing, offer advice on club selection, or refine techniques. Periodic support is sufficient for Tiger. Someone of his caliber doesn't need daily coaching and instruction. He spends hundreds of hours practicing on the golf course, driving range and putting green, and having a coach check in with him once in awhile adequately meets his individual needs.

Alas, The 2 Sisters require a more frequent regime of coaching. We are beginning golfers. We need someone to check in often during our practice sessions. We need more explicit instruction, more correct modeling, and more scaffolding to ensure success. We need someone to monitor us frequently, to make sure we are not developing bad habits that will hurt our game. Is it unfair to Tiger if we get more support than he does? No. He doesn't need it. We sure do!

So, once we accept that fair doesn't mean equitability of time, we can let that old unsubstantiated guilt go. We'll periodically swoop in and coach those little Tigers in our classrooms, then send them off to practice, rejoicing in the time they free up to meet the needs of our other students. Now that's fair!

And I realize this newsletter was for me. I have been struggling all year feeling as if I have ignored my writers that quickly get started and write long and strong. I meet with them much less frequently than my others. I also realized that my main frustration is that the "Tigers" are few in my room this year. We all knew this class struggled, but I believe our pride got in the way. They won't struggle with us, we said somewhat smugly, our rooms contain best practices. We were wrong. They did struggle and I am not so sure all the needs have been met due to the overwhelming lack of confidence in writing. So before Monday I am going to sit down and map out who I need to meet with first next week, so hopefully they will go on as sixth graders just a little more confident in their abilities.

Challenge #17~I'm as bad as my kids~

Patience is not exactly a virtue when I am excited about something to happen or a package to arrive. However, this time I didn't log on to UPS to track the package each day or each hour. :-) Instead I waited until I could wait no longer. After the girls and I woke up from our 2 hour nap (thank you for letting them sleep during Spring Break), I got online to view the delivery window. One precious word lit the screen in blue: DELIVERED. I quickly ran to the front door and there it was my package. I brought it inside and ripped the tape with scissors. Then I opened the box and my brand new mary jane ballet slippers were inside. What a rush! I swear I am just as silly about getting new things as my own kids are.

Challenge #16~All it takes is one moment~

As I walked slowly from my car to the surgery waiting room,my mind filled with thoughts of what if? What if she doesn't make it? What if they couldn't fix it? But, my mind was not expecting the what if we heard. Maw Jean's knee replacement has been long coming. Her pain has been very debilitating. It is hard to watch a loved one in pain, even when they are older than you. We waited. One hour. Two hours. Three hours. I watched as the scrub nurse walked toward us. She explained that while Jean was doing well, it was taking longer than they thought. Four hours after the replacement surgery began we got the report from the doctor. Something is wrong with the bone. They were able to finally build a replacement knee, but the bone kept breaking. I know we were all hearing the unspoken words in the room~cancer. But, not one person uttered it. All it takes is one moment....one moment to cause your life journey to change focus. Now we wait again. Days this time, not hours. Days to find out if it's cancer.

Challenge #15~A OMG I'm Old Moment~

Today my kids were with their daddy. So needless to say I was able to pick the music in the car on the way home from church. Flipping through the stations I turned to my favorite station. It has been a few years since I truly listened to it.

"Justin Timberlake...coming up next," quipped the DJ.

Alright! I thought...as the music started I realized that obviously this wasn't the Justin Timberlake from my late teen early twenties years. I can't understand a single word!He is the same age as me....surely this can't be right.

Then it hit me! The realization of OMG I am so old and I sound just like my mother!!!

What am I going to do? So I quickly flipped to another station.

"Welcome to the station that plays the hits from the 70s, 80s, and 90s," said the DJ.

Ahhh, home sweet music home.

Challenge 14~Shoe Shopping~

I have always thought that shoe shopping was a fun thing UNTIL I had children. Today I took the girls to Stride Rite to be fitted for new tennis shoes and Spring dress shoes. It was a mad house!! Babies crying, mommys wishing they could cry and the heat must have been cranked up to 80 degrees. Every time I requested a particular shoe they were always out of the girls' size. Exasperated the clerk said, "Look just get the more expensive shoes and be done with it! I know you want the sale shoes, but they don't have any in their size."

"Well, can I get a discount then?" I asked.

"Yes!" she exclaimed.

So 10 minutes later we were checking out leaving the crying, yelling and other chaos behind to enjoy some well deserved frosties and Wendy's.

Note to Self: Never be a kids shoe clerk.

Challenge #13~A Break~

Supposed to be time to relax,
Perhaps I shouldn't have brought my book bag home,
Realizing I am thinking of what we are doing when we get back,
I wish I could just STOP and not think about the last nine weeks,
No one realizes my brain never stops thinking about school,
Guessing this is probably normal for teachers.

Bewildered that I can't just sit and not do anything,
Realizing that there is always something to do
Everyone has to feel this way too
Aren't we always feeling as if something is left undone?
Keeping ourselves busy instead of just taking a moment to ourselves.

SOLC during Spring Break Reminder

After Friday, my students will be on Spring Break. In order to help them remember to write each day for our SOLC, I created the bookmarks below and then etched a notch in it with Basic Grey's notch die system. They turned out pretty cute and they fit perfectly on the page.

SOLC Bookmarks

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