the Day - No time for morning coffee, but the little kids gave me my
own kind of buzz so I waited until the afternoon to grab some coffee
from the lounge. Ummmm… it was ok. It. Was. Caffeinated. Sometimes, that’s enough. Before my evening classes I grabbed a cold cafe latte with an extra shot. Ummmmm… it was great. It. Was. Caffeinated.
No
matter how many times I pose questions here I’m grateful for the
thoughtful responses. In fact, I’ve come to expect the fascinating,
varied, caring comments and I’m sure to get an A on this paper I’m
writing that is to be a reflection of this week.
One of the things I left out of the last post was that all these young
boys also seem to come from single-parent families with absent fathers
and I didn’t leave it out intentionally, but later I realized my error.
Everyone had superb reasons for why these boys like to help and I agree
with them all. The only thing that I might add is that they somehow
don’t get instruction from home on how to fix things and operate
things, so they shine at school in that capacity. Without a male in the
home (I’m not being sexist, just practical here) many of them don’t
learn how carpentry, how to use tools, and how to do things like mow
the lawn, so when the opportunity is presented, they excel.
See? We figured that one out for the world. What’s next?
As I think about the day before me, my last day of this internship, I
know I will miss the new students I’ve met and the teachers who have
welcomed me into their classrooms and the leadership from the principal
from whom I’ve learned. But no matter how difficult it will be, my own
school needs me back and this has been a hard week as I’ve got work
piling up. When I’m out of the building, no substitute is called for
me. No one picks up the slack and does my work (unless I ask).
This made me ponder some things I’ve experienced this week:
- No
matter how many times I’m introduced before students, someone always
asks, "Are you going to be our new principal?" causing me to blush in
front of the current principal. "No," I politely answer. "But someday I hope to be a school principal."
- No
matter how many times I wink at students in the hallway, I have to
remember not to do so in the classroom lest the child says loudly, "Hey! She winked at me!" causing a mild interruption. - No
matter how many times I try to dress as a professional and look my age,
when new people I meet ask me the ages of my children I will always get a look wondering how in God’s name I have an almost 20 year old daughter. - No matter how many times a students asks me to sit by them and read to/with them, I will do it. Everything else can wait.
- No
matter how many times I’m introduced before the students, someone will
ask me if I’m someone’s momma. Yesterday, I was Tiesha’s and Isabella’s
momma.
- No
matter how many times I go into a new building, I’ll inadvertantly
break a rule like walking on the wrong side of the stairway and be
chastised by a child.
- No
matter how many times students see me in the building, I may be asked
if I’m someone famous (not sure why that is). Twice this week, I was
asked by the same little boy if I was Patricia Polacco, the children’s author. - No
matter how many times I see children in the office for lice, I will
psychosomatically scratch my head and arms the remainder of the day. - No
matter how long my day is and how overwhelmed I get from work and
school and papers, I will somehow try to write about it here. Or here.
- No
matter how crappy a day turns out to be my face will give me away and
my children will tread carefully, offering hugs when needed. They will
also make me look, look, look at what they’ve done in school or what game they’ve mastered. - No
matter how much pressure I feel from Life and living it so fully I know
that nuzzling under my husband’s arm and having him stroke my
possibly-lice-infested hair will calm me and make me want to keep on
living it.
April 28, 2006 @ 12:09 pm | Filed under Lessons I'm Learning | Permalink |
