epiphany

don't expect to name your blog "Suddenly I See" and not get a few light bulb moments in life ...and there were quite a few today:

1. I root for the underdog. I suppose we all do; but today it hit me between the eyes.
I was holding auditions for the Drama After School program and a 5th grade girl who I've only thought of as "unusual" (she walked on her tiptoes since 3rd grade...odd) or "quiet" ("could you repeat that? um...once more?") and a little behind in her reading skills (she was in my small group reading for a couple of years) BLEW MY SOCKS OFF. It was a-may-zing. She was LOUD (which is a big plus for our acoustics), she was funny, and she read fluently with no mistakes. I'm so excited for her to be in the group!

2. On the flip side...I don't like kids who don't try. If I'm giving you 110% and doing everything I can do to help you be a better reader...why aren't you? I told a 5th grade boy today (who wants to be a professional football player) that he would never be able to read a contract to play for a pro team by only reading 2nd grade level books and "don't tell me your lawyer is going to read it for you" because he will and will steal every dollar you make.

3. I like to "kiss and make up" with food.
Another "light bulb" moment came when I needed to (once again) tell my second grade kids to come at 8:30AM after the morning bell rings and NOT at 8:25AM (my teacher friend Amy will say an "amen" to this one).
For those of you that don't teach it may be hard to understand what 5 minutes can mean.
Five minutes is organizing books and paperwork for six different grade levels, making a few more copies, taking a last sip of tea and dealing with the fact you'll be racing for the next 6 hours. Five minutes is magic.
Anyway--the kids that did come early did not receive bonus "stickers" and were none too happy about it. Of course; then typical Mom fashion you wonder if you were too hard on these kids that really want to come early just to be with you. So, tomorrow--to go along with our book (a wolf who bakes lots of goodies trying to fatten up a hen to eventually eat it) I am bringing donut holes (and I have to wonder if they'll think I'm trying to fatten them up?).
To go along with this...a few years ago a teacher friend was under mountains of stress and blew up at a colleague of mine and me. She took the next day off and came back the day after that and threw out a casual apology. I was so angry at this and the reason being..."she didn't even bring us cookies!"
Any lightbulb moments for you this week?

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