Yesterday I decided that I was going to focus on connecting with my students rather than on trying to make them stay on task and learn. I think connecting with them worked better for both purposes. A student whom I have literally never seen smile smiled a ton, just a big ole consuming grin. It was so real, like he was on the verge of laughing. I saw him in the hall later and he looked the same way. I started to wonder if he was on something, but his eyes seemed genuine and lucid. Maybe something really encouraging and heart warming happened in his life. Maybe a loved one came back. Either way, it REALLY made my day.
I also had my first ever bi-annual evaluation of my teaching. Ms. D. stayed for the whole period but she is only required by government to stay for half an hour. That is 50 minutes longer than required. After class she told me I had improved a ton from the beginning of the year. Gosh let's hope so!!! Anyway, that was nice to hear and I know it is true. I have people like Mindi and Dennis to thank for that. Regardless of the positive feedback, I know that I have a lot of critiquing coming my way. I hope that I can be constructive with it. I want my class to be a fun place to be. Yesterday I heard one girl say she wanted to transfer out and another boy tell her he already tried that. Then I had another girl say in passing that she hopes she is in my algebra one class next semester. Why the difference in opinion?
I did zero work last night and I have done zero work this morning. Why? Because it feels trivial. Why?
I also need to deal with this internal tearing I have between being open-minded and being convicted about my faith. Instead of delving into the problem and reading up on things in the Bible and non-Christian stuff, I have just been ignoring both sides of the issue. That is a gross place to be. Fix it.
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