Today, March 20, 2015

Today was great.  This was the last school day before a two week Spring Break, and at the tail end of three weeks of PARCC testing.  I started the day in a negative place due to my lost property yesterday.  Waking before dawn, I felt like I was slogging through molasses.  And when I stepped into my underwear this morning and it tangled around my ankle, I lost it.  I cursed like a sailor and stomped around like a child having a tantrum.

But I am blessed to teach at a school I love with professionals who I mostly like (hey I'm being honest) and a student body that challenges me.  I am a literacy interventionist for struggling readers at a low income school.  But in a pattern I could have predicted, my kids started charging my batteries as soon as I stepped out of my car.  They don't realize how much they mean to me.  For all I invest in them of my time, skill, effort, and money, they pay much bigger dividends.

During this morning's student award assembly, I heard a cluster of boys singing a Bon Jovi song that was popular 20 years before they were conceived, followed by Rod Stewart's Young Turks.  Soon, several teachers, including myself, joined in and were singing at the top of our lungs like groupies.  There was even a bit of middle aged moshing.

By midday I had stored up so much laughter.  We play a game I call Word Ball, think Scattergories meets Dodge Ball.  And one of my favorite moments was when a new student, J, who I am told has survived horrendous abuse, became so deeply embroiled in the game that I could tell even he forgot his troubles for a while.  I also saw A, a large, adorable class clown with authority issues, take a tear-stained sixth grade boy under his wing.

As the day ended with a middle school dance and much camaraderie with my colleagues, I couldn't help but reflect on the start of my day in gray and it's trajectory to goofball bliss.