If you know me, I almost never watch those things, and make fun of them more than not, but I was a bit bored of editing papers and wanted to take a break. So I watched it.
The video, and my wife's wonderful blog (http://poemfish.typepad.com/poemfish/2008/04/the-right-time.html), really hit home with me, and made me realize that I wasn't being myself this year - that I was focusing on the wrong things as a teacher.
Sometimes I get too caught up in the little details. This year I've been so stressed out at the small stuff that I've actually yelled at students - and that's just not me. It's not who I am as a teacher, and not who I ever want to be, period.
So today I showed my newspaper class the video, and I teared up as I told them how hard it's been for me, and how I didn't want to be that guy. I asked them to remember to try to let go of the little things - the "he said/ she saids" that so often disrupt young lives. I asked them to look at their lives and ask themselves how they can choose, every day, to have a better one than the last. I told them that I would do the same. More than half of them rushed me with a "group hug."
My problem has been tunnel vision: "WE MUST GET THE YEARBOOK AND NEWSPAPER DONE!" has been my theme... and all the commas must be right... always write "said" and never says with quotes... everything must be written in AP Style... etc. I've forgotten that the yearbook and newspaper is, absolutely, not worth having a bad day over, and what's important is to help the students become better people.
So I convinced my editor-in-chief to let us all go out and play touch football. We did, and it was awesome. We laughed, we didn't keep score, and I moved faster than the students thought possible. Two students took pictures - a few decided to sun bathe rather than play - but we all had fun just goofing off. No deadlines - no drafts - just getting together as a class and bonding a bit.
I need to remember that I must be the example for my students - and that I should, and will, choose to have a great day, every day.
1 comment:
The funny thing is that the only teachers I could ever see doing something like that are you and B. That's why photography was a class that I looked forward to--it was far more interesting than just taking notes over lectures read verbatim from textbooks. All my other classes I just kind of skated through, but I actually grew as a person and learned some stuff in photography.
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