Shelly Webb
As the last voices fade from the hallway and the sound of a
lagging school bus passes beneath my window, I automatically start to reflect.
The realization of how tired I am kicks in; I didn’t sleep
well last night and I wonder if I really gave it my all today. I wonder if I
will sleep tonight, I wonder if it’s my age or just my mind not shutting off
that keeps me tossing and turning. As I recount the events of the day I remind
myself how well most of my students did on the ‘Idiom’ quiz, I feel like they
finally understand what “feeling under the weather” and “giving someone the
cold shoulder” actually means… although I’m not sure exactly how essential this
information will prove to be in their futures. They also did a great job using
task cards to ‘make conclusions’, but again…not sure if this will help them
land a job one day, unless they are intuitive enough to conclude exactly what to say in the interview and when to stop
talking altogether.
Then I reflect about the day’s events that didn’t have
anything to do with ‘content’ or ‘learning targets’. I helped one girl make a
bracelet out of construction paper and staples during inside recess, she loved
it. I received an awesome handmade card from another at the end of the day. I
listened about a new puppy someone received for Christmas and PATIENTLY
listened to another student’s very detailed story about what ALL she received
for Christmas. I pulled a tooth, refereed a dispute between three very DRAMATIC
nine-year-old girls, and convinced two students that received Cs on the ‘Idiom’
quiz that they absolutely did an amazing job, which they did! They both loved
the sticker on their paper and proudly showed them like medals of honor. I had
lunch duty too, so I ate with my kids today and ended up splitting my Pizzaburger
with one. He was excited… I was full.
I wonder if making connections with kids is just as important
as making them grow. I think the two are actually intertwined. I want my
students to learn to their full potential, but I want them to feel a connection
with me that is rooted in the knowledge that all things aside, they, personally
matter most. They matter more than a STAR score, more than a test score, more
than a grade card or a reading level. I want them to know that I genuinely care
about the daily events that matter to them, and trust me, in third grade there
are MANY daily events that matter!
Not that this diminishes learning; I know how important the
content is and how critical learning to read, analyze and think about a
situation are to growing and achieving in the third grade. We compare and
contrast everything under the sun; we use context clues daily to figure out
what new words mean, we can identify the way a text is organized, the character
traits and setting of stories, we write our opinions and expository texts, and
we work on a hundred other things.
But in the big scheme of life……I teach, AND…I listen to stories
about puppies, I hug crying, drama filled third graders, I high-five kids for
achieving Cs and make sure they know a hard C means so much more than an easy
A, I laugh at their knock-knock jokes even when they’re not funny and I
referee…oh, and I pull teeth (often). And I’m betting years from now, they may
not remember all the content I have taught, but they will remember the hugs,
the high fives and all the little day-to-day things that have nothing to do
with learning, but everything to do with life, at least I hope they will. J
