and that is not a lie. for me, there are not "good days" and "bad days". there are good moments and bad moments. and i always just hope that the good will outweigh the bad. sometimes they do and sometimes they don't.
halfway through one of my 6th grade classes, my co-teacher basically handed the class over to me. this was unexpected. family tree. alright... i can explain my family no problem. drew my family on the board. then went verbal. this is my father. his name is joe. this is my mother. her name is carol. i went over it twice. slowly. i wrote out the sentences on the board. this is my _______. his/her name is _________. went over my family again.
i asked for a volunteer. one kid came up. this kid... he's cute, but he's also the thorn in my side. he knows i don't know a lot of spanish and laughs when i say something wrong. anyone but this kid.... PLEASE. sigh. okay... let's do this. i explained it again. and filled in the blanks. still confused. i wrote the translation in spanish. still confused. went over again... explaining in my broken spanish. a smile and laugh from him. UGH!! seriously... i'm trying to break this down as much as possible.
all of a sudden. this kid. the same one who laughs at my broken spanish. understood. he knew when to fill in the blank with the family member. and when to fill in the blank with the name of the family member. and when to use his and when to use her. he went through his father, his mother, and his brothers. i stood there... like a proud parent would. holy sh*t... i got through to one of my toughest students. NOT ONLY THIS... but he explained it to the rest of the class... going through the sentences and pointing at my family tree.
i seriously wanted to cry tears of joy.
it may not seem like a big deal to any of you. but seriously... this was a big win for me. to get through to any student is huge. and the fact that it was a challenging student. HUGE.
and this is why i do this. for moments like this!
