Pause

Sometimes you just need a pause button. Put everything on hold for a few minutes and just be.

Right now I am at my desk. If I look to my right I see that it's pretty dark outside, and if I look straight ahead, I see my students' desks. And I am happy. I am exhausted, in pain (from sleeping on a 1-inch wrestling mat for two nights while at the NYO's), and just plain overwhelmed by the lack of time I have had to recuperate from this past weekend ( even though it was a neat event to observe) and the work sitting on my desk.

But as I pause, I think back to the beginning of the school year and the madness that was my first couple of weeks, and I consider how FAR my class has come. I hear manners EVERYDAY, like, "Please wait a minute, I'd like to catch up" or "Ms. Phillips, would you like me to turn off the lights?" and "May I use the restroom?" I still have a few melt downs every couple of weeks, but I see a lot of progress.

I also note that my students have everything out on their desks, ready for the next morning, and I didn't even ask for them to set up. Everything has been put away, except for my crap that lies almost everywhere that has an open space, and there just seems to be an almost calm that comes after the storm.

I am thankful to see that something is working. That something is sticking. That my students are kind of, almost ready, somewhat working towards "gel-ing" as a class.

I am also grateful for a run-in with a principal in Bethel that granted me two minutes of his time, that eventually turned into two hours, where there was some amazing dialogue on how to make things happen in my class. I wish I could have taken notes, b/c I got to sit at the feet, so to speak, of a master teacher and become a student for a short while.

So, all that to say, this may be an easier transition than I thought it would be heading into what seems to be a few more weeks of teaching until there are a few more breaks. Can I get an Amen!!!???