LESSON PLANS

My trackout is coming to an end this week.  I was up at 3 AM thinking about ways to teach my 7th graders about the Middle East, pronouns, how to write an essay, and strengthen their reading comprehension.  Sometimes I feel as if teaching is like a Broadway show and I get caught up in creating a flashy presentation.  I imagine myself accepting an award for best original lesson plan in the category of nonfiction genre and get goose bumps all over.  Yesterday, I was reminded of what every child's hidden desire truly is...they want to be cherished.

I arrived at school to pick up my son and neighbor at a service club meeting and ran into a few of my students.  We greeted each other like long lost friends as we shared what had been going on in our lives over the past few weeks.  When I caught the eye of a boy across the room chatting with his friends I was unsure whether I should acknowledge him...he broke into a huge smile and waved his hand overhead like he was hailing a helicopter.  I walked away with butterflies in my stomach reassured that I did not need to spend hours creating the perfect lesson.  In fact, sometimes I need to throw my plans in the trash and talk to the young people that I have been blessed to meet.  I want to learn about their thoughts, desires, and struggles.  I want to remember the color of their eyes along with their end of grade test scores.  Sometimes it is the fear of our own inadequacies that keeps us from really connecting with those people in our lives.  When we make our jobs and relationships more about the people that we serve and not about our own success, I believe we will find a deeper enjoyment and contentment from how we spend the hours of our day. 

I guess I can stop working on the costumes and puppet show I was going to create in order to teach some simple grammar rules.  The acceptance speech for my teacher/mother/wife/human being of the year can be put aside for now.  My focus must shift away from me in order to show the people in my world that they are cherished.  My break from work has been wonderful but I am eager to see my students and resume our learning adventure together.  Talk to me in a couple of weeks when 90 middle schoolers have beaten me down...Ha Ha!