Reminders of the Positives

A beautiful little flower bud at the Carmel Mission. Just starting out its life, like my great students, with so much potential to come

Well, I taught my lesson today, and overall was reminded by just how great my class really is. The lesson itself didn't go all that well just because I tried to do too much and made things too complicated (that's what this learning process is all about though), but the beginning and the end went really well and that's the important thing.

To answer Rick's question, my book ends (mostly because I had already spent over 2 hours making the darn thing and hadn't done a lesson plan yet) somewhat abruptly. I have 7 fish in shallow waters with various amounts swimming away to contexualize subtraction. Running out of paper, my last problem has the seven fish with 6 getting scared by a boat and just the one fish is left. Not knowing how to make this a positive ending, I just added, as the last page "all alone" with the fish giving a big smile, as though he's happy all the other fish got scared away. Of course, my kids ask me why that fish is so happy to be alone and, not having a better answer, I explain that the fish probably needed some alone time and was happy to have some space from his friends :D. My cooperating teacher couldn't stop from laughing! My kids sort of seemed to accept that though, so that was nice!

Though today was really exhausting, it's the first time I've been there for the full day in a while, and it was just really nice. I love doing full days. I really feel like I connect with the kids more and get to see more sweet moments, like one of the boys wanting to hold my hand going out to pe, playing duck duck goose, and getting in the mush pot because I can't run in my teacher shoes, and having kids want to share things with me. They've already grown so much since I've been here, and I know they're all going to turn into such amazing people.

And lest I neglect running completely in this teaching infused post, I talked to the parents of one of the boys in the class and they told me that they were talking with their son about christmas gifts for his teachers and he told them "We should get Ms. Bonner-Lyon something to help her run fast, because she has lots of races and needs to be able to run faster. Maybe we could get her a special water bottle!"

My heart just melts around these guys :D

Sometimes I think I don't necessarily connect with a lot of the students, just because I'm not there enough, but talking with the parents helps me see that I am really a presence for these kids in the classroom and I am adding to their experience here. Can't wait to have my own class of kids!

[Got my shoes in the mail so tomorrow will be attempt #1 at a run. I'm thinking after class in the evening (its' been perfect evening temps lately) perhaps on west cliff just a mile or two. I'm excited!]