A Rough Start

 

I must confess, the beginning of this school year was rough.  

 

The transition out of summer was especially difficult because I had a great summer and building my school stamina was especially difficult because, well, it’s always difficult. I’m actually still building it.

 

For the first week, I just went through the motions—my heart was not really in it and my head was not at all in the game.

 

But then I went to church and realized two things: 1) I am called to love my neighbor as myself and my neighbors are my students and colleagues, and 2) I was boring myself with my lessons.

 

My heart changed with the first realization, and my lessons changed with the second.

 

Some days are still rough. Teaching during Covid is far from sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows. But I’m making it. And it’s things like this that keep me going:

 

Teaching Mariachi music and watching my Hispanic students’ eyes light up when they hear their own language and recognize something from their culture. “I love this stuff!” one kid exclaimed this week, and it warmed my heart.

 

Passing around instruments and watching my students experience them. Most of them will not continue with music after elementary school, but all of them (if they stay with me from Kindergarten to 5^th grade) will have at least held a trumpet, trombone, flute, clarinet, saxophone, violin, mandolin, and guitar (and seen, in person, the French horn and banjo) once in their lives.

 

Being asked questions I don’t know the answers to—especially questions of how a composer or musician died! I have no idea why kids are so fascinated with people’s deaths, but they are. They always want to know if someone is dead or alive. If the answer is alive, then they are amazed and want to know how old the person is. If the answer is dead, then they want to know how old the person was when they died, how they died, and how old they would be if they were still alive. I’ve started front-loading my research to include these details, but sometimes I can’t find them, or I forget what I read, or I get one story mixed up with another…and so I get to show them how to do research…or how to do a math problem…which is always neat.

 

Pulling down the map and watching hands go up with stories and questions. Kids are starved for geographical knowledge. In fact, if I let them, then my lessons could easily turn into geography lessons due to student interest. 

 

Receiving the occasional hug or “I love you.” With Covid, hugs aren’t freely given anymore, but ever so often a student’s need for a hug will erupt and they will come in for the hug. That happened yesterday with a student who used to be one of my most challenging students but has somehow become one of my most beloved.  That hug was just what both of us needed at the end of a long day.

 

What about you? What keeps you going each day? Please share. I’d love to hear.