Yesterday morning we awoke to the beginnings of snowfall here along our part of the Western Slopes. Down in the valley where the city of Montrose is located, we were spared the brunt of the storm but all around us the mountains were hammered. The San Juans, old Silverjack, the Uncompahgre Range, the Black Canyon, the Grand Mesa and the road onward towards Kansas became white with the snowfall. Sometimes it is amazing and yes, I have to admit, even beautiful to look at the winter wonderland that this part of the world becomes in late November through the early part of April. As long as a person doesn't have to get out to drive very far in it and inevitably have to cross one of the passes, it's not so bad. Come in the very early hours of Wednesday morning, Mike and I will be crossing the pass at Monarch and heading home for the holidays in Kansas. We hope and pray to make the journey in good shape with no major problems to worry about. I am happy and excited, most ready to see my beloved state of Kansas once again.
I have much to be thankful for in this month of "Thanksgiving" but shoot, I've got much to be grateful for in the other 11 months of the year as well. How about you, do you feel the same?
The next few days will be busy ones here as we prepare for the last two days of school for the week and the journey back home to the Midwest (that sounds so weird, that crossing over one mountain pass can take you from the "West" to the "Midwest"). We've been monitoring the weather reports, both current and long-range ones, and will hope that the drive back in the snow will be manageable. "Determination will be riding shotgun" but I promise that we will use good sense and caution as we make our way there and for the return trip back to Colorado.
I'm thinking about the "18" this morning, the children that I've been entrusted with this school year and the ones that after Tuesday upcoming, I'll send home for a well-deserved 5 days off from school. We're nearing the halfway point of the year and it's unbelievable to me that so much time has gone past us already. Things happened rather quickly as I took on the job in the first place. I learned about the position opening up at Olathe Elementary at 11 a.m. one morning and was being interviewed as well as offered the opportunity to return to teaching less than 3 hours later. I had exactly 5 days to prepare for them to walk into our fourth-grade classroom. And I gotta tell you, things have not slowed down one bit. They have only moved faster. Life~you have to love it!
I've tried to take stock of where we are as far as the reading and math curriculum goes and it can kind of give a teacher a headache just to imagine how much children are supposed to be able to know before they pass from fourth grade to fifth. Teaching reading has always been my strength, the teaching of math, well not as much. But right alongside the kids, I have learned and I really believe that at this point in time I've managed pretty well with the timeless subject of arithmetic. Teaching them to write has been a real joy, a blessing for me. They have caught on quickly and are filled with all kinds of ideas about what makes a good story. They have been busy writing their own personal narratives, those kinds of stories that tell of true things that have happened to them. Academically, we are making progress and although not everyone is where they should be, I am not giving up nor will I let them. It just takes time and remembering that no two classes are alike, I also realize that no two students within the same class are alike either. We'll make it, in our own way.
After 36 years of doing this, I realize that as a teacher my greatest strength is teaching students lessons about life and I hope that my saying so doesn't come across as being boastful because that is not the intent. But I am an excellent teacher of "that" subject and perhaps it is that way because I have been through a lot of life, both the good and bad, myself. When teachable moments come along, I throw the lesson plans, the state standards, and the learning goals of the day straight out the window. I have done it for years and will for years to come. I'm not afraid to do so and here is why.
I think sometimes one of the greatest things that teachers can teach their students is to show them that WE are as human as they are. We make mistakes, many of them each day. My kids love it when they see I've made an error as we've worked through problems in math and even I have to smile when I hear them call me out on it. When I hear someone say to me, "Mrs. Renfro, you forgot what number you were multiplying there.", I don't get upset with myself for making such a silly mistake. It just tells me that they are paying attention and learning as well. When I mistakenly switch "Kevin with Christopher", "Xzavier with Jesse", and "Monika with Marissa" the students just realize that after 36 years, it's still hard to tell some kids apart. We laugh with one another, we learn with one another because we are all fallible human beings, adults AND kids.
Students need to see that their teachers have hearts that are soft and ones that can from time to time be sad or broken. I am glad to be able to share some of my emotions with them and have been most thankful for the ways that they have responded to me. Back in the days of "old lefty", I remember the tears that I would shed when even doing the simplest of things was nearly impossible. I recall so well that day that some of my little first-grade sweeties back at Lincoln Elementary became my cheerleaders one time during the first months of a long-arm cast. They saw their teacher begin to cry when foolishly I tried to peel a sticker off for one of them with the then crippled fingers of "old lefty". It was a task that was going nowhere very fast and I was frustrated beyond belief. When little Michael saw the first tear slip out of my eye, he stood up next to me and said "Come on, Mrs. Miller. Don't give up because you can do it!" And dear Michael was right~I could! Not long after that day, a group of wonderful fifth grade students sat there in disbelief as they were witnesses to a miracle right before their very eyes. The fingers on my left hand, save for the middle one referred to as "lucky", were adamant about not moving. they were frozen there on my left hand and try as I might, I could not make them move. Yet that day in their reading group time, I was bound and determined that at LEAST the thumb should move. Lo and behold, it did! They all stopped reading when they heard their teacher exclaim, "Holy cow! My thumb just moved!" And when they clapped for me and my small feat of movement, I cried again. The nice thing about it was that they understood and showed what empathy really meant to them.
At Olathe Elementary, my students have witnessed many of the good and the bad days for me. They have seen the "cranky" side of Mrs. Renfro and I would be the first to admit that it's a not so much fun kind of moment in time. The "18" know that I fully intend to keep my "thumb upon them" and do the best I can given the very short amount of time each day that we have together, to prepare them for 5th grade next year. I have stopped lessons in mid-sentence as I've stared down students who were not paying attention, a technique that I have found as of late works with husbands too. (sorry Mike :) But they also know that I love them and only want the best for them in their lives and when I tell them that, they believe me. I am most fortunate.
The "18" know that I am returning home to Kansas very soon and I'm sure it will be a topic of conversation in the two days that we will be together at school this week. The last time I went back, in October for my class reunion, they were a little sceptical about my being gone for 3 whole school days. One of the boys, a puzzled look on his face, said to me before I left, "Uhmm, you ARE coming back to us aren't you Mrs. Renfro?" I thought of that young man this past week as I finished up the story of "Sarah, Plain and Tall". The story tells of a young widower on the plains of western Kansas who advertises for a wife and a mother for his two young children. A kind woman named Sarah replies from the state of Maine and make the journey west to stay for a month to see if she "can make a difference" in the lives of Jacob and his children, Caleb and Anna. At the end of the book, all three are concerned that Sarah wasn't happy there and would soon choose to return to her lifelong home along the north eastern seaboard. When she is overdue in returning home from town, they are sure that their fears are well-founded. Yet return to them she does. It was something that Sarah said to little 7-year old Caleb and his sister, 10-year old Anna, that stopped me in my tracks as I was reading to them. It took me a moment to swallow the huge lump that had developed in my throat and to dab away the tear that was ready to fall my eye. My fourth-grade students knew as I read it, that what Sarah was saying to the children in the book was the very same message that I was giving them, from my heart to theirs.
"We thought you might be thinking of leaving us," Anna said. "Because you miss the sea." Sarah smiled. "No," she said. "I will ALWAYS miss my old home but the truth is that I would miss YOU more." (from Sarah, Plain and Tall)
I understand the need for teaching students everything they must know in order to become successful members of this world we live in. I want them to be able to read, write and do math beyond everyone else's expectations. I get that part of it. But until the day I die, I will never change my mind that the best lessons that any child can learn are the ones found in the "book of life". I'm still learning those myself and perhaps that's the best training any educator can hope to receive.
Have a great Sunday my friends and wow, only 3 sleeps more! See you very soon Kansas.
Mid-August~our very first day of school together. I pretty much fell in love with this group of kids from day 1. They may be ornery and one of the noisiest groups of students I've ever encountered but they belong to me!
November~the end of our first 3 months together and oh, how they have grown and changed!
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