Good days 13,000~Bad days 382
or something like that~ you get the idea
I've taught a lot of subjects over the years and basically if it was an elementary classroom, I had experience with all of them. I have shared my love of reading, writing, and spelling as well as commiserated alongside my students as they often times struggled through math. Having been a charter member of the "I Hate Math Club" (5th grade class of 1965, Haven Grade School) I have felt their pain. Mostly I have taught self-contained classrooms but have also had many years of experience in working with Title I and ESL students in small group settings. It's been great and I have been thankful for each year of experience. God has surely been good to me.
Yet even after all of the academic lessons have been taught, and they extremely important by the way, my greatest joy has been in the teachings of life's lessons. They are the ones that can never be found in a textbook or scrawled across the page of some teacher's lesson plan book. Sometimes they aren't even planned out a week in advance. Many times they present themselves at a moment's notice.
I like them.
They are the best lessons to teach.
You will never convince me otherwise.
Life lessons help to teach kids (and adults too, by the way) how to be better people. They give instruction in the development of "good character". Life lessons really make you pause a moment and look at the situation as well yourself. As I teach them, I want my students to know that even if they forget everything I tell them during the course of one class session that at least I want them to remember this.
"I want them to know that their teacher loves them, unconditionally and without reservation. I want them to be good and kind to each other. I want them to care about what they say and most certainly what they do. You can be the best reader or the greatest mathematician in the whole world but if you heart is "hard" then it will be for naught."
Long ago, in fact nearly 15 years of a "long ago", I had the chance to teach a class of first grade students back home in Hutchinson, Kansas a life lesson. I wrote about it in a very early blog post, only a couple of days before I left on the Bike Across Kansas. I had forgotten it had been written but came across it a few days ago. I'm sharing it below.
Life is full of do-overs and I'm glad that in my heart I could offer one that day, now so very many years ago.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
MOST MEMORABLE RIDE
If someone were to ask me what my favorite memory of a bike ride was, I'd be able to tell them without hesitation the following story. Some of you have already heard it from me before...so if you are one of those folks, bear with me. For those that have not, here's how it goes.
One spring day in 2001, I was riding my bike near where I now live in Hutch. I was at the end of the ride, getting ready to head back home. I noticed that a car had driven alongside me, very close at hand, and was slowing down so that it was almost so close that I could have touched it. I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, that whoever was in the car was rolling down the window. Out of the window came the barrel of what looked to be a gun. In an instant, I went from being scared to death that "this was it", to being totally soaked with water. The two guys inside the car were looking for people that day to spray "water blasters" on.
It caught me so off guard that I swerved on my bike and about laid it on its side. The two guys in the vehicle sped off but for some reason or another decided to stop about half of a block away and look back. I got their car tag and called the police. And here's where the "good part" comes in.
These two guys were not real "rocket scientists". Their car tag led the police immediately to the HCC parking lot by the boys' dorms. There, lying in the back seat, were two really nice water blaster guns. In their carelessness, they had left them in plain sight. It took a matter of only a few minutes before the police and HCC officials were able to find the two young men involved.
To make a long story "short", HCC Dean, Randy Myers, arranged a meeting between the two students and myself so that we could have a little "visit" with one another. The next day, I arrived at Randy's office and faced, for the first time, the two guys involved in this. It was so interesting to hear why they did it-they were out, obviously bored, and looking for people to spray water blasters on. They admitted it without hesitation. They saw me riding and thought since I was so little, that I must have been a kid. They said to the police officer, "We didn't know she was a teacher." I about came out of my chair and I looked them in the eyes and said, "You mean it's ok to do this to a kid, but not an adult? So, like, is it ok to do it at all?" I reminded them about how unsafe it was, that I almost wrecked my bike because of it.
I remember one of them asking the police officer what would happen to them because of it. And here's where the very best part comes in. The officer looked at me and asked me what I thought should happen. With a huge smile on my face I asked the officer if I could choose their punishment rather than them receiving a citation. He agreed without hesitation. I was able to come up with a plan that was a "win-win" one for all concerned....the two young men, myself, and my classroom of 15 1st graders. And it went like this....
Two weeks later, close to the end of school for the year, those two young men showed up at my classroom at Lincoln Elementary with boxes filled with brand-new helmets for each of my students. They also presented a lesson on bicycle safety for the kids and told them of the importance of taking bicycling seriously. It was ok to have fun but to always be safe when they were out riding around. They were only scheduled to be there for 30 minutes but ended up staying most of the afternoon talking with the kids. When they left, I gave each of them a hug and my forgiveness for their part in the incident. I heard from them later on, each doing fine. I'm not sure where they are today, but I doubt very seriously if either of them ever "water blasted" anyone else. Life is full of DO-OVERS and those two guys deserved to get one of them that day.
One spring day in 2001, I was riding my bike near where I now live in Hutch. I was at the end of the ride, getting ready to head back home. I noticed that a car had driven alongside me, very close at hand, and was slowing down so that it was almost so close that I could have touched it. I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, that whoever was in the car was rolling down the window. Out of the window came the barrel of what looked to be a gun. In an instant, I went from being scared to death that "this was it", to being totally soaked with water. The two guys inside the car were looking for people that day to spray "water blasters" on.
It caught me so off guard that I swerved on my bike and about laid it on its side. The two guys in the vehicle sped off but for some reason or another decided to stop about half of a block away and look back. I got their car tag and called the police. And here's where the "good part" comes in.
These two guys were not real "rocket scientists". Their car tag led the police immediately to the HCC parking lot by the boys' dorms. There, lying in the back seat, were two really nice water blaster guns. In their carelessness, they had left them in plain sight. It took a matter of only a few minutes before the police and HCC officials were able to find the two young men involved.
To make a long story "short", HCC Dean, Randy Myers, arranged a meeting between the two students and myself so that we could have a little "visit" with one another. The next day, I arrived at Randy's office and faced, for the first time, the two guys involved in this. It was so interesting to hear why they did it-they were out, obviously bored, and looking for people to spray water blasters on. They admitted it without hesitation. They saw me riding and thought since I was so little, that I must have been a kid. They said to the police officer, "We didn't know she was a teacher." I about came out of my chair and I looked them in the eyes and said, "You mean it's ok to do this to a kid, but not an adult? So, like, is it ok to do it at all?" I reminded them about how unsafe it was, that I almost wrecked my bike because of it.
I remember one of them asking the police officer what would happen to them because of it. And here's where the very best part comes in. The officer looked at me and asked me what I thought should happen. With a huge smile on my face I asked the officer if I could choose their punishment rather than them receiving a citation. He agreed without hesitation. I was able to come up with a plan that was a "win-win" one for all concerned....the two young men, myself, and my classroom of 15 1st graders. And it went like this....
Two weeks later, close to the end of school for the year, those two young men showed up at my classroom at Lincoln Elementary with boxes filled with brand-new helmets for each of my students. They also presented a lesson on bicycle safety for the kids and told them of the importance of taking bicycling seriously. It was ok to have fun but to always be safe when they were out riding around. They were only scheduled to be there for 30 minutes but ended up staying most of the afternoon talking with the kids. When they left, I gave each of them a hug and my forgiveness for their part in the incident. I heard from them later on, each doing fine. I'm not sure where they are today, but I doubt very seriously if either of them ever "water blasted" anyone else. Life is full of DO-OVERS and those two guys deserved to get one of them that day.
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