~and it was before the clock was shut off~

I teach in a very small school.  It's so small that we can put all the students, Pre-K through 12th grade in the same area on the high school gym floor.  I know we can because Friday we did just that.

Somewhere there in the first quarter of the front of this picture, sit "the 20".  Amidst a sea of red, those young people that are mine to teach each day are doing something that they will always remember.  I'm telling you the same thing that I have said a thousand times before and that is this.

They probably won't remember in the years to come every single thing I taught them, nor would I expect them to.  They will remember the fun things we did like taking this picture with all of the other kids.  When it is all said and done, why wouldn't this be among the most important?

I haven't written in this blog much during the month of February.  I started and stopped at least a dozen times.  Much has been on my mind, including of course the upcoming state assessments in April.  We have worked so hard, put in so much time and effort.  It weighs heavy on all of our minds.  I have been so busy trying to make sure that we all pass our part of them, that I've lost sight of the little things that make a classroom a real classroom.  

Friday morning I was reminded of that very fact.

I was talking to the kids about how important it will be in the days and weeks ahead to not waste a moment of time.  There is so much to do and every day that goes by is one less day that we have.  I admonished them one more time to not give up and to keep trying to do their best no matter what. 

Then it happened.  A young boy sitting close to where I was standing said something that made me stop in my tracks.

"That would be kind of like your brother Mrs. Renfro.  You know, the time that he didn't quit when he was running that race?"

I couldn't believe that anyone remembered. Back in September, I had told them the story of my brother Mike who passed away in 2007 from ALS/Lou Gehrig's disease.  I shared a story with the kids about the time when Mike decided that he was going to run in a race back in Wichita, Kansas.  He wasn't in the best of shape as a matter of fact, my brother was in about as bad a shape as a guy could want to be and still run the race.  It didn't matter.  His goal was to finish the race, even if he was dead last, before they turned the race clock off.  

And for the record, he did.
Just barely but he did.

For that young man to have remembered that particular story told to him months ago, and to have made a personal connection to it in regards to doing his best on the state assessment, touched my heart.  I didn't cry although I can't believe I didn't.  I called him over to me and thanked him for remembering someone very dear to me.  

I've been sick at home for the past two days, succumbing to whatever awful virus is floating around our part of the world this time.  I have slept these past two days away and now it is time to prepare for the upcoming week at school.  A pile of work waits for me in the spare bedroom and it's time for me to face it.  I'll be making sure that the lion's share of my plans revolve around preparation for the reading and math tests that lie in wait for us in about 8 weeks more. 

But you know what?

I'm going to be sure that somewhere tucked deep into those lesson plans, not once but many times over, will be some small life lesson that kids can recollect in the years to come.  I am just about positive that most of them will care less in the years ahead what the difference is between an acute angle and an obtuse one.  (For the record, I'm the teacher and I can't tell you the last time I worried about it.)  But when the time comes that they are faced with the prospect of giving up when something gets too difficult for them, those young people just might remember about the time their teacher told them about a man named Mike Scott who took pride in finishing a race.

Before the clock was shut off.

Mike Scott was a great man and the best of brothers a kid sister could ask for.  He would be happy to know that his story would help to teach a lesson of life to twenty third graders at Big Pasture School in Randlett, Oklahoma.