Staying Disciplined

Wow, this is the most regularly I've blogged in about a year.

Not that I have anything in particular to post. Guess I'll write about our mission trip plans.

This year, our youth program will be taking a joint Middle School/ High School trip to Terrytown, LA to help with continued hurrican relief. It's gonna cost a TON so we have to do lots of fundraisers, or at least a few that raise a lot of money.

In addition to our youth and leaders, we are hoping to take about 8 other adults from the parish. Bryan is planning on going... guess we'll be hitting the grandparents up for some babysitting help. Do you realize that my kids, none of them, have ever stayed for a prolonged period of time at their grandparents? Isn't it normal for kids to "spend a week at grandma's" every now and then? How did I miss out on capitalizing on this? Well, I won't feel so guilty asking for help now I guess!

I've been enjoying the beautiful spring weather. And what perfect timing! The kids are on spring break so they're getting to spend a lot of time outside. We even bought some sunglasses today from the Dollar Tree. Speaking of the Dollar Tree, it looks like we will have another offspring working there. Maria will be going in for awhile this afternoon. Can't wait to go in while she's working and ask for price checks on various items like we used to do when Theresa was working there.

Freshening Up

Needed a change. After all, it's spring.

Teaching from the heart

I had to write a "commentary" for my reflective teaching class, and since it was a personal antedote, and since I haven't blogged anything else for awhile, I thought I would post it. Ha Ha, killing two birds with one stone.

Although, in general, I'm not for killing birds. With stones or otherwise.

So here it is. Don't feel compelled to comment...

For the past month, I have been volunteering at our local middle school to help a seventh grade boy with reading. At the beginning of March, he had not completed a single book this school year. His teacher told him he would be rewarded if he could complete just one book. It hadn'’t made any difference. She felt a little desperate, and also fairly resigned that this was just one of those students she wasn'’t going to be able to help. She asked the school'’s volunteer coordinator to find someone who might be able to read for 15-20 minutes with Josh, once a week. Voila, I enter the picture.
Turns out, I had had some previous experience with Josh when he was in my daughter's 5th grade class. I had done a literature group with some of the students; he was assigned to it. I don'’t remember him ever having done the assigned reading or taking part in discussion. I remembered him as pleasant, a little funny, with a great smile, and friendly. Just not interested in reading.
The first day I was supposed to read with Josh, we spent a few minutes getting reacquainted. He and my daughter move in different social circles these days (she being somewhat of an overachiever academically, Josh just trying to get by), so we didn'’t have that in common. I just tried to feel him out about how his life was going. Fortunately, he seemed to trust me and was willing to talk. We read for awhile and he took it seriously, being careful of pronunciations, and even being expressive in some passages. At the end, he carefully filled in his reading log, noting the progress in this book. I reminded him that his teacher had promised a reward for finishing the book and he shrugged, dismissively I thought.
The next week when I turned up to read with Josh, he wasn'’t in his classroom. His teacher said he was probably just late. She also told me that Josh had finished his first book for the year and that he had seemed really happy about reading with me the first week. Wow! Great news! The bell rang, still no Josh. The teacher asked the other students if Josh was in school, and someone casually said yeah, but he had been sent to the office the last hour. The teacher apologized to me for having to come, then said I could go to the office and see if he was still there, and if he might be coming back to class.
When I walked into the office, Josh was sitting in chairs, waiting to see one of the assistant principals. I tapped him on the shoulder, he looked up, surprised, but smiled and said “ "hi." I told him I had heard a rumor, and sure enough, it was true. He looked sheepish, and said, "“Yeah."” After talking with the assistant principal, I was able to take Josh to the media center to read with me for awhile, promising to return him when we finished. Her last words to me were, "“See what you can do with him."”
Josh and I sat at a table in the library. I asked him about what landed him in the office. From there, we talked about his life in general. I told him I was proud of him for finishing a book in his reading class. I offered some empathy for other issues he was experiencing along with some suggestions for alternative behaviors. Eventually, we read for about 5 minutes, then went back to the office.
Josh has been doing better with his reading. It seems the more we talk, the more he applies himself before I see him again. He has told me that the classes he's doing the worst in are the ones where he doesn'’t like his teachers. Like so many other students, he refuses to apply himself, to personally invest, unless he has a relationship or rapport established with the teacher. We'’ve talked about this phenomenon too, and he agrees that it only hurts him, yet he can'’t seem to motivate himself to care about those classes.
For me, this is what teaching from the heart is all about. And it has to do with the "love flows" idea also. I truly care about Josh. As does his reading teacher and his assistant principal. For whatever unknown reason, they haven'’t been able to connect with Josh, yet they have continued to search for the person who will. Maybe that person will be me. For now, it seems to be. Because Josh is caught in my "love flows"” action, he is returning that "love flows"” in the form of his effort and achievement. At the same time, because he does not sense that same action in some of his other teachers, he can not learn from them. In those cases, love does not flow. And learning is stymied. Only teaching from the heart can reverse that situation. Maybe one instance of teaching from the heart can be enough to change Josh'’s life and how he looks at his education. I pray for that.