Whoa lady!

First, I must brag. My son scored the one and only goal for his team tonight. Not only did he score this all important goal he did it from midfield. He is known for his power kick and apparently this is what his coaches were hoping for. I was ecstatic and so was he. So much so that his mood stayed pretty much the same as his team slowly lost, goal after goal, probably by 6 or 7 goals. I stopped counting.

This brings me to the actually topic of tonight's blog - the woman next to me at the soccer game. The inevitable parent you want to knock out as she constantly coaches (screams at) her child from the sideline. He was so overwhelmed. As I watched him look from the ball to his mom I realized he was more afraid of what she was going to do/say than what was going to happen with the ball. And then the coach made him goalie. The terror in his face was enough to make you want to jump out in front of the goal for him. He just knew he was going to mess up...and he did. Three goals went past him (not that the defense did much to help him). I believe he was doomed from the beginning with his mom screaming from the sidelines. She actually told him to tell the coach he didn't want to play goalie, a coveted post among 6/7 year olds. She eventually went into a cold, coma like state when she realized he wasn't going to be the star she expected him to be. I bet he couldn't wait for the car ride home.

I am just disgusted. It's like receiving a precious gift and throwing it at the bottom of the toy box or leaving it out in the rain. I wonder what this poor boy will grow up to be like? Maybe, being a teacher, I already know the answer to that because I have met him before as a middle schooler.

So sad. So, so sad.

A spoonful of sarcasm

So, the students are getting a little rowdy. I say, "Come on guys, let's get going," referring to the assignment they are suppose to be working on. One young man looks at me with a grin and says, "OK, where are we going."

Now, I can appreciate a little sarcasm now and then, which is probably why I didn't say any of the responses going through my head including:
-"You don't want to know where you're going."
-"I don't know where you're going, but I'm pretty sure I'm am slowly spiraling toward Hell."
-"We're going to take a little walk to the Principal's office."
-"We're all going to that quiet place where we think about an assignment and then complete it, but I forgot, you don't visit there often. Let me draw you a map."

I guess I will give specific instructions next time..."Get to work!"

Tiny Tots Soccer

How do you entertain 3 and 4-year-olds for an hour? Apparently, NOT with soccer practice. It always starts out well. They stretch and run a lap or two. By this point we have only lost the ones who fell or needed their shoes tied. Oh, yeah, and the one that had to go to the bathroom. The next few games go well, losing only a few due to the already mentioned problems. Only 50 minutes left to go.

Unless you are holding a very large piece of candy in your hand, the attention span of a preschooler is about 30 seconds. The problem: that is not enough time to give a set of directions that they can understand. This is also assuming you were able to get them all to sit down at the same time, otherwise one child's 30 second attention span is ending just as you get another child to join the circle.

Let's talk about the command, "go get your ball and come to the middle of the field." Translation of a preschooler - Spin in a circle until I figure out at which end of the field I left my ball, fall over because I'm dizzy, run down to my ball, start to pick it up but remember I'm not allowed to touch it with my hands so jump backwards away from the ball, kick it into the nearest goal, cheer for myself and make sure my mom saw it and gives me the thumbs up sign, do a somersault, wait-a-minute wasn't I suppose to be doing something? Whys is that big coach guy yelling my name? Hey, look, dandelions!

Oh, to find so many things exciting and fascinating. As I think about the ticker that is the child's mind, I crave the intensity and interest that is experienced each and every moment. Always trying to figure things out, wanting to check things out, such curiosity. As a teacher, I would love to bottle that curiosity and spoon feed it to my students each morning.

Maybe I should try holding up a piece of candy!

What to write...

Everyday, I encourage my students to write. I give them a journal entry and they must respond. I'm not too picky about the length or whether it's in cursive or print. I try to give different types of entries like write a description, make a top 10 list, respond to a quote, tell me what you thought about ______, answer the riddle, etc.... Each week they are also required to enter something into their journals on their own and of their own creation.

Well, today I feel like a hypocrite. I have been trying to add another blog entry for almost a month and I am experiencing the Great Wall of China of writing blocks. Here I ask them to spill it every day (for part of their grade), and I can't even come up with anything clever.

I guess I learned my lesson when it comes to writing. I don't think I actually believed it was hard for some people. I'm not talking about those lazy students who just don't want to put the work into picking up the pencil. I'm talking about those poor students who actually are seeing a blank white board in their heads when I tell them to start writing.

To those students I say, "I believe you now, and I'm sorry. I promise to do my best to inspire you from now on so you never have to see the big, white scary monster in your mind. And, I can't wait to see what you come up with once you have truly had an inspired idea!"

To the two known readers of my blog...thank you for your patience!