Hello fellow bloggers.
I've been gone for a long time. I think I will try and catch up quickly :)
As you know I received a new job assignment this year at my high school. Well that proved to be full of wonderful experiences and funny joys along the way this last semester. In December I found out that I would be taking over the position of head cheer coach in January. I'm sure it was no more of a shock to everyone out there reading this than it was to myself. I wasn't a cheerleader and have never had any ambition to become a coach, but here I found myself. What I can truly say is that this has been a wonderful learning experience. I have learned much about myself and my style of doing this and I've learned much about the 29 girls that I get to interact with multiple times a week.
Teaching US History and Geography is a delight. I'm so loving getting to know my students and learning how to reach inside of the brain of a teenager and deposit something there that will hopefully stay with them through life.
I've had many students tell me that I'm their "favorite" and that they really love my class or that I am the most animated teacher they've had. I've decided that I'm OK with all of those compliments, because teenagers need those types of adults in their lives.
I have a few darling students that, everytime they see me, insist on paying me a compliment. It really is the sweetest thing. They're not trying to be a brown noser, just sweet 14 year old kids.
I continue to have stories of things they say boggle my mind. Today, for instance, I was talking to them about warm and cold blooded animals (not that this fit the topic of conversation, but I was prompted to talk about it so I did). All of the sudden I had this darling girl in the back of the class raise her hand and confess to her peers that she honestly thought that cold blooded animals were the "mean and predatory" kind and that warm blooded animals were the "prey and kind and rarely mean ever" kind. OK, I'm not going to lie, I had a hard time not laughing out loud with the rest of the class and instead I managed to say, "I'm really glad you came to school today." and proceeded to quiet the class and explain to them the benefit of why we come to school and how important it is that we keep learning about all different types of subjects as we continue to grow up because we really don't know everything. I then told my class about a friend of mine who honestly didn't know that Idaho and Iowa were two different states until the age of 19. He thought they were the same state, just said with a different accent until then. They all laughed at that story and I illustrated further how important it is to keep learning and not ridicule people who don't know as much, but to help give them the correct information.
Needless to say, I really love my job! Talk about rewarding.
