My month since Easter has been a bit hectic, yet fun and different.
I accepted a teaching position for a group of students who had their teacher go follow a dream to be a manager at Top Golf.
Now I think Top Golf is fun, too, yet these children were obviously going through the stages of mourning. They felt abandoned. They felt unwanted and unteachable in this topic of US History.
I knew they were no such thing. I'm not a history buff, yet grew up around it on most family vacations. We didn't go to Disney World each year or even more than once, while I grew up. However, the little Mickey Mouse is both a toy I collected and a memory of when I prepared to take my own children to Disney World.
It was their first vacation without a history lesson. They visited grandparents, and Disney, and it was a memorable experience and cherished memory.
Yet these children have not spoke of Summer Dreams and Destinations to share with me. Some, yes, have said they will be gone early from the end of school, yet no happy plans have been shared with the teacher yet.
Perhaps, it's the tough love I have tried to use, to see I believe them capable individuals. Perhaps I haven't shared much of my life or interests to get them "warmed up" to me.
However, time felt short for them before High School, and I felt my God of love and self control, might want them to feel prepared and not scared to take that next step.
It's easy to give up and think, I'll just stay in this school where I'm comfortable. I know the teachers, and they know me. It won't matter to many if I stay here. Yet the school would convince their parents of other things...like Summer School in a building, instead of on the road, the way I taught my children each Summer when they were young.
Summer is for fun balanced with new learnings, and new experiences, to broaden your horizons...especially if you have a hands on learner in your family.
Or if you are one yourself....
This Summer, I will be traveling to Maine. The opposite direction on the East Coast from Disney World. Yet I know when I travel I view the world through eyes anew, like that of a young person, because, well that's how I feel when I see new things!
This newsletter is dedicated to the classes of the former teacher Ariel K.
