ONCE AGAIN...

Laying on my bed, the clock reads 5:32 PM or something close by as I look at my homepage on facebook. I notice, out the left corner of my eye, a glowing circle hovering just above the rooftops of the neighboring houses out my window. Facing the Eastern coast, the glow, later, proves to be that of the full moon rising into the deep, navy sky. Suddenly, answers start flowing from the moon, along with its brilliant image, straight to my head. Why was today one of the worst days of my short teaching career?

School, once again, managed to come in the morning, which means a school full of rambunctious children ready to learn. Or, because their parents want them to attempt to learn, yet, not want to be a big enough part of their lives to show interest in their educational lives. Go figure! This extremely sad fact really is seeming to catch up with me, as working with the parents and children seems more and more difficult each day. Why do parents still breast feed their children (not really, but figuratively speaking) when they are 16 years old.

Today, once again, was the day that grades, or progress reports, were going out. And, once again, grades seemed to be less important to anyone in my class than the gum they spread on the back of my chair when I was in Illinois this past weekend. How to get people to care about their grades seems almost impossible. Currently, however, I am wondering why I even care so much. A grade is only a letter. Anyone can get a "grade," but not everyone can learn.

While my boys really got under my skin today, I noticed something huge. They are not making grade, but the change that has occurred in their education since day one has jumped, not just to the next level, but quite possibly 3 or 4 levels. My main goal was to get these boys reading when I started on that scary day just four or so months ago. Now, with ten days left for me to be in the classroom teaching, these boys are asking to come read aloud to me, and in front of the class. They are wanting everyone to see that they can sound out any word, big or small, and get the right annunciation of it, even if they still don't know exactly what it means. Finally reaching this goal, I must work on these boys to learn context clues, helping them define those words in a reading that they do not know. Is this possible in ten days? Is it possible to get 4 boys to be able to read in three months after they haven't read for 16 years? I love it when I have goals and dreams that seem unimaginable, then knock them out!

Ten days to do the unthinkable. These boys, even though they do not make the grade their parents are wanting, or act like they want when they come and yell at me for giving D-'s, are going to understand what they read. This is a sentence I never thought I would be able to blog about. Praise God! Through all the difficulties and discouraging days, I am starting to see the glass filling up instead of evaporating. For once, when leaving the school mad, I still left with a smile deep down inside.