Come Walk with Me - Thurs.

As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him. ~ Mark 1: 16-18

Today was my yard duty day. These days are great. I get to really see how the kids interact with each other. Who's best friends with who. Who's being picked on. Why is it that certain students enter the school with mud all up along the front of their pants. It's interesting to observe. And then there's a small entourage of students that end up fighting to walk alongside with you to tell you everything that is going on in their life. It makes a teacher feel good to know you have SOME "Fan base". I mean you know you're not doing well socially if you're walking alone on the playground...teacher or student...right?

Anyways...today was particularly a warm-fuzzy feeling kind of day. First I solved a problem between the two soccer boys who have been having problems on the playground, AND especially Mr. Grumpy who enjoys to pout. After really looking at the problem together, discussing it, I really felt like he understood that I was not picking on him, but merely there to reconcile the relationship between him and my Yo-yo-yo student. We even had a really nice chat about the holidays after the problem was solved. It felt good.

And then, there were my two informers...my "I would like to talk to you in private" students, who wanted me to talk to one of the students from the other class. It was again a really good experience. I gave them strategies to stand up for themselves when spoken to aggresively, and then decided to invite Miss Big for a walk. And again, we chatted, discussed the coming and goings of the school playground, and it was a really nice way to get into the kids' thinking. In the end we made an appointment to continue the talk and she was really excited about it!

I left the day feeling like I was really helping the kids in a big way. Funny how it's not the content area that gives me that feeling. :)