Great Day!

Wow! Today was such a great day at work that I had to document it. The head teacher was gone again to sign paperwork for his new house so I was steeling myself for a rough day.

My coworker and I talked through strategy on how we wanted to split up the students and what we would do if different situations happened and then split up to take care of various responsibilities until the day started. When 1st period came around, it pretty much started as I expected. One of the kids came in with attitude not wanting to listen to us and had a good 10 minute battle before he gave in and was willing to stay in the room.

From there, the day was magical. Maybe it was a combination of it being "Fun Friday" (a day where the kids in our class are able to just chill and play games) and the kids realizing that I wasn't a pushover anymore, but the kids actually did what they were told.

I got to play ball w/ kids in one class, connect 4 in another, and Kemp and Killer in another, and helped students avoid emotional meltdowns in various other classes. Even the students who were under lockdown for the day were working hard or staying quiet whereas in previous days they were going crazy since they'd been in our room for the past 2 weeks.

It was such a welcome change of pace that all throughout I kept lifting up sincere praises to God for the great day so far. The day was so nice that I was even able to catch up and read a couple chapters of Luke!

Another great part of the day was that one student in particular who had started being incredibly abrasive to staff and unwilling to work in class actually listened to my advice on staying in class... and stayed out of trouble the entire day! For those of you who think this isn't that big a deal do not know this kid... he is the poster child of ADHD and near the end of the day he specifically came to tell me he got a "Recognized" score on his TAKS Science test. Man, I remember feeling so proud of him and I could tell he was proud of it too from the way he was beaming.

God, I wish I could just capture the day and bottle it up for the times when I want to quit.