Considering My Thank-Yous

      So, I fully intended to write this Thursday (Thanksgiving) and instead wrote it last Saturday. I even started on it but other things got in the way. No such things as excuses, right, just poor planning? I embrace that sound logic and it is definitely true in this instance. Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving … two days ago, or whenever this happens under your eyes.

I made a peanut butter cream-type filling.

      I was planning all week to make soup for Thursday night. I was actually planning on making a large pot and taking it to one of my local families. Sadly, they were all busy and doing things other places. It didn't really bother me, except that I really wanted to cook for some people.

      While making the soup for myself I was reviewing the things I should and am thankful for. You see, I had busied my mind all day with mindless things. I'm thankful for the normal/usual things: family, close friends, God, and Amy. Locally, the opportunity I have and am within and the kind people it brings. Stepping back to the end of the last paragraph, I was reminded of the person who instilled such a desire: to cook for people; to really like it and even so far as to desire to cook for many people. A desire that's quenched by seeing the joy the people get from eating the food prepared. As taught, I know that joy can be revealed in many, different, and subtle ways.

Just get creative.

      This person, a crazy-strange Hawaiian-Asian, who is shorter than I yet commands a greater presence quite easily. A man who has been known to cause fear in adults and reverence in children (not by physical means, mind you) – that's who I have to thank for the love of cooking, the craving to cook for people. Four years ago I couldn't sauté onions, crack an egg with one hand, cut watermelon safely, or fathom being able to make pizza sauce from scratch. At least three of those may seem rather easy, but nor could I comprehend making a well-received curry, finding it easy to cook for ninety alone, being a head cook, or being apart of the management team for my childhood retreat, Big Lake Youth Camp. Considering all of this, and that he is counted among the great friends that I mentioned earlier, I am specifically thankful for John Rivera in this moment.

This isn't normal, but it's welcomed.

      I suppose I haven't mentioned anything of my class, yet. I also must be thankful for them. Twelve kids in all, five 3^rd and seven 4^th graders; only a quarter of the class is girls. If they've taught me anything thus far, it's patience and creativity for coming up with different angles of attack – not in the physical sense, of course, but the... intangible: the way in which I teach them things. It's probably against some law to mention their names here, so know that they are all different and good in their own way and (a lot of the time) at their own leisure. From eight-thirty in the morning until three they are mine. Bible, Math, English, Science, (Lunch), Social Studies, Spelling, Reading, and PE. Math and English are the most hassle because they have different books for each grade. Science and Social are the hardest for me to get them to retain.

One of my kids tree-climbing.

      One thing that caused me much stress was getting here late. It couldn't be prevented from happening, but that doesn't lessen its effect in any way. I arrived here half way through first quarter and you can imagine the complications that caused in teaching kids that were already adjusted to a teacher for the year. Not only that, but the teacher had a completely different teaching style than I. Of course, not as if I had a teaching style, seeing that I'd never taught before. As clichéd as the analogy is, I really had to train old dogs new tricks. I'm still battling with their old habits, but they are learning. As time goes on, I add new rules that I come up with myself or have pulled from The Essential 55 by Ron Clark (brilliant teacher). My creativity was really activated after reading that book.

They really like to collect them.

      One of the things that struck me as silly, or foreign, was the fact that they rarely had homework. When I say rarely, I mean once every two weeks – maybe. I've broken that for the most part, but I still get an exclaimed we! (kind of like “whey” but less on the “ay” and more on the “eh”) every now and then. According to their dictionary it is an “exclamation of repentance or surprise.” So, basically whenever they don't like something I hear it. This just causes me to laugh sinisterly under my breath. Cruel, right? Another humorous thing I hear frequently, used as a form of complaining about assigned work, “We're tired!” “Well, I guess you should've slept more last night.” It's a hard life, right? Honestly, all I can do is smile (=]). My hope is that they will be better kids when they finish in May, both scholastically and in dealing with life's different circumstances. By the time that is achieved, I'm sure the kids will have taught me, or ingrained in me, many important lessons. For that, I'll be forever thankful.