It looks like this week’s Hodgepodge has an educational theme, whether it be school-wise or social-wise. Play along by visiting Joyce, leaving your own URL (after you’ve posted your own answers), and visiting some of the other fabulous bloggers who participate in this fun, weekly meme.
1. My daughter2 is graduating from university this month and plans to teach elementary school. What are three qualities you most want to see evidenced in a teacher?
Hey Joyce, thanks for including questions that I, as a teacher, can really relate to!!
I’ll answer this question from the perspective of both a mom AND a teacher.
A. Knowledge of subject matter – What good is a teacher if he/she doesn’t know the material?
B. Enthusiasm – It’s difficult to get kids fired up about learning if the teacher doesn’t exhibit some of his/her own enthusiasm for the process as well.
C. A love for kids – Ok. That would seem like a no-brainer, right? Well, we all know that there ARE teachers out there who don’t like kids or at least act like they don’t. Those kids know it too, and that impedes the learning process. Kids need to know they are loved and accepted. Often, they don’t get this at home.
2. You can tell a lot about a person by _____________________.
You can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she treats an animal. How a person treats an animal is very indicative of how loving and gentle that person is with other humans. I’ve seen this time and again.
3. What song makes you think spring?
A quick think of the brain leads me to recall the song Walkin’ on Sunshine.
4. May 1st is Mother Goose Day…share your favorite nursery rhyme.
Have you ever noticed that a lot of nursery rhymes end badly? Take Jack and Jill, Old Mother Hubbard, and Humpty Dumpty. Really? Why, oh why, do we read these to our children? Guess I’ll have to go with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It’s harmless enough.
5. What makes someone unforgettable?
Body odor.
Really!
I work with teenagers who don’t always have the best hygiene.
Ok, ok. I’m sure that Joyce didn’t have this answer in mind when she wrote the question.
What makes someone unforgettable is the way that person gives of him/herself selflessly and sacrificially. Those are the people I tend to gravitate toward because those are the people who inspire me the most.
6. Should music and/or art be part of a well rounded education?
Ideally, in a perfect balanced-budget world, yes. However, I know that reality is not this way. As a teacher whose district is facing a huge budget shortfall, I wonder how these types of extracurricular activities can be justified. Kids thrive on them, it’s true. In fact, many of my students struggle academically but are incredibly gifted musicians and artists.
Tough choices and no easy answers.
7. What social situations make you flustered or nervous?
Oh, I’m not very good in social situations. Not. At. All.
You want to know why?
Confidence, plain and simple. I’ve always tended to be on the nerdy side and somewhat serious. Serious doesn’t go over well in social situations. Of course, give me one-on-one situations, and my goofy side comes out.
I don’t do parties where I don’t know many people. In fact, I’m just not comfortable at parties in general.
I’m also extremely nervous when I know I’m going some place and have to do something that I don’t know how to do.
Take, for instance, a shin-dig I recently went to. Several ladies attended, and we decorated flip flops for women living in a recovery home. The flip flops will be given to the moms as Mother’s Day gifts since most of these women will not receive gifts from their own children.
Well, my heart raced and my creative juices just weren’t flowing. Give me knitting needles, and I’m all over it. Give me flip flops, ribbons, and flowers, and I’m clueless.
Sigh.
8. My Random Thought
I have quite a few random thoughts floating around my head right now. I should probably pick just one, eh?
I guess, since I’ve already talked about confidence, I’ll continue along that theme.
Something a little unsettling happened toward the end of school yesterday, and I overreacted about something that didn’t really need to be overreacted about.
It didn’t take me long to realize the error of my ways. I took ownership of it, will be doing what I need to do to rectify it, and plan to move on.
BUT, inside of this need-to-please heart of mine, I am having trouble letting it go because I worry that someone I care about will think less of me for me overreacting.
So, I called Super Sis and said, “Please remind me that I shouldn’t stress about what other people think of me when I can’t control what they think of me.”
Isn’t it funny how we can pinpoint truth, but our hearts have trouble embracing it?
She and I talked things out, and I realized that at the heart of most of my issues is the need to be in control.
I was frustrated yesterday because a situation that happened was completely out of my control (I was in a meeting and had a sub for one class period). As a result, something somewhat minor happened…another something out of my control…and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I’m starting to figure something out.
We really need to dig deeper to FIND the underlying issues that lurk below what we THINK are the problems in our lives.
Does that make sense?
I think that sometimes we don’t dig deep enough.
I know that as teachers, we do this. We blame misbehavior on a child’s age when the fact is that the child may have a learning disability that is causing that child to become frustrated and, thus, act out inappropriately. Or, perhaps the child has something going on at home and simply cannot deal with what’s going on at school. It has nothing to do with school or age but other circumstances.
Sigh.
Life is so complicated.
But is it really?
I think most everything boils down to a power struggle…between us and God…the things we can’t control and the things that He IS controlling.
Deep?
Yeah.
With me teaching figurative language, which I love and understand quite well, my brain is free to do some deep thinking.
You might not want to stand too close to me. Lightening might strike.
heehee
Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: Wednesday Hodgepodge | 9 Comments »
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