It's the Little Things that Count

Hahahahaha! I just had to start out with a laugh. The funniest thing alomst happened to my dad today. He almost got arrested! I was wondering when it was going to happen. Haha! My dad helps with the cross country meets since he has alot of soccer players who run cross country. The school had attained the permit to have the park for the hours needed to themselves for the meet. So this group of people comes wanting to play soccer. My dad goes over to find out what is going on and to see what he could do to help. The other groups was mad that they could not play soccer at the park. My dad told them he would be able to give up the soccer field and one of the softball fields during that time. Well, the group ws not happy so they called the cops. The cop shows up and never talks to my dad or Asst. AD for the school district. He talks to the angry folks then confronts my dad's group. The Asst. AD goes over and introduced herself to the cop as the Asst AD for the school district, sticks out her had for a handshake and the cop just stands there staring at her hand. My dad is looking in amazement at the insidiousness of the cop and the whole situation. The cop was very confrontational the entire time. The AD tells the cop they have the permit for the entire park and that they tried to work with the group to let them use one of the already reserved fields. The cop was still very rude. my dad tries to tell the cop what is going on and that they needed certain areas for the warm-ups and starts for the runs. The cop says they don't need to use the reserved areas. What are they suppose use, the surrounding desert? Whatever. My dad starts getting into it a little with cop. The cop says "I run long distance and I you don't need these areas." That is the totally wrong thing to say to a seasoned coach and someone who went to college for all that stuff and is the best in his field whereever he goes. Dad pops off with, "I don't teach your gun control classes, so you don't tell me how to run my cross country team." Just like Dad to say something like that in the heat of the moment. Thankfully, he wasn't arrested. Since the school district had the permits the cop couldn't really do anything. That makes for a great "almst got arrested story."
This week has been a good week. I really feel like things at work are falling into place. Some of the kids that have been giving me a hard time have decided to leave the school and new kids are coming in. Hopefully these new kids are better. It took six weeks for things to start calming down. I had some really great experiences this week with my students that concreted, in my mind, that I am doing with my life is what I am suppose to do. I was reading the journals I have my kids write in for a little bit during each class. One of the journals was on who has influenced you in your life. As I read one of my students mentioned that I was an influence in her life. She was a kid who never liked sports until she came into my class last year in sixth grade. Then later that day I had one of my high school students tell me that I was the greatest PE teacher he has ever had. He also said I was the coolest after our discussion about Pink Floyd and Aerosmith and some other older groups. Another student who I never really seemed to ge tthrough to has started talking to me more about what is going on with him. He is not like the other kids. He actually listens and tried to learn stuff and follws directions to a "T", so other kids have a hard time woth him and like to amke fun of him and treat him bad. I have become more aware of how he is doing throughout the day and when he comes into Study Hall he sits next to me. That is the time for me to talk to him and make sure he is doing okay. I sometimes think he could be the kid to just go crazy on ya in the middle of the hall so I make sure to treat him with great care. We were talking about something the other day and he thanked me for being a listening ear and trying to help him with stuff. After three years I feel like I am starting to find my niche in the teaching world. I just hope I am able to be an influence for good in other kid's lives. I love what I do and the opportunities it gives me to hopefully change someone else's perspective and even life.