Well, we're almost to the shortest day of the year. Right now the sun rises at about 12:40 p.m. and sets about 3:40 p.m.. A lot of people ask if the lack of sunlight bothers me. It really doesn't, I find it forces me to relax and enjoy the day at a slow pace. Actually, what drives me crazy is when the sunlight returns and it's light almost 24 hours per day. Then I find myself still active at 11:00 p.m. and not realizing it's time to go to bed.
We had an interesting day last week. It was our first big storm of the year, snow with 50 mile per hour winds gusting to 70 mph. It’s tough to walk in wind like that and even more difficult to open doors if they are facing the wrong way. Right now the elementary part of the school is being remodeled, so each class is crammed into the high school end. My class wouldn’t even fit in the high school so I am teaching my students in another building. So, I have to get the 5 and 6 year olds bundled up to go over for lunch. After walking to school last Wednesday I was pretty nervous about trying to get my students over to the main school building. I couldn’t open the north-facing door by myself. Another student had to help me. But as it turned out none of the parents thought it was safe to send their children to school so I had a day to myself.
This week is promising to be a busy one. Tuesday night I am having the 5th grade students over to our home for dinner. I am their academic advisor and like to do special activities with them to build a good relationship. We are getting ready for the Christmas program on Wednesday night. My class is singing Jingle Bells, Up on the Housetop and Zippety-Do-Da. (I always like to have the kids sing something not Christmasy to keep things intersting.) Thursday I am taking my students caroling at some of the elders’ homes. Today I am working on getting our class Christmas quilt completed. I had each of the students use fabric paint and paint two quilt squares with a winter / Christmas picture and their name on it. On Wednesday, at the Christmas program, we’ll have a drawing and give it away to one of the students in my class. I’ve done this for the past 3 years and it’s been a lot of fun.
Quite a few teenage girls lately have been wanting to learn how to crochet. They’ve been coming to my house in the evenings and making hats and scarves etc. It’s funny to see them all sitting and crocheting like little old ladies. The house is dead quite as if we were doing very serious business. They are doing really well and catching on quickly.
We are fortunate here to have the opportunities to form relationships with students on a personal level. I believe it can make us more effective as educators. It’s too bad that the way the world is going, that we can’t even touch kids to give them a hug or whatever. I think people tend to panic over just a few weirdoes. My personal belief is that most people are good people and very few are “bad guys”. However, the media hypes up certain incidents and makes us think that bad things are happening all the time, when really the good things far out number the bad. Then all of the hype trickles down slowly until it’s considered taboo, for instance, to hug a student.