Reach Before Teach (Middle School)

Nov. 23, 2019 I admit that I love summer and hate winter. It's not because school isn't in session - I love the warmth. Recently, I've realized what I really appreciate about summer is the light. I've never liked the dark outside. I'm not afraid of it; my eye disease makes my life a bit more dim anyway. Dark makes it more difficult for me to see. I also simply thrive in sunshine. I don't mind a good thunderstorm, but I love that our days are sunny where I live. And for the past few weeks, we've had more cloudy days than we've had sunny days. It's beginning to wear on me, and I can feel it. My afternoon students have been more difficult lately, and some days, I feel as if all I do is remind them of expectations. It's just life, which is reality. And one day this week it all kind of hit me. I was lethargic; I had no passion and no desire. I mostly went through the motions. I gave my classes the information they needed, but I didn't do it ...

Nov. 12, 2019 We had conferences a couple weeks ago. A set of (acting) parents sat at my table. They are new to this - the person they are parenting hasn't been with them all that long. (I'm going to refer to the person I teach as a her because I don't want to keep typing his/her, and I'm old enough I still struggle with using a plural pronoun for a singular person - that habit's an ingrained one.) I promised these parents I would work to make a connection with their student even more than I already had. It's important to me, and it's important to them. What I didn't know was if it was important to the student. My plan: simply tell the student I don't know her well, and I want to know her better (I'd given a quarter for acclimation); I thought we'd get to know each other better through questions - student ask one day, and I ask the next. The student rolled her eyes - loudly. But that wasn't going to stop me. Cause me concern - well, y...