Week 8 has only 8 hours left.

My friend and I were just talking about how incredibly fast this term has gone by! It's actually quite scary. 

- side thought: is it bad that every time I squeeze my wrist it "pops". 

On thursday I have a 3 hour class that is supposed to be an intro to teaching. kind of a waste of time if you ask me... BUT last night was a high point in my college career. I would like to recommend the book Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire to everyone who will ever spend much time with kids. This is a quality book about what happens when you truly respect kids and hold them to high standards. The Author, Rafe Esquith, is one of the most sought after guest speakers int he teaching world and his HIGHLY decorated.(Disney teacher of the year, etc.) So that means that his time is highly sought after. 

After reading his book our class of thirty students had a lot of questions for him. Our professor sent him an email with the most asked questions and to our surprise he quickly replied. He then said that he was horrible at emails but would love to talk to us on the phone. Well our class pleaded with our professor to use a class time to call - knowing that it wouldn't actually happen, besides, why would a world renown author spend time actually talking to a bunch of undergrad students??? But, again to our amazement, our professor set up a time to call him yesterday during our class. Excited and full of anticipation we spent over an hour and a half asking him questions about teaching. This was a very powerful point in my life. 

I don't want to be the next Rafe Esquith. Actually, he doesn't want me to be either, but there are some things I want to imitate that Rafe does very well. I want to care about my students. Truly care. Enough to call them my children. I want to care about them so much that I I don't teach them music - I teach them to be honorable. I will use Music as a catalyst to teach about dignity and honor. I want to be an example for them, and that means I want them to come to me with questions about anything; life, relationships, their future, homework, anything. 

 

So if anyone actually reads this (you could leave a message every once in a while to let me know), ask me in a couple of years if I am holding myself up to this standard. Because it is what my students deserve! 

Have a great weekend!