Day 56...Thursday Oct. 8th

On Thursday my lead teacher was out sick. I was terrified with the thought of our class trying to cope with a substitute lead teacher, expecting the entire class to play out a chapter in Lord of the Flies. But much to my relief and surprise, the class was rather calm (well...as calm as they have been, which is still rather chaotic). I had the rare gift of watching an old Montessori pro come in and work her magic. She has been a lead teacher for over 20 years with experience way beyond any I had ever seen. When she stepped into that class, she had a grace to her and a presence that was both commanding and respectful all in one. And my God how I envied her patience! As I watched her go around the classroom, I couldn't help but be amazed at how calmly she handled even our most troublesome of students. By the end of the day, even our most ornery of students were giving her hugs! How in the world did she do that?! Desperately I watched every movement, listened to every word, hungrily wanting to learn her tricks. I was so jealous of her ability to walk into this classroom and immediately win them over and create a sweet calm to the class! Her trick...to smile, to walk calmly, never to jump at anything, never to shout across the room, there was never a negative tone in her voice, gentle guiding through questions and patience...she showed them all respect. Unlike how I have been acting, (shouting their names in frustration as they run around the room wrecking every one's work, jumping when I see conflict, looking stressed, correcting before I've made a connection...) she showed the children a form of mutual respect. And in return, she was given respect. It sounds so easy and simple, but the practice can be so challenging. When being surrounded by a dozen kids who all know how to push the right button, finding peace and patience is one of the hardest things to do! But clearly it's worth learning if I ever want to truly be able to create a peace in my class and with the connections to each child.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to my class and Pickle. I know...clever right? lol