Reflection on Christmas Break

I've been back in St. Louis now for 5 hours and was welcomed with beautiful, warm weather. I guess the past few days here have been in the 60s and from looking at the forecast for the week to come, it seems more like March or April than January. Granted, the high temperatures will include some rain, but it still beats sub-zero windchills. I guess it's one of the perks I enjoy living 7 hours south of Wisconsin.

Over the past week several times I thought about what Christmas meant to me. I had several ideas that have been going through my head and even today was thinking about the Christmas holiday and season on the train today. After thinking about it for quite some time now I wanted to share with everyone else what the Christmas season is all about.

First off, I've always been very in to traditions especially with holidays. Even the traditions most of us hate, we find ourselves getting a little excited for. This year, some of the traditions that our family always enjoy around Christmas time weren't hung on to. That's not to say we won't resume them down the road, but for this year our annual Trivial Pursuit game, the Santa Claus exchange with the Burnett's and even the silly picture of the Georgia, Campion and Weiss kids wasn't upheld. I think a Christmas Eve Packer game played a small role in this, but all of these things could've been accomplished regardless of a ridiculous time for an NFL football game. The funny thing is despite being very much a traditionalist when it comes to family holidays, I wasn't as upset as I thought I would be. Part of this may have been because I was busy blowing my nose constantly and didn't have the energy to make a fuss about some of these little matters.

There was one thing that held true with my immediate family and that was a Christmas Eve dinner filled with laughter and tears. This has happened nearly every year for the last several years when we go around the table to share with each other what we're grateful for. It's something I've always looked forward to and the minute we stop doing it, you can bet I'll make a stink about it. As I've looked back on the past week in which several annual traditions failed to happen, I realized the reason I wasn't that upset is that I was still surrounded by the people I love and care about the most and likewise them for me. It's fun to have simple little things to look forward to every year at Christmas, but the most important thing is that you have family and friends to do them with, which is something I'll always be extremely grateful.

One last thought that struck me today on the train. I thought about how Kathleen Georgia was explaining how her Christmas gift to Steph was intangible (it was a promise to make her something) and how the Georgia's and I discussed if instead of giving tangible gifts everyone gave each other intangible gifts how funny it would be. Today is when it struck me that Christmas should be about giving the intangibles, because patience, love, gratitude, forgiveness, generosity, etc. are the most important things that a person can receive. Without them life would be very dull. It's these gifts that we receive from our parents, grandparents, children, cousins, aunts, uncles, friends, etc. that makes life worth living. 20 years from now I probably won't remember most of the gifts I got for Christmas this year, but you can bet that I'll remember going to Pine Grove to celebrate Liz's birthday and to watch Tommy Georgia's movie, or watching Napolean Dynamite with my brothers and sisters, or even going to Perkins at 2:30 Christmas Eve morning to help celebrate Drew Georgia's 21st birthday with his friends. These are the gifts that are worth remembering. So while giving and receiving presents is exciting and fun, being in the presence of those you truly love is priceless.

I just want to thank all of my family and friends for providing that presence for me, not just over break, but every minute of every day.

Back Home

After a fun final week before Christmas, I'm back home enjoying a 2-week break from school. I have to say that the last week before Christmas break went much better than I anticipated. It wasn't perfect, but I was able to leave with a better perspective on what each of my kids is looking for in the mentoring relationship. Leaving last Friday from school, I really felt like I was on the same page with all of my kids for the first time in a while.

I took the train up to Chicago on Friday afternoon. It was a long ride, but it beats flying on a plane or driving through a blizzard. Since I got home before the Christmas break starts in Green Bay I was able to see some of Joey's basketball games and even got a chance to help coach in the championship game that they won on Sunday. After seeing them play this weekend, I know some of the work I did with them over the summer has paid off. I'm hoping I'll get a chance to notice a difference with some of the other kids I worked with over the summer when I hold some open gyms during their week off.

It's nice to have a 2-week break with really nothing to do. I'm sure I'll do a lot of reading, but I'l have to find other ways to fill my days as well. Hopefully getting to the gym to shoot around or play basketball will take care of some of that time. Otherwise, my only option may be to post a new blog every time I have a new thought. While that may be very interesting at times, I think it will be boring for the most part since I'm kind of in hibernation mode.

For those of you I haven't seen yet, I look forward to seeing you over the next couple of weeks. I'm not here long, but I'll try to catch up with everyone I can in that time.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas.

Another Long Week

It's been two straight weeks of long hours and constant running around. This week wasn't nearly as bad as far as productivity, but it was busy nonetheless and brought some frustration.

This was the first week of after-school programming. On Monday, our team got a headstart and showed a movie to our kids after school. Tuesday was the first official day of after school and my strategic games club. I have to admit I wasn't as prepared for the first session as well as I should have, but there was some miscommunication between me and another teacher. I have set up a strategic games club. I had hoped for 10-15 students to sign up and while I had lots of kids show interest in joining the club, few brought back permission slips needed to join. Only 5 kids came on Tuesday which was a good number. After introducing some of the games we would be playing, I let the kids try out some of the games. My main objective in starting the club was to expose the kids to games that they may not otherwise play or learn how to play and help them build critical thinking skills by playing these games. Among the games I plan on teaching them this year are chess, cribbage and possibly Risk. On Tuesday, a couple of the kids stated that they didn't want to play these games because they didn't know how or they thought they were boring. On Thursday, the next time the club met, things didn't go quite as well. There a few new students taking part in the activity, but still a manageable number. Unfortunately, a few students decided that since they didn't want to learn a new game, in this case chess, they would make it difficult for others to participate. My suspicion is that they have a certain stigma attached to a game like chess and think that playing it will classify them as geeks. I was not at all satisfied with how the club went that day and began thinking of how I could engage the kids into experiencing new games.

To add to my frustration is my growing concern that not all of my kids understand my role or for that matter I don't understand the particular role each student would like me to play this year. Up until the last few weeks my progress with each of them has been notable, but I feel like I'm hitting a wall with most of them and have to reach for the next level to really see some significant growth on all of their parts. I've thought a lot about it in the last couple of days and my hope is to sit down with each one of them individually and figure out what they're looking for in the mentor-student relationship and what they expect to get out working with me this year. By doing this I hope to gain some insight into their expectations and hopefully I'll be able to come up with some ideas over Christmas break to help meet those expectations.

I'm not surprised that I'm hitting the wall right now as it has been a long, stressful couple of weeks. I hope it's a temporary thing and that Christmas break will give plenty of time to re-energize and re-evaluate what it is that I hope to accomplish this year. By the end of next week I want to leave St. Louis with a sense that I'm getting back on track.

Doing All Right

I know it's been quite some time since I last blogged, but I have a legitimate excuse: I've been very busy. I know I mentioned last post that I was busy, but last week was one of the most hectic ways to start a week that I've ever experienced in my life. After coming home last Monday I felt like I had been running around all day and constantly doing something, but in the end I didn't make any progress. It was frustrating to say the least, especially after a very relaxing Thanksgiving weekend. Luckily, things slowed down a bit as the week progressed and while I'm still busy with things at school, but it hasn't been as bad.

All of my kids are doing well and I feel like I'm starting to make progress with all of them. It's been difficult trying to figure out how each of them respond. For example when helping them with their school work, some want to do it on their own and have me look over it and others want me to give them the answers. I'm hoping that I'll continue to make more progress so that I'm noticing significant improvement in all of them as spring approaches. Today we watched Scooby Doo 2 after school and tomorrow I start my after-school club, a strategy games club. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. There's a lot of kids that are interested in joining, but it could be just because of the AmeriCorps stigma. I still have some things to get ready for the first day. I'm starting out by teaching the kids how to play chess, but I'm hoping to be able to teach them a lot of different games that allow them to work on their critical thinking skills.

After last week, I was able to enjoy my weekend. I went out with some of the teachers after school for a drink and then took it easy the rest of Friday night. On Saturday night, one of my friend's band had a CD release party that I went to, before going to another friends birthday party. It was a nice way to take a break from school and some of the hassles that I had to deal with the week before.

So as everyone can tell, things in St. Louis continue to go well. It helps that Christmas break is only 2 weeks away, which well provide me with some much needed rest and relaxation. I've also already decided that one of my New Year's Resolutions is to be more consistent in posting to my blog, so everyone can look forward to more frequent posts in the upcoming months.

I hope everyone else is doing well.