What's Good?
I'm using a popular greeting used by a lot of kids for the title of this post because I couldn't think of anything else and I think it focuses more on the positive things going on rather than the negatives.
As most of you have probably heard by now I did get accepted into the UW Law School over the weekend. Between finding that out and going to the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, it was a great weekend from my end. I got to witness plenty of great basketball only feeding my excitement for the Big Dance more. I have yet to decided what I'll be doing next year, but the two options are sticking around in St. Louis for another year with AmeriCorps or going off to law school in Madison. I'm hoping to have my decision made by the end of the month and will let everyone know as soon as I make it which direction I'm going.
I've feel like I've been really hitting my stride with all of the kids at the school. That's not to say I'm into the clear, but on the whole, I've got the hang of this whole mentoring thing. Part of that has been recognizing that it sometimes takes time to work through the problems with different kids. I guess I knew coming in that different people react and learn differently, but I'm really seeing first hand that just because something works with one kid doesn't necessarily mean it will work with another kid. I find it funny that for as much as I try to make the kids think about things in a different way, they constantly have me thinking without even realizing it. I can't even begin to say how often I find myself trying to come up with a way to reach a student or help them. If I wasn't analytical enough before taking this position, there is absolutely no doubt that I've honed that skill.
One thing that I don't think I'll ever get used to is how the teachers and other staff sometimes are with a student. For instance, today I was talking with a very strong-headed girl who doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut. As I was talking to her a teacher said out loud so she could hear as well as other students, "Why even bother with talking to her?" His thing was that until someone shuts this girl up she'll keeping running her mouth. I don't doubt that by me talking to her just this once will change her, but if nothing else the next time she gets to running her mouth, if it even crosses her mind what I said, that's a success to me. It takes a long time for an oak tree to grow, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't plant it in the first place. I guess I'm living by the motto that "It's better to have tried and failed, than to never have tried at all." So until someone gives me a valid reason for not bothering with it, I'll continue to try even if I don't succeed.
So that's what's good with me.
As most of you have probably heard by now I did get accepted into the UW Law School over the weekend. Between finding that out and going to the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, it was a great weekend from my end. I got to witness plenty of great basketball only feeding my excitement for the Big Dance more. I have yet to decided what I'll be doing next year, but the two options are sticking around in St. Louis for another year with AmeriCorps or going off to law school in Madison. I'm hoping to have my decision made by the end of the month and will let everyone know as soon as I make it which direction I'm going.
I've feel like I've been really hitting my stride with all of the kids at the school. That's not to say I'm into the clear, but on the whole, I've got the hang of this whole mentoring thing. Part of that has been recognizing that it sometimes takes time to work through the problems with different kids. I guess I knew coming in that different people react and learn differently, but I'm really seeing first hand that just because something works with one kid doesn't necessarily mean it will work with another kid. I find it funny that for as much as I try to make the kids think about things in a different way, they constantly have me thinking without even realizing it. I can't even begin to say how often I find myself trying to come up with a way to reach a student or help them. If I wasn't analytical enough before taking this position, there is absolutely no doubt that I've honed that skill.
One thing that I don't think I'll ever get used to is how the teachers and other staff sometimes are with a student. For instance, today I was talking with a very strong-headed girl who doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut. As I was talking to her a teacher said out loud so she could hear as well as other students, "Why even bother with talking to her?" His thing was that until someone shuts this girl up she'll keeping running her mouth. I don't doubt that by me talking to her just this once will change her, but if nothing else the next time she gets to running her mouth, if it even crosses her mind what I said, that's a success to me. It takes a long time for an oak tree to grow, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't plant it in the first place. I guess I'm living by the motto that "It's better to have tried and failed, than to never have tried at all." So until someone gives me a valid reason for not bothering with it, I'll continue to try even if I don't succeed.
So that's what's good with me.
posted by Tim Weiss at 6:43 PM
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