First, a note unrelated to Kindergarten. Watch the ballet which I was quite delighted to enjoy at Lincoln Center this evening! It's going to be filmed and aired live on PBS, as 'Live from Lincoln Center,' next Thursday, May 21. Romeo and Juliet, by the New York City Ballet. Beautiful. Prokofiev. The brilliant simplicity of good pantomime. And people who fly without cables or wings. That's a wonder.
Today I felt better... and realized at the end of the day that it's because I didn't really teach a lesson today at all. Chapel time, gym, and standardized testing ate up the morning, and a birthday party ate up the afternoon. So other than a 'math race' center at free time, leading the testing process, teaching a review Bible lesson this morning (summing up Saul/Paul and the idea of people changed by the Gospel then going out and sharing it with others), and reading a story, I was off-duty. Not trying to orchestrate some raucous activity followed by workbook pages in the effort to cram material into their brains. It was a relief. And I was better able to be firm-handed in discipline because of it.
rant (skippable): I think teachers, at least in environments like ours, need a constant in-room Disciplinarian, so as to be able to actually focus on teaching. Imagine having to stop in the middle of every sentence you say to insert a child's name, a 'look up here, please,' a 'please sit on your bottom,' or an 'excuse me; please don't talk on top of my voice.' Every sentence you say. And it's a different kid virtually every time. Oh help oh help oh help.
May i mention that teaching makes you a little bit delusional? Tonight at Lincoln Center, a giant, glittery theater full of people, of elegantly-clad strangers, I realized that part of me really believed it completely possible and sensible to stand up and teacher-speak to the whole theater. Like the whole world is my Kindergarten class, and it is my endless duty to lead and shepherd everyone in it. (What strange things are happening to my brain?)
The birthday cake was good. And a potentially-rocky after-school parent meeting went fine.
Lord, forgive; Lord, redeem; Lord, renew; Lord, restore. Amen,
amen.
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