In the end, only kindness matters ….
Today was a wonderful day. Not because I taught any amazingly brilliant classes – sadly, not sure they qualified for that today!!!! Not because of the weather – froze my not insignificant butt off in my classroom today, despite the appearance of the sun!!!! It was a wonderful day because of how terrible yesterday was.
I had a class that was, shall we say, difficult. It’s not unusual for this class – all boys, challenging behaviours, and high levels of disengagement with school. Yesterday, it was windy, they were grumpy, and we struggled to get through the lesson. I kept breathing, held my temper, and continued to be polite and encouraging to them, despite the fact that really, the last thing I felt like doing was being kind and generous to teenage boys who thought I was the devil. 60 minutes later, and I walked out of my room with a big sigh of relief.
I had them this morning, and was half-expecting a repeat performance. I was pleasantly surprised though, when one of my students walked in early (which almost NEVER happens!!!!!) and came up to me to apologise.
“Sorry for being rude to you yesterday Miss, I had the shits about something else, and you were still really nice even though I was horrible to you. Yeah, sorry about that.”
Not only was it surprising, but it really made me think. Sometimes, we get so caught up in doing all the daily management at schools, the referrals for negative behaviour, the paperwork, the running around, and the politics of schools, that we forget about the important things. The little things. The things that are going to make a difference in the lives of the students we are there for. Yesterday, the important thing was not all the other running around I had to do …. It was the decision I made to take another breath, count to 10, smile at the kid who was set on making my life miserable for no apparent reason, and just get through the lesson with a minimal amount of tension.
The title for this post is from a Jewel song. it’s been going through my head all day, as I’ve been thinking about the little things we do that make a difference. What has yours been this week?
