Submissive Hippie Turns Teacher

Here I sit at my computer, warily typing words onto the screen in front of me.
You should not be typing this. I repeat to myself over and over again. The feeling of guilt begins to spread from my chest to my toes. You need to be typing in classroom procedures and plans for your reading language arts program. True enough. I should also be writing letters to people, sending emails to other people, reading great literature, updating myself on the Washington primaries. But I am not. I continue to sit here and type. I press through the feelings of guilt. I try to brush them away and focus my mind on the blogging job at hand. hah I have wanted to blog for awhile, but I couldn't remember my password.

Yesterday was my very LAST day of working at the YMCA. I am so sad. I am going to miss several of those kids very much. I really do enjoy the third through sixth graders. I also found that I really enjoy the boys. Boys will just play and you can have a good conversation, but girls are too...I am not sure what. Perhaps, emotional? Perhaps, touchy? Whiny? Needy? I don't know. Let's stop talking and just play a rousing game of...tackle for the shoe!! hahahaha The last few field trips we played that game. It was fun. I now have many bruises. It was a tackling type game. I gave a little boy a rope burn as I was trying to pull a hat out of his hand during the game. Oops. When playing football I also smooshed a boy into the cement wall. It was not on purpose. I couldn't stop myself at the speed I was going.

This week is teacher in-service (inservice? in service?) week. OH MY GOODNESS!!! I am an official teacher. I know that it is possible for me to fill the responsibilities and DUTIES of a teacher, but good grief. Am I planned enough? No. Do I know how I want my room to be set up? No.

Oh! At the Y, I had a very intellectual/philosophical conversation with some boys (one boy in particular) about the moral struggles of the characters in Spiderman 3. He was very insightful in his analysis. We talked about the power of bad/evil to easily over take us as we choose the small, "not so bad" stuff.
I also had a connecting time with another...angry/bitter boy. He lies a lot, but at least he will now speak to me and wants to spend time not calling people names or beating them up.
I also had an interesting conversation with a girl who is afraid of getting sick and dying. I told her about Jesus and why I am not afraid to die.

There was a time I was angry at the parents who left their children at the Y. Why aren't you taking care of them AT HOME?! They don't need more toys, better vehicles, fancier clothes, or a bigger house! They need YOUR love and consistent discipline and training. Now, my heart breaks for these children and their families. So many of them are single parent homes. Some of these single parents are by choice; others are not. These children will never know true instruction about right and wrong; only what is fair and best for them. That is the philosophy of our world.

I miss good conversations and debates.