In 4th grade our last writing unit is Poetry, and while most of the kids cringe at the thought of writing poetry they all end up loving it! Being able to express yourself in creatively choosing your words is an amazing ability. I love how some of them describe things.
Here are a few that they wrote about yours truly... I would have never described myself this way, but it sure makes me smile:
Miss Cosper's delicate fingers remind me of the petals on a flower, and her long fragile legs are like the stems on the flower.
*I laughed out loud when I read that my legs were "long and fragile"
Miss Cosper's braveness reminds me of a police woman. Running downhill to catch a robber. Now Miss Cosper needs to catch 500 more robbers.
When I see Miss Cosper I see the bright big smile. I smell the coffee that Miss Cosper drinks, it makes me smile all through the day. they peaceful music touches my heart then I ask Miss Cosper whats the song, then I see her smile at me.
I love these kids. Its going to be hard to say good bye! God has done some great things in these kids hearts, and I pray that He continues to work in their lives in 5th grade.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Teaching outside the classroom
Sometimes as a teacher I have to decide what's more important...to finish reading and answering questions about chapter 6 or confronting a student about their sin.... this week I was faced with one of those decisions.
Kids coming back from their morning recess there are usually a few little arguments or conflicts that I have to help mediate, and most of the time I can figure it out in a minute or two (yea, I'm just that good). But today a student came in and she told me that a boy in our class had yelled at her and pushed her.
This is where I need to stop and tell you that, now that I am the teacher I can tell exactly when a student is not telling me the entire story... I don't know how it is or where it comes from, but its true. I remember when i was a student and thinking, "How in the world does my teacher know that?"... but this was one of those moments and I knew there was more to the story than what was being told.
So I sat her down and said you need to make sure that your telling me the entire truth, because if your not its going to be much worse. I need to know if you're lying to me at all and not leaving anything out. She assured me she wasn't, so I went to go grab the boys... this is when I am faced with the decision 1.)do I forget about it and come back later so we can finish reading the next chapter in our book and I can get some good discussions going in my reading groups, or 2.) do I confront this student and get to the bottom of this whole thing and use this out of the classroom opportunity to teach my student a lesson...something much greater than reading comprehension.
After talking to both kids and 5 witnesses, giving her more than enough opportunities to tell me the truth she continued to lie. The whole time I am praying, "God this girl's heart needs to break..it's so hard right now, please soften her heart so that she may see her sin."
After the boys left and I was talking to her privately I told her I wanted to believe her, but there was nothing that was proving her story to be true, and that's where God worked his power...she cried.
"Why are you crying?" I asked.
"I don't want to get in trouble!"
I told her I already saw a change in her, she came out an angry little girl who wouldn't look me in the eyes and tightly crossed arms...and now here she was crying struggling to find a way out. She told me she was embarrassed to be crying and I told her I was the last person she needs to be embarrassed in front of... I cry ALL the time. I told her I'd give her time to think about what she needs to do, and after probably another 15 minutes and two or three visits she was finally ready to tell the truth.
She felt soo much better after she had admitted she lied, she told me its just so hard when she knows she's done wrong, she just wants to take everyone down with her. She said the temptations were too great. Thats when I asked her, "when I asked you at the start, if there was any chance you weren't telling me the truth was there any part of you that said you just need to tell the truth?" She nodded yes and when I asked who that was she responded by saying, ".....me?"
"Nope, it wasn't you, cause you were the one who decided to lie...remember?"
"Oh yea...."
"Who lives in your heart and helps you to make right decisions?"
"...Jesus?"
Our God is greater and all powerful and yet he lives inside of us giving us the power to let go of the root of so many sins...pride. To see my student let go of her pride was triumphant and a greater success than any reading grade or Math test. We then talked about how the Spirit has been sent down to help us in those times of temptation to remind us of what we are supposed to do, to give us the power to die to ourselves and live a righteous life.
So yea... I may have not been able to help my students practice our reading comprehension today, but we learned about the Holy spirit and the sacrifice it takes for us to let our pride down and admit when we have done wrong. I think it was a lesson worth learning.
Kids coming back from their morning recess there are usually a few little arguments or conflicts that I have to help mediate, and most of the time I can figure it out in a minute or two (yea, I'm just that good). But today a student came in and she told me that a boy in our class had yelled at her and pushed her.
This is where I need to stop and tell you that, now that I am the teacher I can tell exactly when a student is not telling me the entire story... I don't know how it is or where it comes from, but its true. I remember when i was a student and thinking, "How in the world does my teacher know that?"... but this was one of those moments and I knew there was more to the story than what was being told.
So I sat her down and said you need to make sure that your telling me the entire truth, because if your not its going to be much worse. I need to know if you're lying to me at all and not leaving anything out. She assured me she wasn't, so I went to go grab the boys... this is when I am faced with the decision 1.)do I forget about it and come back later so we can finish reading the next chapter in our book and I can get some good discussions going in my reading groups, or 2.) do I confront this student and get to the bottom of this whole thing and use this out of the classroom opportunity to teach my student a lesson...something much greater than reading comprehension.
After talking to both kids and 5 witnesses, giving her more than enough opportunities to tell me the truth she continued to lie. The whole time I am praying, "God this girl's heart needs to break..it's so hard right now, please soften her heart so that she may see her sin."
After the boys left and I was talking to her privately I told her I wanted to believe her, but there was nothing that was proving her story to be true, and that's where God worked his power...she cried.
"Why are you crying?" I asked.
"I don't want to get in trouble!"
I told her I already saw a change in her, she came out an angry little girl who wouldn't look me in the eyes and tightly crossed arms...and now here she was crying struggling to find a way out. She told me she was embarrassed to be crying and I told her I was the last person she needs to be embarrassed in front of... I cry ALL the time. I told her I'd give her time to think about what she needs to do, and after probably another 15 minutes and two or three visits she was finally ready to tell the truth.
She felt soo much better after she had admitted she lied, she told me its just so hard when she knows she's done wrong, she just wants to take everyone down with her. She said the temptations were too great. Thats when I asked her, "when I asked you at the start, if there was any chance you weren't telling me the truth was there any part of you that said you just need to tell the truth?" She nodded yes and when I asked who that was she responded by saying, ".....me?"
"Nope, it wasn't you, cause you were the one who decided to lie...remember?"
"Oh yea...."
"Who lives in your heart and helps you to make right decisions?"
"...Jesus?"
Our God is greater and all powerful and yet he lives inside of us giving us the power to let go of the root of so many sins...pride. To see my student let go of her pride was triumphant and a greater success than any reading grade or Math test. We then talked about how the Spirit has been sent down to help us in those times of temptation to remind us of what we are supposed to do, to give us the power to die to ourselves and live a righteous life.
So yea... I may have not been able to help my students practice our reading comprehension today, but we learned about the Holy spirit and the sacrifice it takes for us to let our pride down and admit when we have done wrong. I think it was a lesson worth learning.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)