It is Teacher Appreciation Week and I am feeling appreciated. More importantly, I am grateful for the teachers I had who shaped me through their lessons, stories, patience, and passion. Thank you to, and in no particular order, Atlee, Guinn, Wright, Giesberg, Clark, Shand, and Gilbert. I know there were more, but it’s early and I am thinking and writing. I am also grateful to the teachers who have shaped my kid’s lives and made a difference for them. THANK YOU and THANK YOU for being a teacher.
I was up late last night trying to solve a technical problem on the troop website I run and went to bed exhausted yawning and spent. I woke feeling summery with the morning’s light creeping in and softly lighting the bedroom. I went downstairs started the coffee, greeted Ivy, and went to the basement to find out what I had done didn’t work, so I got a cup of coffee and thought about the situation – then I solved it. We are back up and running, now I need to add pictures of our recent adventures and get the site updated, but that will happen, later – probably this weekend. I am struggling with keeping everything going and I know it is only a matter of days – 14 of ‘em, in fact – before summer will be in full bloom and I will be in summer mode.
A lot has gone on this year and it has shaped me and worn me like a river on a boulder in the stream – smoothing the rough spots and allowing the current to pass much quicker. I know I have my rough spots and I am working on ‘em. The river will continue to work and smooth me even more as the water flows.
With 14 days, left it is time to think ahead, actually I should be thinking ahead all of the time, but hey, it’s a rough spot. There’s the reading list, the TO DO list, the home list, and the get in shape list, and countless others. Most importantly, it is time to reflect, renew, and ready for the coming year. It always comes quickly and before I can breathe it’s Halloween, then Winter, the Spring, and then – where I find myself now, the end. It reminds me how this all started,
“Don’t count the days, make the days count.” Muhammad Ali
As we get close to the end of the year, I have to remind the students (and myself) that it is always better to make the days count than to count the days. It is what we do with our time that matters, not how much time we have.
So, it is Thursday, May 10th, fourteen days remain and I need to make them count, make them worthwhile, and make them learning experiences for my students, and me. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, especially at the end of the year.