Every Day a Marathon

I took off from school on Monday and went to the doctor. My right foot had been aching severely for ten days. It has been diagnosed as posterior tibial tendonitis. The treatment: prescription NSAI, ice and immobilization. I'm sporting the storm trooper boot from this summer's surgery, but now on my right foot. However, without the stitches and wires, it isn't nearly as uncomfortable. It is annoying, though. And no matter how much I try, I cannot successfully find a shoe for the left foot that results in my legs being on the same plane, so the right foot is slightly higher than the left. My hips are sore tonight. But, my foot does hurt less today than yesterday, so perhaps this is a good thing. I've been sitting in my rolling chair, moving myself about the classroom. But, there is still quite a bit of walking that must be done, so I'm exhausted. Two weeks and then I go back and if it isn't much better, we'll do an MRI.

Today, we had an author visit. Our librarian knows someone who knows someone, so we got a presentation. He is in town to promote his new book at a local store. Despite the obvious advertising for his series, he had some great things to say to our 4th and 5th graders about writing. They were captivated by him, and lots of them have read his books so they were excited to meet him. The amusing part for me was during his talk (and slides) he told them 8 powerful things that a writer must do. #1 was Read. Every fourth grader turned and looked at my colleague the reading teacher. #2 was Write...#3 was Write Some More...#4 Revise...#5 Edit. At each of these steps, the whole fourth grade turned to look at me in amazement. After all, here was a celebrity, a person whose books they had read--famous, even--echoing their teacher! I mean, who knew? Someone else saying all those weird things that she said, "Write--Write some more--write about everything that happens in your life. Revise! Edit!" Just amazing...

After the assembly, back in the classroom, I learned an important lesson today from my students. Each year for Christmas, we make a card for their parents. I usually let them use my stamps and create an original design for the cover. Then they write a letter inside to say loving and seasonal things. This year, I found some really cool craft items made of sticky-backed foam where you peel and stick the parts on and then glue the whole thing to a card and put a photo of the student in the center of it. And since we get sticker photos of each kid, it seemed like a great idea.

I realized that, a) it wasn't very creative...you had to follow the exact design--it was peel and stick. b) They were packaged inconveniently---you couldn't just hand a kit to each child--the parts were all joined together in sheets, so people have to sit together and get their five little red shiny shapes after someone else plucked off their five little red shiny shapes. I have 107 students, mind you. This was going to be going on all day. But, we got through the first three classes with astonishing ease. They loved it and they did a good job.

But when I got to the last class, I was panicking. I couldn't find the rest of the supplies. They had their foam ornament shape, but no shine red piece of pre-cut shapes. I could find several partially used pieces of foam. But, mostly, there were just scraps left over from the other groups punching out the precuts. Well, silly teacher, just give us the glittery foam -- we'll take it from here. They got scissors and went to town. It was sticky on the back, so they just cut out their own designs and actually, they created the best looking cards of all! They were well behaved--being enthralled in a bit of creativity and crafting. Tomorrow, we'll write letters and read some Christmas stories and everyone will go home with a cool gift for their parents.

What did I learn? Something I already knew...give children some supplies and an idea and stand back. They love to create and will come up with something marvelous most of the time.