last week i gave one of my girls the nickname, Outta... Outta Control. she pouted about it for awhile and then today when i got her attention by calling out "hey Outta!", she glared at me, pointed to her eyes then pointed to me and said, "i'm watching you." ha. okay Outta...
my kids wiggle, they make weird noises, they want to have pillow fights, they would do flips in our classroom if i let them, and at times they twirl and spin around when we walk in the hallways. they're kids, yea, but c'mon! little crazies. i am constantly reminding them to WALK ON THE YELLOW LINE. i know they are tired of hearing me say that, but get yo feet on that yellow line! they all should be named Outta... or just Crazy... or Actin-a Fool. and i tell them, "you are actin' foolish right now." i tell them"you better get yourself figured out because i'm not playin..." (and as i type this i realize my grammar is not the best when addressing them... haha. just bein' real...)
but! with Being Real and Speaking My Mind, comes their very helpful but at times difficult friend, Taming. taming the tongue. an impossible job according to james. our tongues praise and curse... our tongues are like fires, small sparks that could set the whole forest, or our whole life to flame. how careful we must be with what comes out of our mouths... so as i have been tamed, and continue to tame my own tongue... i am helping these little people learn how to tame theirs. the verbal arguing, abusing, bullying, lying, name-calling, cursing, rudeness... we won't have any of it. earlier this year, EVERYONE was saying "shut up" ALL the time. i told them we were done, we were done with "shut up" because i didn't like it and it was rude and there are much nicer ways to tell someone to "be quiet". oh, and yelling LEAVE ME ALONE! will not do either. SO, no "shut up!" and no "leave me alone!" and there ya have it, the beginning of a taming. there were a few slip ups then, but there are ZERO now. my kids don't say shut up... and they report on kids from other classes who tell them to shut up (i.e. at recess). "shut up" has left their vocabulary and is almost considered a swear word, a curse, an awful command that they've been TAMED (and told and taught) not to use. with taming comes self-control and my how we have grown in our self-control. it's awesome to see some of my students giving others encouragement to have self-control and how to make the "good choice" and be the bigger/more mature person in EVERY situation, so often though when disagreements do arise. it's an amazing experience to have some of the "tamed" help with the taming.
and as i tame, and teach, i'm training... them up in the way they should go. teaching them right from wrong (possibly using poor grammar along the way... :/), modeling positive behaviors, and affirming successes so that their little hearts feel glad that they're doing the right thing and that i'm proud OF them. my kids know that i teach them... because i'm their teacher. i'm sure they don't realize though that i'm training them for life... that they're already very different children than when they entered second grade 6 months ago.
taming, teaching, training... welcome to my life. it's definitely not easy, but it sure is rewarding.
