One Day At A Time....

Warning: This is a long, teacher-day related post. If knowing about the joys and stresses of being a teacher bother you, unfriend me now. Today was one of those days where you want to rip your hair out one minute and the next minute you are holding back happy tears. One of my kiddos noticed I was having a rough afternoon, so she told me "Ms. Perry, I'm sharing a GoogleDoc with you." For many of my students, this is code for "I need to tell you something, but I'd rather type it so that my peers don't hear me say it out loud." So, I opened the document and was pleasantly surprised at the discussion that ensued. Below is a glimpse of what made me cry. (Edited for length, clarity and some spelling) Note: I'm also pretty honest with my kiddos. Making the jump from middle school to high school has added the ability for me to "get real" with my students about life after high school, something that many of my older students have told me they app...

I want the youth of the ward know how grateful I am for their example and their goodness. 5 days a week, I see broken families, the effects of crime and drugs, and the breakdown of humanity. Every Wednesday and Sunday I have the opportunity to have my faith in the future restored.

Tonight's insight: After a rough couple days (hello super blue blood moon), I arrived at school today. One student decided to sleep through much of his first few classes today, which, unfortunately, isn't that unusual. Another student very unexpectedly called me a witch out of my earshot but within the earshot of a few of his classroom peers. I've had students swear in my class and just be blatantly mean to each her. So today, we did a little lesson combining reviewing our classroom expectations and a short lesson on kindness. I showed my students a canvas quote project I have been working on. The quote is something like "everyone you know is fighting a battle you know nothing about. So, be kind. Always. " I told them about a couple parts of my battle that hat had been bothering me over the course of the last few days. Between Elder Clay Covey (a senior missionary who'd served with his wife in my singles branch a few years ago) passing away after his 4th battl...