I'd like to take a quick look back on the month of January- We were scheduled to come to school 20 days in the month of January. We ended up having multiple snow days and made it to school 15 days instead. What I should have done on these days was make a new TPT product or two or clean my hot mess of a house. What did I do instead? I became the newest fan of Game of Thrones. Thanks to my snow days I started AND finished the entire series of GOT in the month of January. Thats 67 episodes of a show in less than 31 days. Thats almost three full days of 2018 that I spent watching TV. Do I feel bad? Maybe a little but probably not as bad as I should feel about that wasted time- I also got some laundry done while watching this new obsession.
Now that you know all about my January- lets really dig into this blog post and talk about something I'm thankful for. I have been fortunate to have a very good support system for pretty much my entire life but especially with my career choice. One of my supports is my hubby, Patrick. His mom just so happens to be a teacher so he knows the basics on the ins and outs when it comes to what it is that I do. He understands that I don't just work 7:30 to 3:30. In the almost six years that we have been together, Patrick has supported my career 100%
Patrick has come in and stapled things to the wall, he's brought me countless lunches, and spent many hours cutting laminate. On top of the hours, he has also stepped up to be a role model for my students. All my students know my husband as "Mr. Patrick". I have a student this year that has really bonded with Patrick. This student really struggled behaviorally at the beginning of the school year- he had a big transition by moving to this area. I would tell him, "If you do this, I'll tell Mr. Patrick and he'll be so proud of you" and most of the time, whatever we were working on would get finished. This student has gotten so close to Patrick that when he clips up on the clip chart, he says "Mr. Patrick will be so proud of me." My husband has a pretty flexible schedule where we works every other two days or so- he also loves school pizza- you know that old school, rectangle pizza? Yeah, we both love it. So anyway, Patrick decided last week to come and eat lunch on pizza day with this student. So I told him on Thursday that if he made good choices, Mr. Patrick would come and eat lunch with him on Friday. Of course, that was pretty much all it took to secure good behavior for two days! The student sat in between us in the cafeteria grinning and eating pizza.
This is just one example of how Patrick has been such a support for me and my classroom. I know that I am so fortunate and lucky to have someone to stand beside me as I struggle and strive in this roller coaster career. I leave you with this: "I cannot emphasize enough the importance of a good teacher." Temple Grandin
