I remember seeing a while ago a message on how important our words are. If you take a tube of toothpaste and squeeze it out, you can do it fairly quick. However, putting the toothpaste back into the tube is a little harder...in fact, I do believe, almost impossible. Just like our words - we can say them, but they are hard to take back.
Today was one of the hardest things I've had to do before. My students came back from inside recess, but several students had to stay in and finish up some late work. Two of the three remembered...but one forgot. This was not his first time forgettting...however, I lost my cool when he came back and the one word I said to him was a very strong GO. My heart broke when I saw the change in his face. I knew as soon as the word left, how awful it sounded and that I couldn't take it back. But what I could do was apologize. I pulled him aside and apologized. I explained that I was frustrated and that I had snapped, but that I shouldn't have raised my voice.
I feel like this year, I have done a better job of not snapping at students. I know we're all human and we do it, but that doesn't give me an excuse. It shows me that I've come a ways, but yet I have far to go. I want students to remember me for loving them and teaching them, not snapping and raising my voice.
Tomorrow is a new day and one where I can choose to love students and take a moment and remember that they are kids!
4 comments:
So interesting! Today I had to apologize to one of my students for maybe being a little angrier than I should have been. Gosh darn it he was wrestling on the floor and broke one of my book bins! We are human, but it was hard to apologize. I understand your grief!
Go easy.
We've all had days like that, when words snap out of our mouths and we wish we could reel them back in.
It reminds us of how important what we say is to our students, though.
Today will be better -- I am sure.
Kevin
...but how cool that you realized it right away and apologized to him? I think of all the times as a kid that an adult did something wrong that made my face fall, but never admitted their failure. Instead, he got to see that yes, adults screw up sometimes, and we need to apologize, too - even to (especially to) kids! What an example of how to take care of people's feelings when you've hurt them!
I agree with 'anonymous' ... it's really key that you saw it right away and apologized. I think it's good for kids to see that we (the grown ups) aren't perfect, that we don't always get things right ... but that we know how to fix mistakes.
--Stacie
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