Starting
over. Nobody likes do it. But unfortunately (or fortunately) we all do at one
point in our life or another. Starting
over seems to be a theme in our lives lately. Maybe it’s our age, or the season of our
lives, but whatever the reason starting over is what the theme has become in my
family this year.
It’s not something I mind too much or
become worried about. Maybe it’s
the teacher in me that acknowledges and welcomes the chance to start over. It’s a time to try again or sometimes
try something wholly different. I’ve become accustomed to starting lesson
plans over. I often start over with new teaching skills and strategies. I
sometimes even completely start over from the very (or new beginning) the next
day when things don’t
go as well as I’d
hoped.
We have to.
As teachers if we see our kiddos struggling or trying to grasp a concept we don’t have the luxury of saying “oh well.” We start again. We find that method
or “thing” that will help the kiddos understand
and “get” what they need to, sometimes it’s in one or two tries, sometimes it’s in twenty.
I think
starting over gives us a chance to rewrite us. It gives us a chance to put on
the slate of our composition the things we hope to be, and then decide what we
need to show to others. It gives us that fresh new blank start to a whole new
beginning.
Summer is
that welcomed time before starting over. It’s my time to reflect and relive the
things that worked and the things that didn’t. It gives me the chance to sort
out in my mind and on paper how I want my new beginning, my fresh start of a
new school season to play out. Sometimes Donnie will look at me and ask “what’s wrong?” He says I look as though I’m mad or looking through him. What
he doesn’t realize is I’m replaying the moments in my school
year that I want to give a fresh start to next year. It’s not that I’m not listening to him-I’m just starting over in my mind the
school year I just left behind. J How do I explain that??
This year
everyone in my family has had a taste at starting over. My son and daughter in
law both moved to exciting new jobs. My daughter moved to a new state and a new
teaching job, her boyfriend graduated college and started a new job. And Donnie
lost his job of twenty plus years and started a new one. That’s a lot of change. That’s a lot of new pages to fill up and begin again. That’s a lot of starting overs.
Soon it’ll be my turn to start over with a
new group of kiddos and a bucket full of ideas I’ve been turning over in my mind.
I can hardly
wait.