Bare Necessities

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.  Thomas Haynes Bayly may have made this phrase popular, but I associate a different meaning to this old cliché than distant relationships with people.  I’m referring to the simple bare necessities of life such as running water, a healthy stomach, and unlocking doors.  Now that these things have resumed their normal positions in my life, I can merrily sing along with Baloo.      

One of the neat things about my new school is that every student has a mentor teacher for the year (hopefully all three years if the teacher stays).  I will have 13 kids that I get to meet with outside of class to get to know on a deeper level.  Some teachers may look at this as another task to complete, but I look at this as an opportunity to invest in students’ lives beyond just my subject area. 

We had a training session for being a mentor, and we got to role-play with puppets!  The puppet I chose was a dog/ferret type creature and the problem I drew (I was the mentee) was that I liked a boy but didn’t know how to talk to him.  My “mentor” (Valeria) chose a witch puppet and her problem was that she liked to hug and hang on the mentee (which in moderation is perfectly good here).  The fact that Val’s puppet was a witch was that much more disturbing!  It was hilarious!

Classes start tomorrow and I get to meet my kids.  From my limited encounters with them earlier this week, I’m really looking forward to getting to know these students.