Thankfulness

Rather than focusing on an individual friend this week, I am going to adopt what my friend C. calls the attitude of gratitude and think/write about those school-related things for which I am thankful.

1. I am thankful to have a job I love. The stories I tell here are mostly the horror show ones, because let's face it - they are the most entertaining to retell. What I don't write about are the moments of joy, like when Thing One wraps his arms around me, bats those navy-blue peepers, and says adoringly "I looooooovvvveeee you Mrs. Kindergarten!" Or the stunned happiness on the face of Southern Belle when she realizes she just read that word by herself and she is quickly becoming a reader, just like her adored and idolized big cousin. I know that in our country there are millions of people who get up each day and drag themselves to jobs they detest, just to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. I am so lucky to have a job I practically skip to each morning.

2. I am thankful that we are in the part of the year where the kids know the rules, the routines, the procedures, the daily schedule and I can relax a little and be sure if I steal 5 minutes of centers time to clear some papers off my desk they will continue to (for the most part) play nicely even though I am not hovering right there.

3. I am thankful that I work in a school where we don't have a lot of drugs or violence. My school feels safe, for both students and teachers.

4. I am thankful that my grade level team gets along relatively well and we have very little infighting and absolutely no tattling on each other to the principal. There have been big personality issues in some of the upper grades in the last few years, and big dramatic blow outs between teachers that echoed down to the lower halls. The kindergarten teachers might get impatient with each other occasionally and disagree over this or that, but for the most part we work really hard to keep it pleasant and cooperative within our team.

5. I am thankful for one particular team member, who always sits next to me at staff meetings so we can trade whispered snarky comments about the administration and the utter farce that is NCLB. On the surface we have absolutely nothing in common - she's almost 10 yrs younger than me, single, childless, very dedicated to her church, very outgoing where I tend to be somewhat shy and reserved. But we have a very similar sarcastic sense of humor and we just click somehow. To the point that if the team has to break down into smaller groups to work on a project she and I always latch onto each other. We aren't BFF, but you might think that if you saw us at school!

6. I am thankful for a support staff - lunch ladies, custodians, secretaries - that do an awesome job keeping our school running day in and day out. The custodian on our hall is an older black man with a James Earl Jones voice and shoulder length dreads. He stands out just a bit in our white-bread midwestern town! I'm going to call him Edgar - obviously not his real name, but close enough. My younger son, Robby, ADORES him and follows him around every afternoon "helping". Edgar is so tolerant of this - surprisingly tolerant for a man who has no children and told me once he always knew he didn't want kids - and "pays" Robby in mini Hershey's bars for turning the vacuum on and off and putting the trash cans back after Edgar has emptied them. Robby thinks he wants to be Mr. Edgar when he grows up!

7. I am thankful for the wonderful teachers who have my sons in their classes this year. Will, my eternal pessimist, has always hated anyplace he had to go that wasn't home. Hated going to his grandma's house when she babysat him, hated going to the daycare after grandma got too sick to babysit any longer, hated preschool, hated kindergarten.... see a pattern? However he L-O-V-E-S first grade and I lay most of the change of heart squarely at the feet of his energetic, funny, wonderful teacher. They have just clicked, in a way he never has with any teacher/caregiver before, and he is having a stellar year. I am so grateful for Mrs. First Grade and the bubbly way she interacts with my Eyore boy! As for Robby, the eternal Mr. Sunshine in our family, I knew he would have a good year. His preschool teacher is a friend of mine, a very loving, organized, cheerleader of a teacher and Robby has taken to her like a duck to water. He also loves school and I think he has a little crush on Mrs. Preschool as well!

So that's the short list of things I am thankful for at school. Of course, I have to admit, I'm also thankful for the long holiday weekend coming up!