Needless to say I had a hard day on Friday. I woke up for the day to hear of passing of Craig Sager. Craig was a sideline reporter for the NBA on TNT. I’m not sure why this bothered me so much in the morning, maybe because he was a year younger than my dad, not sure.
So, I got dressed for school, ready for the day and I was up a little early because Beth wanted me to mix together a bunch of ingredients for a breakfast dish she prepared for her school “holiday” breakfast. As I was mixing the bread, eggs, pineapple, vanilla and sugar, I started to cry. Lots of tears, thinking of so many affected by cancer or a family member passing. I was sad.
I have learned the hard way to not use people’s names or talk about others in my blog entries, so I will say this, for anyone reading this anytime before the holidays whom is dealing with a tough situation in life or the loss of a loved one, I am thinking of you and I am sending you a hug through these words.
Ok, back to the story, so I went to school and the one thing that always lifts my spirits is the Eagle News broadcasts. There is something about the time from 7:40-8:10 and the show that we put together that makes me happy. Watching the students work together to get things prepared, the racing around for a piece of equipment, the last-minute addition/subtraction, etc.
Honestly, this has been more difficult because there are so many students who want to be a part of the morning news. So we decided to split up this group into three groups. Each group, every three days would be in charge of all aspects of the class. Today, my Core 4 kiddos were in charge of the news. On my way to school, I noticed that the video reports weren’t written up and the sports report wasn’t complete.
This work didn’t get finished before it was time to go live, so I canceled the news. I told our staff at Hyatts that technical difficulties wouldn’t allow us to show the news and I asked that my advisory, all eagle news students, to gather around in the room and sit in the class groupings. They thought they were going to get yelled at. They didn’t, I was sad.
I told them that I was disappointed in their lack of preparation, not just the Core 4 kids but all of them, for when I asked about who was in charge of the news today, everyone told me, “Core 4, Mr. Meta,” and went on with their lives. No one helped out Core 4. I was surprised at the lack of appreciation of the class or motivation for the ultimate goal of the class, which is the broadcast, because without a broadcast, their work on video would never be displayed.
I am 41 years old and I am a very emotional person. Most of the time I laugh, smile and be very goofy. I think that is what makes me a good teacher. But there are times when I am sad, they are few and far between and when I am, most people don’t know what do when I am not the “happy go lucky” Mr. Meta. I sat there in front of those kids and I cried, I cried so much and I cried because I was sad, I cried because I see it in these students, most of them, that they want to do good-by me, the class and the school and that didn’t happen today.
I cried because the students in Eagle News tell me that they hear rumblings from the other 8th grade students that Eagle News, “should be cancelled” or other negative things that just hurt them to hear. I’m not sure how often this happens, but today, as I was speaking to my students, those hurt feelings that my students have when they hear this negativity, all piled up into a bunch of sad tears for me, because there is nothing that I can do to stop people from saying negative things about the work that we do for a broadcast for 1000 people everyday. That is the difference from our class and every other class. It is a part of our learning, being able to hear and accept any form of criticism.
So, why did I thank Gracie at the title of this post. That is coming soon, but the rest of the day went really well, with a lot of good work throughout the day and I was happy for a good day at Hyatts.
Until I got home.
You see, most days after school are reserved for appointments on Monday and Tuesday for EmmeClaire, and Wednesday and Thursday for Adam. Friday is a day of rest, but there usually is something to do that needs to be done after school and this Friday was no different. But I eventually got home, at 5:35 after getting both kids, running to the library and picking up dinner. In fact, as the kids at dinner, I made peanut clusters in the crock pot, which is easy to make but I had to keep mixing the chocolate and then make the clusters….they are GOOD!
But I got a text from Mrs. Byard, a 7th grade teacher at Hyatts, and when I got the text I just thought she was going to say something goofy about missing “Chocolate Covered Anything Day” during Eagle News. She didn’t. She sent me a picture of a program that made my sad Friday sooooooooooooo much better. It was a student bio in a Columbus Children’s Theatre program from one my hardest working students, Gracie.
Gracie is playing the part of Alice Wendleken in The Best Christmas Paegant Ever and this weekend is the final weekend for the play. I had talked about this with Gracie and how excited I was for her and how excited I was to go see it! I had run into Gracie when she was in Mr. Scrooge last year and I was so happy to see her in it! I didn’t pay attention to the play at all because I was only watching Gracie act! I started the recruitment of Gracie for Eagle News right away, although I don’t think I needed to. She had been telling me she was going to be in Eagle News since 6th Grade.
So back to the picture that Mrs. Byard sent me. I cropped out the first line of the bio, for it had Gracie’s last name on it. Go ahead and read it…..
Ok, I am crying again. I am crying because, as a teacher, I have dreamed and dreamed and dreamed of having the impact on a kid that he/she would remember me and the work that we did/doing to mention me and Gracie did just that! I read that text and this was my “Mr. Holland’s Opus” moment. Thank you, Gracie.
But, I read it in a text. Because of my busy schedule with life, I didn’t get a chance to see Gracie in this wonderful production. That is why the title says, “I’m Sorry.”
I’m so sorry, Gracie. I owe you more than that as a teacher. I let you down and I promise I won’t ever do that again to a student of mine. I am so proud of you and I hope you will forgive me.
Ok, I can’t type anymore, I am crying too much.
Good job, kiddo, do great this weekend!
Mr. Meta
Mr. Meta's World 