Sheila Sims Iding
I learned from being a serious athlete the one way to keep improving is take the weakest part of your game and find a way to make it stronger. Then that part of your game isn’t the weakest anymore and you find the next weak thing and make that stronger. Always in an effort to keep improving and be the best you can be.
I found it the same with teaching. What part of my game was weakest? What part needed improving? What part needs attention the most? The answer to these questions would be “several”. There is always something to do to improve a lesson plan, a themed unit, a classroom management issue, a teaching philosophy. Always. That is why teachers love post-it notes. There is usually a post-it note on a lesson, a project, a book, a plan with a way to make it better next year.
So in looking for the weakest link in my teaching scheme (and there were lots to choose from), I discovered last year I do everything I can with these kids. We pray, read, write, sing and dance together. Almost everyday. We smile, giggle, laugh and get weepy together. Almost everyday (except for the weepy part.) We imagine, discover and wonder together. Almost everyday.
What is the missing part? Play. We don’t PLAY together. Oh yes…there are the flashcard games, the iPad games, sight word bingo and there is even hopscotch math. Imagination Station allows for play. The puppets allow for some play and that fun squishy ball makes fun play of word or math games. We “play” the Saint Game and Around the World for math. All types of play but not a “playdate” play.
The idea was born out of our Mileage Club fitness activity last spring. I would walk with the kids outside one day a week at recess and they LOVED it. A teacher came outside and was on the playground with them. Many teachers did it. And we didn’t really “play”. We walked the route with them to gain miles for our Mileage Club card. And the kids loved it and so did I.
The activity took me back to my childhood. Now…I am old but I am not THAT old…but I grew up in a rural area (Aurelius…south of Mason) and I went to a country school. A one-room schoolhouse with grades beginners thru 8th…then beginners through 5th. I love that they called it “beginners” and not kindergarten. And I love that each row was a grade and that my sisters were always just a few “grades” away from me in the classroom.
But what I really loved was Mrs. Droscha. The more I teach the more I admire what she did. Teaching 9 grades at once?? In two separate rooms?
All those kids! All those parents! All those lesson plans! How did she do it? She didn’t do “it”…she did EVERYTHING (which sounds like a future blog dedicated to her). Anyway…the one thing she did was recess with us. She had to. Who else was there? And when I was walking with the kids last year I remember how Mrs. Droscha played with us. Swings in the warm weather. Fox and Geese in the winter. And at age 57 I still remember my teacher played with me. And there was my weakest link. I didn’t PLAY with the kids.
So…in an effort to make it better, I decided to go to recess one day a week. It’s not that easy. Just to say you will go to recess. I work my lunch hours. I use them to answer emails, get homework around for sick kids and take care of group stuff from the morning and reset the room for the afternoon. Oh…I eat some food too. I don’t miss many meals. And…I sometimes talk to Tim before he goes to bed in China. But still…that recess time is productive time for me and to sacrifice it meant…well…a sacrifice.
The other hard part…which doesn’t seem hard…was what to call it? It had to have a catchy name (doesn’t everything in first grade?) and it had to be for the kids. It had to be about the kids. So…thinking like a first grader…I tried to think about them playing with their friends and one of the most exciting things they do is have “playdates”. They even pray about them. For my “playdate” in two days with Susie. For my “playdate” at my neighbor’s house. Playdates rival lost teeth in first grade.
So the name was set and so was the new improvement plan. I would have “Playdate Tuesdays” with the kids. Every Tuesday I would go out to recess and PLAY with the kids. Oh my stars…how much fun is that? There were risks and perks involved.
The risks: What if no one played with me? Really…I mean…they have their friends, their usually recess activities and their routines. What if the teacher was boring and no one wanted to play with me? What if I became the playground monitor? It’s funny that I had the same fear many kids have. No one would play with me at recess. That was a new perspective that would improve my teaching too.
The perks: The laughs, the giggles, the hugs…and that was just me. It’s was double the fun when the kids did it too. We play soccer and football and jump rope. The boys even asked to borrow my pink football on the days I don’t go out. How fun is that? The other perks are the 2nd graders. My Care Corner Kids from last year that I get to visit with, catch up with and PLAY with. They even pass me in the hall and say see you tomorrow on Playdate day.
So…you make the effort. You take the weak link of your game and you find a way to make it better. You hope it improves things. You hope it makes a difference. You hope it means something to the kids and adds something to our time together. But you never know for sure. Until yesterday.
At our team meeting at the end of the day I was telling the kids that I would be gone for a doctor appointment today. They know a little bit about the trouble I have had with my eye because of all the appointments I have had. But when I told them I had to be gone all day, they were so sweet. They asked why I couldn’t come back for part of the day. So I explained it was a long appointment and the special drops make it hard to see and that I wouldn’t be in all day because the doctor needed me to be there for so long so he could do a really good check up and help my eye get better.
Then came the question. A little girl raised her hand and asked “Does the doctor know that Tuesday is “Playdate Day”? Can you go another day instead? And then I knew. Then I knew the weakest link had gotten stronger and served the purpose. With one question I knew the activity put in place to improve my teaching…the concept developed to make a difference and even the name chosen to give it meaning…now had purpose. And when they were sad I would miss Playdate Tuesday, I realized then exactly what I had hope…Playdates…they really do make it better.