Happiness Is...

Just some rambling thoughts tonight....

I loved teaching.  I absolutely loved it.  The great thing about teaching, in general, is that you can do it all the time.  Right?  Every day there are teaching opportunities.  I teach Sammy.  I teach Callie.  I teach in Primary.  I teach Marcus how to make a grilled cheese! :)  But what I'm referring to is teaching in a classroom.

I didn't teach in the high school very long.  I had 2 good years before I was married, big with child, and then a stay-at-home mom.  It was always my plan to stop teaching when I had kids, but I had no idea how difficult it would be to leave.  I didn't know how much I would love teaching and interacting with those kids.  I love teenagers.  I love English.  I love literature.  I love reading.  I love writing.  I love creativity.  I love words.  I love music and lyrics (as a side note: I also love the movie Music & Lyrics. I happen to think it's hilarious.  You may disagree.  We can still be friends.).  I love poetry.  I love learning.  I love it all and I love combining all those loves together.

So, when I was teaching, I was able to throw myself into that world and mix it all together.  I was teaching juniors in high school about stuff I loved.  Not surprisingly, I learned so much from them.  And what was one of the best parts was when concepts started to click for them...when I could see it in their eyes, or read it on the page...when their pens were working so fast and they didn't want to stop writing to listen to the next set of instructions.  That should have been annoying, but I kind of loved it.

I no longer "teach."  What I have begun to do is tutor.  I enjoy the interaction I get, one on one, with students.  There is a far different energy when you work 1 on 1, but I still love when I see progress.

Tonight, I met with one of my students who struggles with identifying themes.  He's very literal, and so it's difficult for him to extract what the author is getting across.  Tonight, we used Aesop's fables to find the moral, the lesson to be learned, etc.  And he was getting it.  I was getting excited.  And after when he said he was feeling a lot more comfortable with it, I was excited!  We're ready to move on to the next step.  I love helping him and seeing his progress.  I love that!

There are areas in my life, other than teaching, where I can see that something I've done has positively influence change and progress.  As a mother and wife, I get excited when one of the girls does something as a result of something I have taught them.  And I hope that they will be excited when they see that something they have done positively influences me.

Below is a video from Music & Lyrics.  I last saw this movie, ohhh, at least 3 years ago and this song still gets stuck in my head!


Seriously, how can you not think this is fantastic?  ahhhh  Oozing with cheese!