Kindergarten started today. Kindergartners alway scare me just a little. It's their first day of school, and they will always remember it. They just know so little and sometimes being their teacher can seem like an overwhelming task . But they are so cute and they will hold your hand.

Art

Sometimes it is easy to miss how much the kids are growing when you see them everyday and the changes from day to day are small and sometimes even seem to go backwards. We worked on an art lesson for the past two days and it surprised me to find that that is where they are showing signs of growing up. Allanna is suddenly drawing what she sees. Small children use symbols to represent things in their art, a yellow circle with long and short lines for a sun, a green strait line with a red circle on top for a flower and a stick person that is the same size as the flower, tree and house. But for the past two days Allanna has worked really hard on a white flower. She put in shadow and shading on the petals and left out the sun at the top of the page. She is growing up and so are all the others, and this past week, after not seeing them for a couple of months I have noticed.

First day 7th time

First day of school. New student. Old students with a new attitude. They have grown. They are confident and kind and cute and cocky. They are full of business one minute, focused and ready to face new challenges , silly and smart aleck the next.

I remind myself everyday that you have trusted me with the most valuable thing you have. I continually ask myself, "What am I really teaching them?"

When I do something for them am I telling them that they cannot do it themselves.

If I tell them "good job" when both they and I know it is not their best, am I telling them it's o.k. to be lazy.

If I forget to tell them they have done well am I telling them that what they have done is not important.

If I don't listen to them am I telling them that they aren't important.

If I let them interrupt am I telling them that other people are not important.

Every decision to do something or not to do something can seem so important, but what I really need to do today is relax and enjoy the kids, because they make me laugh everyday. And I need to remember last year when I asked Jeremy what his favorite subject was, he started with reading and didn't stop until he had named every single thing we do.

7 year niche

The start of year 7.

When you first meet someone the purpose of casual conversation is not just to find something that you have in common, but to find something to keep the conversation going. No one likes silence with a stranger.

First there's that oh so American question, "What do you do?"

"I'm a teacher."

"What grade do you teach?"

O.K. here we go, "Well I teach K-8 in a one room school up at the ski town of Alta, Utah."

"Really, How does that work?" and the conversation is off the ground.

It seems like eventually I get around to saying, "Yea, I'm the only teacher for all those grades, in fact it's only me, I'm the teacher, the school nurse, the lunch lady and sometimes even the bus driver. It's just me."

But what I have really come to appreciate over the past 6 years is that it is not just me. I teach in a community that supports the school and the children of the community in so many ways. If someone smashes finger the ski patrol will tape it up. If it is more serious the clinic helps out. The local community organizations donate time and money to our art program. Local individuals provided the funding for a computer lab. People with and without kids volunteer time everyday to help with reading, math, writing, art, music, yoga and our ski program. All the local businesses contribute financially and more than that everyone keeps an eye out. So while it is true that I am the only official teacher in this school, the entire community is contributing to these students' lives.

So as my 7th year here at Alta and the 7th year for the school begins I would be ungrateful if I were not to say thank you to everyone who has made the Alta School such a big part of the Alta community. I think maybe I have finally found my niche.