Saturday, January 24, 2015

The Biggest Loser


For some strange reason I was laying in bed thinking about dresses.  I don't own many dresses and the few I do own are all different sizes reflective of (how shall I say this?)  how large or small I have been throughout my life. Even though I have donated a lot of my clothes from time to time, for some reason I still have different sized dresses hanging in my closet.  The problem is they simply don't fit.

I'm beginning to think this describes me teaching third grade. Like my dresses, I have taught a lot of different grades. I've actually taught all grades from kindergarten to fifth.  And like my dresses I have loved them all.  Except for this one!

If I may be honest this has been a difficult change for me: moving from fifth to third grade.  When I think about the other times I have switched grades, they were gradual changes.  I didn't notice them as much.  I moved up or down 1 grade at a time.  From first to kindergarten, K back to first, then K-1, even K-1-2, I skipped third, then fourth and fifth before moving down to third.  Without revealing my actual dress size, it was pretty much the same with my dresses.  I moved up or down just a little so the difference wasn't that noticeable.  I transitioned into each new grade level (like my dresses) smoothly.  So when I thought about going down to third grade, I thought that transition would be just as smooth. . . Easy Peasy. . . WRONG!

It's a whole lot harder to move down 2 dress sizes than it is to go up one!  You've got to change things to be successful: your eating habits, exercise more . . . .  And that takes work!  So with third-grade, I have had to change how I do some things.  Nothing drastic, but still changes needed to be made to make that dress fit comfortably.

I've changed things like only eating snacks at tables.  That "working snack" thing did not work! Wrappers were left here and there . . . crumbs on the floor.   And calling one table at a time to come to the carpet instead of the whole group or saying the "Word of the Day" as a signal to move from one place to another.

Maybe I'm thinking about this because it's time to fill out the form to say what position I would love to have next year and it would be so easy to slip back into that larger dress size.  It's so comfy!  But would it be the best?  I must say, there are some days this third-grade dress fits much better than others.

I think I'll keep working out to make it a comfortable fit. . .

Goodbye!

Wow! I can’t believe I have not posted anything this entire school year! I’m not sure what that means. I have decided that I will be retir...