Teaching Week 7 - Thursday 4/18/2008

The girls have really been wanting to go back to the park, and not all of them were here when we came over the other time. They were very keyed up the whole day. We had a pretty good little writing session during the first hour, about the magical horses they'd drawn earlier in the day, but it sort of fell apart once we got to the park.

They were reading from some lists we created of things that look at them from above and below and at the same level when I took this shot. We were going to then write a little story using one of each type of word.

Were going to. But one of the girls had brought a camera with her. And it went missing. After about ten minutes of looking for it, one girl admitted she had hidden it. I was really miffed and told her she had just wasted our time. I think I communicated this in a way that said, this is disappointing rather than anything near "you are a bad person." I think it's the first time I have been really cross with them. I didn't flip out, but I was clearly a little fed up.

But the very good thing about this was that unlike Week Three, I didn't feel that I had failed them hugely. I realized it was more their ability to pay attention than anything I was doing. Mags told me it would be like this, but it takes experience to truly understand it.



On the way out of the stable after the class I noticed this hoof print. I think I am making a similarly faint impression on the class. Being able to say small encouraging things to one or the other of them each week and to see the pleasure on her face that an adult has noticed her uniqueness is a wonderful experience.