Sour Lemonade

      This past week was like walking on eggshells. Waiting for something to happen, having to hold off something you're doing based upon what one person says or do. I've had to be very careful not to stress myself out or get upset about little things I have no control over. Remember how I said I was scrambling to find a ride? Well, I luckily found one. The downside was that I woke up the next day and I felt immensely sick. I didn't know it I had contracted a stomach bug or was just nervous. As irony will have it, it was in fact nerves. And with even more luck, I was able to observe in my classroom the next day, complete nausea - free.
      Working with my special education student as well as some of the other students in the class was a completely different experience for me. I got to talk to them and they were reading to me books they had selected for Reading Day. My student was very sweet and adorable, but he was misbehaving a little when we were playing a game with two other boys. The game is called "Sour Lemonade," where students pull a card out of a bag and read the word on the card. If they can read it, they keep it. The person with the most cards at the end of the game wins. My student kept wanting a turn when it wasn't his time to draw a card, and sometimes he would reach his hand into the bag and pull out a card anyway. The classroom aid told me that I shouldn't be afraid to let them know who was the boss, but I had never disciplined a child in my life. I didn't know where the boundary was between disciplining and just being mean.
      I myself am a very laid back person, and usually, if something isn't bothering me, I don't try to stop it otherwise. I don't know if my student took me seriously or not
      Despite my laid back approach to discipline, the day was an overall success. I managed to enjoy myself and I was reminded why I wanted to enter the teaching profession. I now know that I'll have to get used to disciplining my students when they misbehave, but I have to remember my reasons for doing so.