Relationships

  As a teacher I feel I do a fair job of developing relationships with my students and many times their families as well.  I believe making a connection with a student allows you to ask much more from them than they might give you if they are just a number in your classroom.  I foster this by very quickly learning everyone's name and taking time for them to journal and share about themselves as well as allowing them to ask questions about me throughout the year.  I feel it is a great use of time when you have one minute till the bell.   I am also a big story teller and most of my students when crossing paths with me in life will mention their favorite story and/or some random fact about me or my wife and/or kids.  Its funny what they remember or found interesting, but the fact that they do remember tells me the relationship was solid.   I believe throughout the years this has allowed not only for my students to develop a solid relationship with me, but friendships were allowed to blossom in my classroom as students learned more about each other and find connections with others as well.

This weekend I had the opportunity to hang out for a short time with some amazing women, most of whom were former students and basketballers.  They were on a yearly vigil in remembrance of their friend Jenni Sanders, another wonderful young lady and former student/player of mine, that lost her battle with cancer in 2010. This group of Jenni's friends have worked together to raise thousands of dollars with their Relay for Life team Jenni's Girls (click the link on there team name it's not too late to donate.)   I am so proud of these women (it really hard for me to not still see them as anything but tweens sitting and giggling in my classroom, but I digress).  They have a strong bond among the group.  I know of many times they have depended on each other in numerous situations.  I know any one of them could pick up the phone and whoever was on the other end would be there to help.  They value relationships and it was fun to visit and reminisce with them and know maybe I had a very small part in them coming together as such loving and caring adults.  Truth be told, each one of them have great parents that instilled this value, but I still like to think I had a small part.

It's relationships like this that will keep me going in my journey.  The desire to continue the relationships I have developed and to see what new relationships will form on this journey and  through this blog that will drive me toward the goals I have set, and hopefully these relationships will help not only me reach my goals, but will inspire many to reach for their goals as well.