Distractions...

I made the mistake of responding to my peers' blogs before writing my own, so I have few new ideas to post here. Instead, I will simply say that today has been one of distractions for me. During lunch, I got an email that led to a "discussion" with my husband about finances (never a fun topic). I couldn't concentrate on our inquiry time because I was checking our account and playing with numbers, worried about when paychecks come and when bills are due. My brain is tired and stretched (in a good way) from the extraordinary amount of information we have chewed and swallowed and tried to digest over the past week. I haven't been sleeping well because we are trying to keep our AC higher than normal. I got another email reminding me of important things I still need to do this weekend (other than prep for my demo) for some grant writing I am organizing...

I am not posting this for sympathy or to vent; I have absolutely nothing to complain about (mine are first-world problems). I am simply attempting to be honest about my thinking and writing. In trying to come up with something clever or brilliant to say in this post, I am reminded of my students who have true distractions in their lives that sometimes keep them from writing when prompted or turning in an assignment or even being able to learn for that day or week or month or year. One of my students was the eldest of six, and when his father had a near-fatal heart attack, he was left to help his mom around the house with his younger siblings. One of my students had a mother who was constantly drunk or high and could not bring her daughter to school on time, forcing her to miss my first period class consistently and eventually fail. One of my students came from a family that sometimes could not put enough food on the table or buy a winter coat. One of my students watched her mom pass away before being forced to move to a different school because of a custody battle. These are the "distractions" that I need to watch for as I attempt to be the most effective and compassionate teacher that I can be, the distractions I need to be sensitive about before I automatically snap at a lazy student or a sleeping student or a late student. Yes, teenagers will manipulate the system. Yes, students will lie to your face. But I can at least try to give them the benefit of the doubt before narrating their lives with one story...