I'm back!

I'm back to teaching full time again next week!
This time of year is the best part of the school year. They're largely independent, today I gave them a fairly vague social studies project, told them to make me proud, and they're off. There's been hardly a peep in my room for over an hour as they dive into their project.

This is also the time of year when they really start to gel as a class. Sure, there's still the, "Miss L., can't you do something about her, she's driving me nuts!" But now's the time when we've gotten to know each other well, and there's a level of comfort that causes individual personalitites to shine and be appreciated by classmates. Even if it's something a little goofy.

M. is the boy who never finishes a thought. Smart as a whip, always has his hand up in class, but inevitably when you call on him he says, ".....i forgot." Just now he came over to ask a question. Went like this, "Miss L., when we read our books and we're taking notes, can we........I forgot." The cool thing is, everyone else knows this about M., and loves it. It makes us smile in the midst of an otherwise boring essay that the delightful state of Michigan tells us we must write. Another student tells me M. is contagious today when she forgets what she wanted to say. It's just one of the things that makes this one kid unique, in a class full of unique kids.

Thinking about how much I enjoy all (well, almost all) of the kids in this class makes me think about my Father, and how He must feel, watching us, His kids. Obviously our sin doesn't please Him, but I have to wonder if he looks at our little personality quirks and just grins. Probably even more than that, cause he's the one who created us with these little foibles and idiosyncracies that make us who we are. And maybe, just like my class does with M., the rest of us in God's family can give some grace when those quirks show up; maybe we can remember to smile and value what God's uniquely created.