Today was a good day

Today was a good day. Everything did not go right. Everything did not go as planned. It was not a perfect day. But today. I had experiences that balanced the negatives and gave me reasons in my heart to rejoice.

This is my week to have hallway duty, observing/monitoring kids in the hall, helping regulate noise and activity. And there's a kid. A kid I want to "reach." But I don't know him too well yet. I just keep trying to take down a brick at a time as I interact with him every chance I get. Today in the hall, he didn't read, which is the expectation. But he DID listen when I asked him to move away from a posse of boys that would likely equal trouble for this boy. So I gave him a link for our positive behavior chain. And I said something encouraging like, "keep it up buddy!" or some such similar phrase.

Then I saw this guy at our lunch recess. And he came running up to me and hugged me. tight. and I felt so happy. I had made it past the wall around his heart.

Poor guy. He just was not having a successful day. moody. angry. sulking. it's a razor thin edge. trying to walk it and and reach out and not push a kid over in the wrong direction, trying to pull them back from the places we don't want our kids to land. So I reached out. Again. and again. No less than 3 times in that 15 minute recess. *sigh*

But we part ways, I with my class, him with a helper sent to get him to come back inside. Well, I did what I could at the time. It matters. i think.

 Now my class is headed to library. There's my friend in the hall. He looks directionless. He looks disheartened. "What's up dude?" "Nothin'. Sometimes my teacher lets me go for a walk to calm down." "Oh, are you having a bad day?" head nod. I say "yeah, I get it, sometimes it helps me to take a walk too. Do you want to hang out with us? I can ask your sub if you can come with us." I know that this guy isn't going to be in his realm academically in my room. I also know he isn't getting what he needs if he's out in hall. His eyes light up, he says, "I'll come with you guys." I say, "how about after library? I'll go check with the sub." I go talk to her. She is okay with it. I plan to go back to my class and be open to accepting my friend after library. But he's waiting. He wants to come to library with us. (insert shoulder shrug) "Okay" I say. He comes into the library with me. I send a note to his teacher so she knows where he is.

He helps, he assists, he does whatever my kids do.

We focused on some random kindness today. Peeps with a special bag topper that we made with love. And my friend made his for me. I feel so special.

Today was a good day. It was not perfect. Well, wait a minute, it came pretty close to perfect. I reached a kid, and I was appreciated in return. Life is good.