Monday challenge

At least it's the LAST MONDAY before a much-needed Winter Break! Believe me, I am counting the days til a 2 week vacation from work, 9th graders, and annoying co-workers.
It finally snowed here last night- bringing the temperature gage up to a balmy 25 degrees for today... which surprisingly doesn't ache in the bones as bad as the 9 degree weather we were experiencing last week. At least now I can wear my cute maternity sweater dresses and not freeze my tush off! (Which I did take a 19 week pic of this morning... will upload and share later!)
We did, however, watch an awesome presentation today as a school. It is called Rachel's Challenge, and it was started by the family of Rachel Scott, the first student killed at Columbine High School back in 1999. Rachel would have been the exact same age as I am- and her message of spreading kindness and compassion, one person at a time, really hit me. I was really inspired by how much she felt and how deep she thought about impacting the world with the simple act of kindness at such a young age. I hope the impact the presentation had on me affected my students the same way. I hope my students can think about how they treat one another- and be compassionate that everyone comes to school with a different set of problems weighing them down each day- and that they are expected to get beyond those problems to be a "normal" high school student.
The presentation made me really regret the times I was not kind as a teenager. I remember being hurtful to my peers- and I remember people being hurtful to me. I hope that by telling my students this- we really opened up some good dialogue in class today- that they will be impacted and make a difference. It really makes you think about what you say and how you say it- I especially feel this being a teacher, and being a teacher of impressionable 9th graders.

One thing Rachel's Challenge challenges people to do is write down their goals. Since being married to KK, I have never sat down to write goals that I want to accomplish in my life. Nor have we discussed goals for our marriage and family.Tonight when we have dinner, this is a discussion I am planning to have with him (he was at the presentation too- I'm excited to hear his thoughts!)
I really encourage you to go to the Rachel's Challenge website and see this amazing girl's mission. It surely brought a new light to the holiday season- and reminded me to treat ALL people (especially my students) with kindness and compassion- every single day.