Well, yesterday I said goodbye to my 8th graders for this year. It was a very interesting week. While little was accomplished academically, we had a lot of good experiences. On Monday, we raised $500 in 4.5 hours washing cars for Special Olympics. It was fun to watch the kids working with no gain for themselves. There were a few that really stood out as workers.
On Tuesday we had field day. We battled back from an over 80 point deficit to take the lead by 3 points with just the 8th grade boys tug-of-war to go. Unfortunately, one of our key guys got frustrated and gave up in the middle of the the tug, so we lost. It's sad to see people with talent be so immature that rather than legitimately losing, they give up in an attempt not to lose. Other than that, I saw some Cross Country prospects that I badgered all week and I think I got one to join the high school's team next year.
Thursday we took teams out in the afternoon to play Ultimate Frisbee. That was a lot of fun. I played on a team that was mostly girls, but we were undefeated with scores of 9-1, 4-2, and 15-1. All it took was a little hustle and playing together. We need to do more activities like this next year. It's amazing how we get to know the students in a different way doing things like this. In the past week, starting at Hershey Park, I got to know a few students better than I did the entire year in the classroom. There are some really neat kids out there with individual talents that may never show up in the classroom.
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