‘Most games are lost, not won‘ ~ Casey Stengel.

It’s that time of year. All manner of sports are culminating in that one final Saturday (or Sunday, but Saturday seems to be the cultural, ideological ‘day’ for stuff like this, so let’s not bicker, eh?) when two teams meet for one final, ultimate gladiatorial contest to see who earns the right to hold aloft that premiership token at the end.

Yes, it’s Grand Final season, and all over the place various sports have been winding up with grand final matches played on various weekends. Junior footy has drawn to a close, the netball season has concluded last weekend, and soccer and baseball wind up this weekend.

The last three weeks I’ve been to catch a few of them. Some of the boys from previous years kept me relatively up to date with their footy team’s progress, and three weeks ago I heard they had won their first final by a point. Their reward? A play off to reach the grand final the week after. Against a team they were fully expecting to be belted by. So I wandered down to watch them play a final and that would be that.

But they won. They held them out from the beginning and were never headed, and won their way into the grand final by five points. Yes, that stuffed up my following Saturday.

They played off the following week (half the kids missing for training because we sent the 5/6 grade to camp for the week!) in the grand final against the team that has been undefeated all season. And were done by eleven goals. In fact, their only goal came in the last quarter, but did we cheer it home when it sailed through!

You don’t go to watch the kids win, you go to watch them play.

So this morning, football over for the year, one of my class kids made it through to the soccer grand final. They were going for back to back premierships. I don’t particularly enjoy soccer, but I like the kid, so I wandered in to have a look.

A nil all draw at full time, so five minutes either end to decide the premiership.

Ten minutes later, nil all draw again, so both teams were awarded the joint premiership instead. To me, a suitable conclusion. Neither team deserved to lose after such a game, although they’ll need to get a second cup and set of medallions.

Sometimes victory is not letting the other bloke win.

Which brings us to tomorrow… a few of the kids play their baseball grand finals. I’ll have to find out Monday morning how they fare though. Father’s Day is tomorrow, and I doubt I could adequately explain to the old man why a bunch of 9 year olds pushed him out on his special day.

‘It isn’t the size of the gift that matters, but the size of the heart that gives it’.

~ Quoted in The Angels’ Little Instruction Book by Eileen Elias Freeman, 1994.

Lunchtime had just finished today and we’d started our afternoon session. I’d sorted my kids out, packed them up and sent them on their way to Rotations. They’d visit two other rooms this afternoon for two different activities, and in return I’d have two different grades for music. We chanted rhythms and sang a few songs about Dads because it’s Father’s Day soon.

In rocks the kid I watch (and occasionally drive to and fro) at basketball with a plastic bag from the shop.

‘Okay, I’ll bite. What have you got there?’

‘This is for you, Mr V. Happy birthday!’

‘Um, mate… my birthday was a month ago now…’

‘Yeah, but I didn’t get a chance to get you something. So here it is.’

So in front of someone else’s grade I opened my belated birthday present (or, more accurately, pulled them out of the plastic bag. An Essendon Football Club key ring and an Essendon Football Club number plate surround for my car. He scampered back off to his own class again shortly afterwards.

It’s been two years since I taught him in grade four. It’s going to be bittersweet to see him graduate at the end of the year. With a bit of luck though he’ll still get me a basketball timetable for next year.

But first, I’ll have to watch his next game tomorrow night, eh?

‘You don’t have to brush your teeth – just the ones you want to keep.’ – Author Unknown

‘A good friend is cheaper than therapy.’ – Author Unknown

Had my first tooth pulled today.

Now, I haven’t been to the dentist in about sixteen years. Never a filling, never a toothache. Once I had the braces removed I pretty much abandoned all interest in ever setting foot into another dental clinic of any sort again. And until February, I didn’t.

Now, sixteen years is not bad, I reckon, for looking after your teeth on your own. Not bad at all. At least, until a few of them started to fall apart on my while I was eating about a year or so back. I pondered the problem for a few weeks as I continued to find little bits of enamel in my dinner, but before too long they seemed to stop disintegrating, and even better, they didn’t ache or hurt. So I ignored them.

Then I noticed another threatening to do the same. So I bit the bullet (pardon the pun), and wandered into the local dentist clinic I hadn’t set foot in for the better part of sixteen years. I wasn’t even on their records any more!

They couldn’t fit me in for about six months, so I wandered down the street to the next clinic and asked about a check up.

‘When was your last one?’ they asked.

‘Aw, really early nineties?’ I answered.

‘And you still have your teeth?’

They fit me in and I had a check up. Short story was, two had to be pulled, and three had to be filled. I thought that was a pretty good score considering the time between visits and my irregular brushing. So I made the appointments and finally had the first last week to put three fillings in. Unfortunately, then they noticed there were two more fillings to be done and a third tooth to be pulled. Bugger.

So I wandered in this afternoon to have the next appointment. Fill another tooth, and pull the first one out. I wasn’t too concerned now about the filling and the needles – they’ve improved since the last time I had one in my mouth, but the extraction was concerning me if I’m honest. I asked him to talk me through it, but I figured I’d only feel uncomfortable and hear the odd crack and splintering sound. Any aches would come after the happy juice had worn off.

Short story again, it came out before I realised it as I didn’t actually feel it come loose. Yes, I felt the wriggling and levering and rocking stuff as my head rolled from side to side, and at one point I was concerned he would stretch the corner of my mouth too far and it would get the dental equivalent of a hamstring tear, but it was quite a simple procedure.

I wandered out able to talk with no pain and only half a box of tissues jammed in the hole in the back of my mouth.

So I wandered into the shopping centre for a quick browse because you don’t drive into town with petrol the way it is without making at least some effort to make it worth your while, eh?

Which is when I ran into one of the kids. Not just any kid from school, the little feller from the basketball team. By the way, they lost the grand final the other week. It’s a shame, but you don’t win them all. If you did, you’d have no reason to play, eh?

Now, most kids when they see a teacher will do one of two things. Wave with a slightly awkward, nervous smile, sometimes with a slight hint of guilt, or look the other way and hope to hell you haven’t seen them. Well, this kid’s different, at least when it comes to me, I suppose.

He ran half way around the plaza to catch me, grinning like a Cheshire Cat, to rabbit on about the things he’d just bought with his family and we wandered back to the checkout. After all, we hadn’t caught up with each other for, aw, twelve whole days. Twelve days is almost forever when you’re twelve, eh?

‘What are you doin’ here, Mr V? Shopping or something?’ Note the hint of boredom in the word ’shopping’, clearly something he thought wasn’t high on the list of ‘cool reasons to walk around the plaza’.

‘Actually, champ, I just had a tooth pulled…’

The sudden look of caring concern and the subdued voice asking ‘did it hurt?’ just made my day.

Better than a panadol, that was.

Today turned out to be a really good one by the time I got home. Sure, first day of the final week of term and the kids were a little off the planet. I blame the final week of term, a rainy, cold day, and… yeah. That’ll do. They were off the planet, but we got just about everything I wanted done. Their lockers are clean and most of their good, presentable work from the term has been taken down from the walls and glued nicely into their profile books, ready to be taken home at the end of the year. But… they were off the planet.

Not to worry. The afternoon picked up quickly.

Those who’ve been reading this blog for a while may remember a few of these bits I’m going to bring up again. First…

Early April I was asked to write a reference for one of the kids in the band. He’s played drums for us for over three years now, but with the inclusion of his brother this year, he’s been able to move onto electric guitar instead. It’s been a lot of fun including an electric guitar into your regular school band orchestral music. We’ve even started playing a blues piece and he just leans back and adlibs solos.

Anyway, a few days later I had the reference written, and he commented on it, which was nice. He thought it was pretty decently written and then, as seems to be the norm with kids around me, made a slightly little joke about me to keep my feet on the ground. Well, this afternoon his mum whispered some news in my ear.

The little bugger got the scholarship this afternoon!

I haven’t had a chance to see him since he found out yet, but we’ve got a concert and rehearsal and pizza lunch for the band kids tomorrow anyway, so I’ll have to give him a hearty slap on the back. Great news to start the afternoon off with.

Second…

I’ve been following a few kids with their basketball for a few years now. This season I’ve ended up scoring most of the games for them as there’s been very few parents turning up to watch (probably due to the Tuesday afternoon timeslot, to be fair), and until two weeks ago, they hadn’t lost a game. Then they did… on the final match of the season. But that was okay, because if they won the final the week after, they’d be straight into the Grand Final anyway.

But they lost that one too.

So they had to turn up this evening to play the team that beat them the week before in a second chance final to make it through. They pulled away to win by about eight goals. A great story from my perspective, as these two kids deserve the success after the various paths they’ve had to travel over the last few months outside basketball. Drove home quite chuffed and proud tonight, even if the do end up getting done Wednesday night and lose the Grand Final. They fought back and will walk away Wednesday night with something to sit on their desk, eh?

Does mean I’ll have to cancel my dentist appointment for Wednesday afternoon though. There are more important things than dental hygiene, eh?

Besides… it’s a good excuse not to have two teeth out.

Thanks, boys.

Related Posts: The kid needs a reference… , Writing a reference… follow up, The only loss for the season…

Tomorrow, or probably today considering it’s nearly ten o’clock when I’m writing this, is our school’s Prep Open Day. Tomorrow, for the first two hours up until recess, prospective Prep parents for next year will be touring around the school, most likely being lead around by a few of the older children. A very important day for the continued health of any school, as if you don’t get the Prep enrollments to cover the number of Grade Six kids heading off to high school, you can jeopardise the number of staff you have the following year. Lose 40 kids to secondary school but only get 20 Preps you’re looking at one less grade which could mean one teacher’s out of a job.

Yes. Quite an important day to get those Prep parents hooked early and enrolled, eh?

Mind you… for a better chance of hooking them in, the joint should be neat and tidy, eh?

So that’s what most of us spent the first fifteen minutes or so after lunch doing this afternoon.

‘Kids! Get back out there and CLEAN THAT YARD!’

So we did.

With strict instructions that we were to clean the area around our classroom WITHOUT playing on the monkey bars, we scurried around along the gutters, burrowed under the play equipment, dragged one or two inquisitive and over-eager kids out from between the two portables, scampered through the bushes and fished little wrappers out of the puddles on the asphalt.

And laughed at the older kids who thought they’d cheat the system by pinching rubbish from our grade’s bin to show that they’d collected a lot themselves, only to walk back to their own grade with their friends trailing after them singing the ‘Bin Scab!’ Chorus.

We did have to call it off short though. Not only was it a little chilly by then, but the clouds decided it was time to open up too.

Ever tried to get twenty five kids across the yard to wash their hands and back again while it’s raining and they think it’s more fun to dance around in it? Or decide that the taps are all well and good for normal washing… but we can wash our hands just as well by rinsing them in the asphalt puddles or scraping water off the monkey bars.

Well… we got them inside eventually, and generally dry all things considered.

‘What’s next, Mr V?’

‘Okay kids… now you can clean the room.’

‘AWWW!!!!’

You hear a lot of talk about teachers through the media and your every day man on the street. Your every day woman on the street too, but I’ll use the common phrase here and if anyone gets their back up because it’s not politically correct then just substitute the gender of your choice and read on, eh?

That’s the way.

Especially now that, here in Victoria, the Government and the Union have come to terms over a new pay deal (which is still to be signed off on – no word on when that may happen, but that’s another issue I’m not interested in rabbitting on about), there’s talk about what we should also be doing to earn it. Or, what we’re already doing to earn it but what the Government wants us to do as well. I’m just going to leave this bit hanging though and say that, often, especially in regards to building a relationship with the kids, it doesn’t start and end with those two book-end bell tolls at the start and end of each day. I find it carries on, and is often more powerful, when developed outside the school setting.

And I’d like to add too that, for me, it’s just as rewarding for myself as the kid, maybe more so in some cases. At school, the relationship is always that of the student and the teacher. If you play the card right though, outside of the school setting, these kids you’ve made an effort getting to know start to move closer to equals without losing that respect for you. I know several kids who see me closer to an equal rather than just a past teacher because they saw me showing an interest. In school situations they switch back (usually, it must be said – you can’t always keep the cheek down, eh?) to that student to teacher relationship, but once outside of that again, it’s back to a healthy mutual respect.

I’m sure other teachers may disagree with this in some cases and prefer not to blur that line between the relationship, and that’s fair enough. For me though, a bit of blurring outside of the school grounds can work wonders for both parties. There’s things kids won’t necessarily feel comfortable sharing with a teacher, but if they see you as something more than that, they’ll open up if they think they need to.

Here’s where I’m going to with this.

One of my kids let me know that he and his family were off to watch the footy on Saturday night, down at the MCG. We both support the Bombers, despite their very ordinary year so far (and the prospect of much more pain to come in the near future!), and I told him that I’d be down there watching too. Well, he had to know where I’d be sitting so I showed him the back of my membership card and he told me he’d be sitting somewhere down at ground level.

‘Maybe I’ll see you there then, eh?’

By Friday they’d given me their seat number so what else could I do but wander along before the game started and say hello, eh? I’ve met with kids at the footy the odd time before (once sneaking my way into the ticketed Members stand to do so – that’s another story), and besides, this kid’s a real genuine little feller. I caught them wandering out of one of the retail shops there just before the game (there goes $100+ in merchandise right there!) and had a quick little chat with him before the match started.

Then the family coming with them appeared around the corner. Someone’s been telling stories about me because once I’d been introduced (’who’s this bloke hanging around your son?’) it was all excitement from these people I’d never met. I’ll have to ask him what was said on Monday… you shouldn’t get that excited meeting a kid’s teacher at the footy, surely?

Anyway, instead of sneaking into their ticketed area to find them for a decent chat later, we organised to meet just beyond that rail I wasn’t allowed to step beyond (but I’d have found a way…) at halftime.

Now, I know right now that this is now one family I’m never going to have an issue with, and one kid who I’m pretty sure I’ll have on my side for the rest of his primary school career. How? One little visit at a place the kid is interested in. Show you share their interests (even if you wouldn’t generally do so normally – kids just appreciate you turning up) and their trust just builds.

And what did I get out of it?

A got half an hour of quality time with a top little kid and his family and a strong little parting handshake.

Monday it will be student to teacher again, but below that facade will be a stronger level of respect from both of us.

To me, that’s something that will help the kid more than a week of schooling.

A few weeks ago we started on an initiative known as the Trivia Challenge, organised through schools by the Epilepsy Foundation of Victoria. The aim is to increase the kids’ awareness and understanding of epilepsy as well as give them a challenging, fun activity in regards to working in teams to answer various trivia questions. We took part last year and a team of our Grade Four kids got through the the final in Melbourne, which was a fantastic result. This year, we’re taking part again.

First, we warmed them up a few days earlier with a grade challenge of 25 questions, and gave them some ideas on epilepsy, how it’s caused, what it does, and how to help someone who has it, etc. Then we split the kids into teams of four and gave them an hour in the afternoon to answer as many of the 100 questions as they could. Our highest scoring teams from each Grade level will then move on to the next level of competition. As of yet we haven’t announced those teams.

Great idea, but part of participation in the Challenge is the obligation to donate money to the Epilepsy Foundation of Victoria, which is where Stripes Day comes in. One of the questions asked whether wearing striped socks could cause a seizure. The answer, clearly, is no. But this made us think of holding a Stripes Day to raise the money to be donated. So tomorrow, everybody wears striped clothes instead of school uniform and makes a gold coin donation. All money collected is passed on to the Foundation. Great idea.

Except it meant me spending this afternoon hitting the shops looking for pants with stripes on them…

Tomorrow will cost the kids $1 each… tomorrow will cost me $35…

All in a good cause though, eh?

And now for a quick band update.

Great success was our first performance of the year earlier this week, which gave the kids a nice little top up of confidence going into this afternoon’s rehearsal. With five of them, it’s somewhat light hearted and easy going, but that just makes it a fun half hour or so for me after work as well.

We tried another song we hadn’t touched for a while and it seemed to come together pretty well – a few more run throughs and it’ll be up to performing standard – when they started asking for something from a particular movie.

The new Indiana Jones movie starts today, so it was in the kids’ heads at the time. Seems they wanted to play something from the Indy movies. Well, last year we had a quick look at ‘Raider’s March‘, the theme from the movies. They couldn’t play it too well at all last year, but we brought it out this afternoon and the five of them had a run through with myself topping up the brass line.

Fair dinkum, we could almost play it next week if we had to, they read through it that well. There’s a few holes to fill with instruments we haven’t got, and a few bits that are tricky and need work, but nothing the five of them couldn’t pull off. They’re demanding another assembly performance as soon as possible, and a gig outside of the school immediately now too! Looks like Indy’s gonna get a run somewhere soon, no matter how few times we’ve ever played it!

So looks like we’ll be fronting the assembly in two Monday’s time to blast ‘Raider’s March‘ throughout the multipurpose room, and they don’t know it yet, but a local Arts Festival has just sent us a request to play there later on too…

Indy rides again, eh?

I was working this afternoon with the kid I wrote a reference for earlier in the week. This afternoon was the first band rehearsal we had for the term and we were belting out a new little blues number I taught the kids this afternoon. It was just a 12 bar blues progression and I told the two brothers on drums to just belt out something that fit, and taught the two flute and trumpet kids their little riff. It was all of two notes arranged over four bars each time, so it’s not too tricky, but with the bass guitar holding it together from below it all fits together nice and easy and the kids were ready to take on the world. They actually asked if, when we all go to music camp later in the year, we could just make our own band and ignore the rest and play this at the concert.

Just quietly I reckon that’d be pretty sweet once they get a few more weeks to work out how to improvise solos themselves and put it all together into a three minute or so jam session. It should sound fantastic after a few more weeks.

Anyway, he mentioned the reference during the rehearsal (’that thing you wrote for me, you know, for that school?’) and then claimed that I should therefore be an author because it was written so well. So much for the comic strip I publish three times a week on the internet, or the two school musicals I’ve written for the school, one of which is based on said webcomic, and the other of which this kid actually played lead guitar for. No… he’s basing his decision of my authoring skills on a three paragraph reference!

Either way, I was a little chuffed all the same!

So I just casually said, ‘okay, you can start by paying me for the reference. Author’s get paid, eh?’

‘Yeah, but I’m not publishing it, eh?’

Little sneak had an answer ready for me!

Related posts: The kid needs a reference…

Technorati Tags: teaching, references, kids, music

I was sitting there during lunchtime today, just minding my own business while I killed off a cheese and olive roll I picked up on the way in from the bakery this morning – because today is shopping day and that usually means there’s bugger all in the pantry – when I felt a presence beside me. I turned my attention from the sports page of the paper (much more interesting a read when your team’s won on the weekend) towards this figure who has knelt down at the table beside me and there she was. All sweet smiles and innocence with a hint of a question. And that hint is all you ever need if you know what you’re looking for.

‘What?’ I asked, knowing my services were being sought. Can you ever trust that innocent, sweet grin you get when someone drops beside you and just waits for you to turn around and see them? Of course not! Especially when it’s coming from a fellow teacher, eh?

‘I have a big favour to ask you,’ she said to me, ‘but you’re not allowed to say no!’

‘Oh good, I hate decisions.’

Turns out her son has applied for a music scholarship to one of the secondary colleges around the traps. Being the music coordinator (or the closest thing we’ve got at our primary school), he needed a reference from me in regards to his attitude, abilities, talents and so forth. By Wednesday. Could I do it? Would I do it?

Silly question, eh? Of course I’d do it.

Fact of the matter is, the kids a better musician than I am already anyway. Okay, I probably know a bit more about how music’s put together and held together and stuff like that, but this kid could outplay me with one hand tied behind his back plucking a catgut string tied between two goalposts. I know enough to belt out or pick out a tune on an acoustic guitar to make ten year olds sit up and take notice, but that’s just simple tricks and deliberately playing bad chords to make them laugh. Plug it into an amplifier and they’ll think you’re a rock god. This kid though… he played lead guitar in the school musical two years ago when he was in grade four and only ten… and the little bugger deliberately played a little solo riff at the very end of each song so he could get the last note in!

So I’ve just spent the last hour or so typing up a few paragraphs to hand over to his mum tomorrow covering a few points I thought were important. Hopefully it’ll be enough to make this other school sit up and take notice and give him the result he deserves. I’ll just ask the kid for a free copy of any CD he cuts when he starts a proper career!

I never had the chance to teach him for a year myself, but I’ve worked with him for the last four years with the band now, and I reckon I might just have had the best side of the deal.

Related Posts: Advancing a teaching level, Writing a reference… follow up

Technorati Tags: teaching, references, kids, music

If you ever want to completely disrupt a good school day, then by all means, just organise to have the school photos taken. A photography company rolls in for the morning (but stays all day), takes over the main hall or building of your school (which is probably in use by other people too), and takes the grades one at a time out of their rooms to take nice pictures of them. Add to this the fact that five grades of the school have also double booked themselves for an excursion to the beach because this day happens to be the perfect day for the neap tide, meaning it’s the best opportunity to see the rock pools! So you’ve got half the school turning up an hour early to have all those grade photos taken, as well as their siblings for family photos! Yay! You leave home five minutes early and STILL MISS OUT ON A CAR PARK!!

At any moment the School Captains will knock sheepishly on the door and ask if you can bring your kids out now, even if they’re right in the middle of a big lesson you’ve spent all week working towards and… bugger me… they’re actually working well! Then when you’re outside in the first clear spot you can find, you set about the task of getting twenty five excited kids into a line from the shortest to the tallest. Meanwhile… the kids at the front have worked up their excitement levels to near-hysteria and by the time you’ve gotten halfway down the line, the front half is once more a shambles. Meanwhile, you haven’t even reached the end of the line where already one kid is grizzling because his mate behind him messed up his hair or messed up his collar. Which only starts the other kids off laughing at the poor kid!

Yup. Trying to organise a row of excited kids into an ordered, height-sequenced line can be like juggling jelly with a tea strainer.

Anyway… we managed it and wandered over to have our grade photo taken, a feat that took all of a minute once we were standing nicely on various benches or sitting on seats, hoping the tall kids up the back wouldn’t fall off and break their legs, because a phonecall home to mum explaining why little Johnny broke his leg having his photo taken leads to all sorts of questions you just don’t have time to answer. Fortunately, none of them fell off during the photo, but there was a moment of madness when the photographer told all the kids up the back to jump down…

Not to worry… the photos have been taken, and fortunately we got them all done before recess, so the boys particularly didn’t have to worry about getting filthy during playtime. They were very happy about that. Probably a good thing they were all wearing their uniforms too and not in any old dress ups they found at home! All’s well that ends well…

But I’m still a little concerned about the kid who whispered quietly as I was having my own photo taken… something about ’should’ve gotten your mum to do your hair this mornin’, Mr V!’

Related posts: Your mum’s here, boy… better get out of that dress!

Technorati tags: photos, school photos