Confidence Comes in the Form of Snow and Kindergarteners

I have kind of forgotten over the past couple months that I am good at a few things. And in one snowy weekend, it all came back to me that I was good at a few things.

True, it is not a modest thing to say about oneself, but I don't care. This is my blog and I can be self-assured if I want to be.

First, I had forgotten how good I am at winter weather. I can clean off the fourteen inches of snow on the car like a champ. I can get out of snowed in parking spots with a little drive forward and a big thrust in reverse. I can stop on icy roads and not swerve...not one little bit. I know the foods to have on hand...Chili, lasagna, ice cream, cake, hot cocoa, coffee, cinnamon rolls, and more ice cream. I am good at remembering to bring an extra pair of socks in my purse because my other socks could get wet. I am good at having extra winter gear because someone might need a hat or mittens.

Along with my winter skills, I was reassured this weekend that I can be a good teacher. I have not forgotten this fact but merely packed it away until I needed that confidence for a weekend like this. I had an open house with some kindergarteners that will be in my class next year. I was nervous and quite frantic about whether I still had a clue. Yet, when the children arrived and we engaged with each other, I knew that I had made the right choice for next year. When we sat together on the carpet to read The Kissing Hand, a book about going to school for the first time, the children interacted with the book and we enjoyed the story together. I use the term "good teacher" in a flexible sense. In my eyes, it means that I have planned a meaningful time where social, emotional, and academic learning takes place. I can't say for sure what the children took away from our morning together. I can only speak to what I have taken away...a sense of confidence that I have a clue about snow...and school.