From the Adviser : Pushing the Wildcat Wake Up Call to #EGHSRAK

Pushing The Wildcat Wake Up Call to #EGHSRAK

     I might be the only teacher in the world who thinks this way, but I like to think my career allows me to have three other "New Year's Days".

     One of these occurs around the first week in August when I can't hold the calendar back anymore, the sunburn doesn't sting quite as much, and I smell new crayons in the stationery aisle at Target. This is THE year...year number...eleven? Maybe twelve now? Anyway, this is THE year where I am going to be what I call the PERFECT TEACHER.  I'll have matching, funky, and fun bulletin boards, super clean desks, a teacher's desk that would pass white-glove inspection, and I will have engaging lessons EVERY SINGLE DAY that would make even the most challenging student putty in my hands. Seriously. My classroom could be on Pinterest because it's just SO.PRETTY. Who can't learn in here? Then, around mid-September, I have learned 90 names in 25 days, with 10 parents to call, and about 19839203 papers to grade. There's also 14 more days until payday and a checking account that is getting close to single digits. Sigh. There's always next semester.

     The second one is around January. Exams are finished. Semester 1 is in the books. I've got new kids, new ideas, and a new energy. Kids are excited to see new people. For this "first day of school" they don't have that "summer sunscreen haze" on them and it takes less time for them to figure out life. Then #SNOWWWWMG occurs and we are out for two weeks. As a result, everyone's names escape me and we need to read pages 1-39849892 before March. Buckle up, kids.

    However, there's that third wind that comes around April. We're safely out of snowy weather territory, you hear the ping of the baseball bats from the field, and you realize for the first time since October, you left your jacket in your classroom and it's not that serious. The environment around you is a lovely clean rain, then a thunderstorm rain, then OMG..for the LOVE...STOP RAINING!! This is followed by "It's hot", but now "It's cold", followed by doing a double take on a student and saying "Honey, I know yesterday it was 85, but today it's 45, and I'm not entirely sure that's in dress code", and a thousand other in-between, one foot in and one foot out kind of situations. To me, this is the time of year where I roll my sleeves up, close the door at the tardy bell, open the door at the dismissal bell, and the word that comes to mind is "push". Push the kids to stay strong through the year. Push myself to stand before kids in April with the vision of the teacher I aimed to be in August. Push myself out of bed at the alarm and push myself into bed when the "go to bed" and "wake up" times get too close together. Push through the novel. Push through the pacing guide. Push through this lesson. Push to 3:55.

     Sometimes, in all of the pushing, we often push away what matters most...each other.

     Voices in the classroom get a little sharper than intended. Communication gets a little more punctuated. Patience for everyone gets a little closer to nonexistent. Then, it's Friday night/Saturday morning and while all day you would have loved a nap, as fate would have it, the one time you can finally hear your own voice inside your head, THAT voice is now the one that you wish you could silence with a stern, but "you know I still think you're awesome just stop talking when I'm talking" look.

     That was my wake up call.

     So I asked my students if they felt the same way. I asked if there was something about that March/April that brought the moody out in everyone, if the rain made everyone a little more in their feelings that day, or if I was the only one. It appears as though it we are a bunch of moody,
"somewhere else we'd rather be" individuals making it bell to bell.  We like each other. For the most part, we like what we're doing. However, we've just pushed away that energy and replaced it with "dig in...seven weeks...exams....doooo iitttttt." 

      It turns out that we can have our cake and eat it, too. We can push and dig and roll our sleeves up and make magic happen AND do it with a smile. This is where The Wildcat Wake Up Call was born.

      For the next seven weeks, many students and staff members will be participating in fun, themed weeks that engage each other, push each other through to the end, and encourage everyone around us that no one wakes up determined to fail. We fail because some obstacle gets in the way and it's hard to work around. Remove the obstacles and reinstate the success. Please join us in this wake up call that we have hashtagged #eghsrak. RAK = Random Acts of Kindness, which we can all use! Here's a taste of what's to come!

• Unlike the film Mean Girls, You CAN Sit With Us! One week will focus on inclusion in the cafeteria. Anyone wearing a You CAN Sit With Us sticker is considered "safe", willing to let go of the "assigned" seats, and open to making a new friend that week.
• Motivate Me begins this coming week. There will be a daily short video (between 1-2 minutes) from a different senior. This will be sent to teachers via email before school to show during 1st period attendance. Each one of the five seniors explains how focus, determination, and hard work matter in growing from a freshman to a senior. There will be EGHS trivia questions posted around the building and motivational tickets to hand out to anyone who needs a pep talk.
• Chalk Talk includes positive messages throughout the student parking lot, the bus lot as students walk in, and D-lot. Who wouldn't want to walk on a bit of sunshine into the building?
• We can't share all of our secrets. :) 

     The reality is that everyone has a battle, whether it's big or small. However, what trips us up is that we will call someone's battle small when it is a full out war to the other person. Let's push through for our H15TORY making SEN1OR5, our DEL16HTFUL juniors, our EL17E sophomores, and our freshmen who think that they are INVINC18LE. Mostly, because regardless of the class, the subject, or what side of the desk we are on, we're Wildcats. :)