You quickly realize when you are teacher that the one thing above everything else that your students need is love. Many students practically cry out for it on a daily basis. And they all have different reasons. I've found that many of my students do not receive the love they deserve at home--which I'm sure is the case for many teachers these days. Even the ones who do receive adequate love desire to feel accepted and a sense of belonging. What better way to care for our students than to love them?
Toward the end of the school year last year I decided I wanted to try the Love Dare out on my students. There were a couple other teachers on board and we kept it up for a couple weeks and then it fizzled out. It really wasn't a good time to start the task, and I've realize that with 60-70 students, one day for a dare really isn't enough.
My plan is to present a dare at the beginning of each week. I will try to post it over the weekend for those of you who would like to meditate on the idea before trying it out with your students--but please forgive me if it runs a little late. In order to get through all of the dares before summer break, some weeks the dares will be doubled up.
I'm going to go along with the "Love Dare" book and tweak it to fit the needs of a teacher attempting to love those sometimes-not-so-lovable students (as well as those that are just easy to love!). My hope is to have fellow teachers post about how they are practicing each week's dare on their students and share how it is working out. I love to learn from my fellow teachers!
This is my warning that although I may be an English teacher, I will not always compose my sentences correctly, and I will probably get caught up in what I'm saying and forget to add punctuation and do a lot of "dot dot dot" and use some sort of improper English...forgive me.
The goal is simply to love.
Will you join me?
Stacey
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this idea!! I was just thinking today about how it is so easy to focus on the plans, assessments, behavior issues, and all the other challenges that come with teaching, and forget that my main job and focus should be to love the kiddos in my classroom. I definitely feel that God has called me to be a teacher, and therefore my classroom is my ministry. I am excited to join in on this journey and to see what kind of an impact it has on my students....and am already predicting that I will be affected even more than my students!! (and as a simple minded kindergarten teacher..I'm hoping that the English teacher author of this blog will excuse my many grammatical errors!)
Lauren M.
I have never ehard of this and am really excited to join in - my students deserve to feel God's love through me and I am SO willing to focus my energy on such a holy task. NICE!
ReplyDeleteStacey- I would love to join on board with this idea. I'm looking forward to seeing how God will use it to change my perspective. What a great idea and thanks for being willing to share it.
ReplyDeleteBecca Hamm
This sounds like an amazing idea! I look forward to reading how the Lord uses you and other teachers! Although I'm not teaching full-time now, I am subbing and hopefully will have opportunities to participate in the love dare!
ReplyDeleteStacey, I will be watching for your posts. I know Love Dare is a very powerful book and idea, and I am excited to apply it in my classroom. Thanks for sharing. -Kerri T.
ReplyDeleteI think I did this once without realizing it...glad I can put a name to the act of loving a student who seems unlovable. I teach K, so it is easier to hug a student at this age. I hugged a little girl everytime I got the opporitunity so it would force me to love her and it really worked. She was one of the most challenging students I have worked to teach. But, loving them is the best way to get through a tough year with a tough student. It also helped her to develop a trusting relationship because my feelings were genuine and she knew I would only try to encourage her and never try to hurt her as others had done.
ReplyDeleteI was laying in bed last night trying to figure out how to pull my kid's together as "family". I thought about using The Love Dare on them as well. I know this post of yours is old. I am going to read it daily until I get current to where you are now. I'm so glad I came across your blog.
ReplyDelete