9/17/08

Fired UP!

It was a day to be fired up! The school day was pretty normal. I got frustrated with my kids for being bumps on a log most of the day or I got upset with them for not shutting their mouths. I enjoy a good dialogue with my classes but I forget that they're middle schoolers who don't know when to stop. By the end of the year I'll have them trained well and they'll have a new teacher to get used to. We had a forever long meeting about one of our students with diabetes. He's a very hard working kid but I can tell when he's losing focus and energy. Mom was real polite and appreciative of what we were doing to help him. Then I had a meeting with our "flex" benefit lady who tried to talk me into having even more money taken out of my check - as if it's not small enough already! I did end up having a good parent conference after school but they arrived late, thus making me later to the high school than I wanted to be.

Now a paragraph on volleyball...I'm still undefeated in conference. We played a non-conference game today. I was hardly transitioned from middle school to volleyball when our match was starting. We came out half-dead in the first game. The referee made a horrible call and I confess that I started yelling. I didn't get up, just made myself heard from where I was sitting. The first time, he saw the error of his ways. The second time, I about went hoarse from my yelling. I got fired up then. We lost that game 25-14. I complained to the other ref as I switched benches. I was HOT! My being fired up, got my team up too! We came back to win the second game 25-16. We had to go to the decisive 3rd game. We play to 25 and have to win by two points. I was still pretty fired up in the third game. For those of you who have never seen me coach, this is VERY uncharacteristic of me. The final game was pretty close. We were behind on a few occasions but battled back with all we had. I used my time-outs wisely and caused some serving errors for the other team. My girls held up well under the pressure. We ended up winning 29-27. I used my last time-out at 23-24. I am so proud of my team! I realized how much I control the tempo and mood of my team with my own mood. I was out of sync in the first game so they were too. I am SO excited to coach this team when they get to be Varsity players - which will be next year in case I haven't had the chance to tell you.

As if that weren't enough, I got the best surprise after my game. I'm attempting to get my heartbeat back to normal and Mini-Me is walking towards me. Mini-Me is my favorite student of ALL time. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. She comes up to hug me and I stumble all over words. I hadn't seen this kid in about a year or more. I was looking forward to seeing her when we play at the new high school in Valdese next week. Come to find out, her sister had a tennis match at Lincolnton this afternoon. She heard the noise in the gym and came in to see if I was there. I love this kid so much and it just made my day to see her. We talked for a little while before the Varsity match. It was a great ending to an awesome afternoon. I'm not sure if I'll have any voice left for the game tomorrow by time I teach four classes, but it was SO worth it.

So I hope certain people are happy that I blogged...this should keep you happy for a few weeks!