the gray

After having laid out all of the negatives about myself in my last post, I think I'm actually just a little bit wrong. I do have a lot of goodness in me. I spend a lot of my personal money on my classroom, buying prizes for students with the highest averages and most improved averages. I buy each student a reporter's notebook during our observational writing unit to encourage them to become journalists and observers. I constantly buy more books to keep on my bookshelves for them to check out and to read. I give extra credit opportunities. I try to make lessons fun and funny. I consider all of this, which is more than most teachers can say; I do not copy worksheets and do work out of a textbook. I love to surprise people by perhaps buying something for them if I'm out and see something that reminds me of them. When in a situation, my first response is not to be mean back to someone. If a person has made a rude comment to me, my first instinct is not to make one back. I am someone who usually thinks of the good stuff after the fact. :) But it's this stuff that gets me into trouble. There aren't many people out there who aren't just mean. And it doesn't help that I teach teenagers. If I could suppress these things about myself, then my life would be easier, probably happier, and less disappointing because most of the people I run into just aren't nice. But is it better to be a good person than to have an easy time of it? I may never answer this question fully.