Class Basketball…
As school gets ready to start back up, we have been in a stage of preparation. All summer we have been preparing our facilities, putting in carpet and doing repairs. This week, our teachers returned for training to prepare themselves and their classrooms for the year. On Saturday, we are hosting our Back to School Bash to prepare students in our community with all the materials they will need for their school year. And last night, we worked on preparing our 8th graders to have a great year where they help us to set the tone of the school and support their community.
Our Teachers doing some interactive training
Last year we had ups and downs with our middle schoolers. It was a mix of 6th and 7th graders. They are a group of unique learners, disrupted by Covid at an important transition in their life, forced to isolate and connect through masks as they were beginning to get ready for middle school and to take on more responsibilities. Many of them, we welcomed on the first day of school in that Spring semester of 2021.
Now those young kids have become our first class of 8th graders. We wanted them to come in this year with a relationship with their new teacher, so we invited them to have a pizza party and meet him. They also got to play some basketball with him. A majority of our 8th graders are on the basketball team and love to play, watch, and talk about basketball. It turns out that their new teacher also enjoys basketball, and even played in college.
Our 8th graders playing basketball with their new teacher Mr. White.
As fun as it was for all of us to just hang out, it was more important than just shooting some hoops. Anybody who knows a middle school athlete knows that there is no quicker way for them to make friends than by playing their sport. Play helps create bonds and lay foundations for relationships. Play is rooted in activity and creativity, allowing for a different type of connection than what is found in a traditional classroom setting. For our 8th graders, it was the way they needed to be introduced to their new teacher.
Last night was a beautiful start to the relationship. It was most likely the first of many like it. There is still a lot of building that needs to be done, some vulnerability that needs to happen to gain the trust that will unlock the power that a teacher student relationship can have, but sometimes you just need to play some ball.
Ethan
Fish Fry Today 11am-7pm!!!
The Fish Fry will be open today from 11-7pm. Stop by for a fish sandwich or some churched up tots.
If you are interested in volunteering or to find out more information about supplies needed please email: info@lovecityinc.org or call (502) 272-078.