Practice What You Teach

           On Friday, my Grandma Freeman passed away. She was almost 90 years old and lived a long, full life. She was kind, loving, a hard worker, and fiercely loyal. She taught elementary school, and I've always loved the fact that both of my grandmas were teachers, and good ones at that. We joke in our family that teaching runs in our blood, and it's an honor to be able to carry on her legacy.            For most of the years I was growing up, she lived in New York, in the small, small town of Hornell. My dad would take us on weekend trips to visit during the summers. In fact my first time driving on the highway with my learner's permit was on the way up to visit them one summer, and I remember proudly announcing that when we walked into the house. We would always start off our visits with a trip to the ONLY restaurant in town (Pizza Hut) and then stop by the ONLY grocery store in town (Wegman's) for ice cream to take home,...

        On Friday, I gave my students a math test. One of my students who has struggled a lot in math all year only missed two questions out of the 16 on the test. I was so excited, so I pulled him aside to congratulate him. I showed him his score and said, "look, you did SO good! I am so proud of you, you worked so hard!" I was confused when immediately he looked like he was about to cry. For a second I thought, "maybe they are tears of joy?" Then I remembered he's 9, so I asked him what was wrong. He said, "Miss Freeman, one time I got 12 out of 12 on my math test, and this time I missed two questions. So I didn't really do that good." I explained to him that just because he missed two questions didn't mean he hadn't done well, especially because he got so many questions right. Then I told him we were going to celebrate with the biggest high five EVER, and he went back to his seat with a smile on his face.       Starting a new year of...