Two day

Last night was simply amazing. Lots of great costumes, easy to give acknowledgments of creativity, appreciation, also gave acknowledgement to a beginning dancer with clunky shoes - showing her the steps and saw she was trying hard to learn and make it part of her muscle memory. Enrolment conversation with the bartender in terms of swing dancing, she enjoyed watching us and is signing herself and her husband up this year. Took tons of photos of everyone enjoying themselves. All good. Good deed, requesting a guy to join in the general lesson since females outnumbered guys, and also stepping off the beginners dance floor for the same reason - sharing Mike.

Yesterday, I had an enrolling conversation with C my student. Madame made it into class late - like 10 minutes into announcements late. She ran screaming down the hallway because someone threw water over her and she went to get revenge. When I told her she was tardy she became defiant and I asked her to step outside. I can see how her life is drama, and my life is drama and that I created and added to her drama.

We went outside and talked about being tardy, and mostly being defiant. It took a while to calm her down, slow down my rate of speech, lower my voice to almost monotone to bring her to a listening level. My request to her was to self-monitor her triggers, what she might want to say, how her body is feeling when she is triggered, and what might come up for her as she begins to enter her cognitive analyses. This is where it was a moment for education comes in as opposed to writing her up for defiance. Using the screwdriver as opposed to the hammer. There was a shift in her way of listening for me since I was not making her wrong, just opening up doors of possibilities for her to consider.

Upon reflection, whenever I have someone in the hallway to talk, I will have them just outside my door, facing me to protect them from other students in the hallway, and from prying eyes inside the classroom. I will also drop my voice consistently and that will also keep myself in check.

Today, my acknowledgments are mostly via email since I was checking my messages this morning, conversation with Mike, my good deed right now would be mostly driving, letting cars cut in, weave, allowing lots of space yet keeping up with the flow. Forwarding mail that would make a difference to future recipients.