Cheerleaders

Twenty years ago (it is so hard to even type that), I was the cheer coach at SHS. I loved “my girls” and I loved what we did. We started the first competitive cheer squad at SHS and I am embarrassed now when I see Ashley’s SHS squad and how amazing they are compared to how bad we were years ago. One of the reasons I loved coaching was that at that time, I was also teaching ED self contained students. On a good day, this was a difficult job. While I loved it and loved my students, these kids were hard and sad and troubled and amazing all at the same time. They also needed me-a lot of me. I left school physically, mentally and emotional drained many days. And then I headed over to the high school. These girls were adorable. Yes, sometimes dealing with 20 teenage, hormonal girls was much worse than dealing with my 12 ED kids, but overall they were a wonderful distraction from the classroom. I enjoyed their “teenage drama”, their sideline antics, and watching them form as a team and do great things for the football and basketball teams. I loved watching these girls cheer for the teams. There really isn’t anything better than having someone cheer for you. Things came full circle last week, when the night nurse came by my Mom’s room and it just so happened to be one of my former cheerleaders. I was thrilled to see her again as she hadn’t returned to Spartanburg after finishing school at CoC  At some point last week, as I was trying to get my mom to speak, Shimekia was in the room and said something that really resonated with me. Watching me struggle with my Mom and attempting words with her, Shimekia knelt beside me like a player was injured and said “everyone needs a cheerleader, keep it up!” I was discouraged –I was injured-but her words kept me going. She was still my cheerleader and I realized that at that moment I was my Mom’s cheerleader. It got me thinking about our students here and the idea that we are their cheerleaders. We have many students who hear positive words each day. I see it in the car line each morning as they depart their cars with an “I love you, have a great day” but we have many more students who hear nothing-music is on, parent is on the phone or the parent is disengaged. It is one of the reasons that I am loud, enthusiastic, & exciting at car line each morning.  Each student deserves to be greeted by name and with a smile, a hug, a high five, and a wish that they have a great day. In essence I am their morning cheerleader (have no fear, I’m not wearing the short skirt anytime soon). I’ve shared with you before the great Ted Talks video of Rita Pierson (click HERE if you’ve not seen it) who begs you to believe that each child needs a champion. I believe each child-no, each person– deserves a cheerleader. One of the things I do when I walk the halls at 7:50 is look for those cheerleaders. Are you greeting your students? Are you starting your day with a positive interaction because as you know, “kids don’t learn from someone they don’t like.” Do you give high fives through the day? Do you celebrate small moments? Do you talk positively about them? In essence are you your students’ cheerleaders? Do you encourage them? Do you kneel with them when they’re hurt? Do you cheer loudly when they do good? We all deserve to have a cheerleader. Let me know if you need pom-poms.