so I forgot some of the stories I was going to tell last week, and then I ran out of time basically every night this week. I kept going out and going to bed late, so I'm pretty beat today, and should be taking a nap right now or in the very near future. but I want to share my stories of my kids before I forget more of them!

So I noticed Andrea, who is the other level 1 teacher at the same time as me would make her kids swim out without helping them much. I decided I wanted to be more like that, even though I didn't know if a few of my kids could actually do that since they were pretty scared to have me let go with even one hand. But I really pushed them to see what they could do on their own this week, and the got excited as I began to let go, and show them that they could do it. Joshua was so adorable because on monday he was still clinging onto me, and I told him he had to let go of me and use both his arms to swim. on tuesday he started to let go of me and use both his arms to swim. I was still holding him most of the time at that point, but he was so excited he was using both his arms. He told me ever time he got to the wall that "I used both my arms to swim!" (imagine this in one of the most adorable high pitched little 3 year old voices you can) and every time I would let him go a little farther out from the wall and push him towards it, when he grabbed onto the wall and lifted his head he would tell me "I did it!" I really wish I had a picture with him, or something to show how cute he is: my words are really not doing him justice. There were a few other boys in my class in the same age group who also wanted to hold onto me tightly and not actually learn how to swim, but both Rashibh (I think that's how you spell it) and Grayson also made leaps and bounds in the second week of lessons. Grayson was the boy who finally started going under by himself and last week when I pushed him to the wall he was basically swimming on his own. He told me at the beginning of the week that he didn't want to swim on his own, but by tuesday he was swimming probably more than he wanted to, and less than I wanted him to. But the biggest thing I had to work with him on was jumping into the pool. My manager said that we should focus on making sure the kids can jump in the pool, kick off the bottom to the surface and either take a breath and swim to the wall go into a back float and just relax there. Well, if the kid can't jump in, he can't do any of the rest of that properly. Grayson was scared that he wasn't holding onto me when he jumped in, so he was still really relying on me in his mind to swim. I got him to jump into 4 feet of water finally yesterday, and he did fine. He even realized that I was too close when I was in the water to catch him. Then we went down the slide as a class. Grayson did not want to go, and could not understand that I wasn't forcing him to go down, so he was crying in panic a lot. and when we got to the top of the slide, Kayal (the older good swimmer in my class) and Rashibh went down fine when I told them my "good friend Andrea" would be at the bottom of the slide to help them swim to the side. Joshua really wanted to go down the slide, but he was scared to go alone, so Andrea told me to just go with him. It was actually my first time down the slide ever, and I guess it was pretty cool that I got to go down with Joshua and let him have fun on the last day of classes.

My one other class with just students in it only had one kid show up on Thursday. It was Myranda, the 11 year old who had never swum before and was almost more scared than level 1 kids are sometimes. I moved my entire class to deeper water just so she couldn't walk out to me and had to learn how to swim. she didn't like that at first last week, and I don't know if she liked me for putting her in a difficult position, but it was the best for her. She was getting excited this week because she started practicing during free swim after class, and was making leaps and bounds of progress, but on tuesday she told me as we were heading over to the deep end of the pool, "my mom doesn't think I can learn how to swim in 2 days." I think I must have taken that to heart, because it became my goal to get her comfortable and at least able to swim on her own by thursday. on wednesday after class, when I let go of her a little more than I had been doing because like my level 1 classes I wanted to see what she could do on her own, I talked to her grandma because she wanted to know what I thought of Myranda's skillz. I said she could do it all, but she just didn't trust herself to swim on her own. Well thursday as the only person in the class, she got a lot of one on one time with me to practice what she wanted to and needed to work on. I told her she had to go down the slide, and I made sure she didn't freak out in the water, but she didn't need my help swimming to the side, which I told her. To finish off class, I asked if she wanted to try and make it to the other side of the 11 foot water swimming on her own. I was right next to her the entire time, but she did it on her own! I hope she shows off to her mom what she can do when she gets home. I was so proud of her!!! because all I did was tell her what she needed to work on and how to do it better, but she did all the hard work and totally succeeded more than she ever thought possible in 2 weeks. she even gave me a hug at the end of class, and her grandma took a picture of us so she can at least remember me for a few years. :) it's stuff like this that help me realize I AM making a difference in the world, and will probably be remembered by total strangers for years to come. I have always loved the message behind Horace's poem "a monument more lasting than bronze."

Basically Horace says that there are things that last longer than bronze, which can be melted and made into something else. I think he was meaning his poem, which is definitely true, but I think memory is another thing more lasting than bronze. Even though one could change both the written word and the spoken word of memory, the essence of the thing is still there and being remembered in some way or another. Who knows what really happened in the battle at Troy with Achilles and Hector? but despite it being so changed over so many thousands of years, there are still people remembered for that famous battle. wow, that was a total change from what I started out writing what happened to me this week. but there you go: I get easily distracted when I'm talking.