N. S. T. A.

National Shoe Tyers Association

I've reached a pivotal point in my career. A point in which I cannot take any more . . . shoe tying. Shoes that are properly tied are a must in Physical Education to ensure the safety of everyone in class. When an education major makes their way through a battery of courses, we are pummeled with educational content that is supposed to prepare us for "the field". I got robbed! At no point in my college career did they ever warn us as to how many shoes we will tie. Nowhere in my Spooner School District contract does it state that I have to know how to tie shoes, but it should. I cannot begin to tell you how many shoes I have tied. I've come to expect it from Kindergarten children but not from 1st graders.

My latest classroom rule, as of the second week of school, is to have the "good shoe-tier" in class identified so if a student needs help tying a shoe, he/she can go to them. It works very well but I still get the kids with the impossible laces that keep coming undone. My remedy to that. . .double knot the hell out of it. I have busted laces reaming on them so hard. I had one kid in class on a Monday show me that his shoes were both still double knotted on Monday when the original knot was set on the previous Wednesday. Cub scouts did end up coming in handy I guess.

This last week, I had girl come up to me during a game and ask if I could tie her shoe. Sometimes, if the game is going well and the kids are engaged, I just quickly tie their shoe for them and get them back into the game quickly. Of course PLEASE and THANK YOU must be said otherwise their shoe will go untied the rest of class. About half way through the "swoop" in "loop, swoop, and pull", I realized that this was a first grade class. I finished tying her shoe and said "wait a second, you are a first grader Jackie, shouldn't you be able to tie your own shoe?"

As she walked away, she turned back and snottily said, "Why should I? I'm lazy and you keep doing it for me."

Yes, I guess you could say I just got had by a first grade girl. The inventor of Velcro must have been a Physical Education Teacher!

Much Love

BASKETBALL UPDATE - We are 2 - 0 with wins over South Shore and Ashland this past week. We have two tough games this week against hwy 63 rival Hayward and HON powerhouse Northwestern. Hope to see some of you at a game or two this year. Thanks for the support!