Looking at the Heart

As always, my writing mentors speak to me just when I need to hear them. Scrolling through Facebook, I came upon Leigh Anne's post (notice I stole her title) reflecting on Ruth's post . There was a tweet included with Leigh Anne's and those words went straight to my heart because like Leigh Anne, I felt I had been focusing on behaviors instead of hearts. I'm long-term subbing for a friend's maternity leave. She's a special ed teacher. An amazing one. She's a regular ed teacher also. An amazing one. Kids love her. And many of the students she works with have behavior issues. And there are regular teenagers who have their own issues. In the stress of starting in her classroom, in the hurriedness of catching up, in finding my "teaching every day" mojo, I forgot to look at the hearts. I let behaviors get to me. I thought back to a conversation I had with a friend one day about a certain student. I told her how I was having a diffi