Lucky Dolphin

"Aha" moments are so rare and so wonderful when they happen. Perhaps a part of the beauty of these moments is that you never know when you'll have one. Tonight, I was lucky to have one of those moments. Earlier, when I went running , it kept bugging  and bugging me that one of the most confident students I know is struggling with being nervous about  EBOB competition that's coming up. He brought it up to me at least 7 times last week and this is not a kid who is afraid of anything, except for maybe heights which I found out in the middle of a hiking field trip last year. I'd like to think I am a problem-solver and when the issue was heights, I walked with him last year down the stairs at Raven Rock and didn't make it a big deal in front of other kids. I just walked and told him about my fear of heights. I told him if I was taking those steps and I was okay, the same applied to him and he was okay. He was.

With EBOB, I can't do the same. I will be in the audience, but it's different. I will be watching. I will not be the one on the spot and so the same strategy won't work. So I had to think outside the box, maybe not too far outside the box because my immediate thought was "lucky socks". We've all heard of lucky socks, well I just feel like it would be extra creepy to give a kid lucky socks. Maybe I am weird, but I am just not doing that.

Then of course here I am thinking what's my lucky "thing"?
I know I believed in them as a kid, what was it? Finally, I remembered! There was my "aha" moment. Some people have lucky socks, I had a lucky troll! So here I was finishing up washing the dishes and trying to figure out what in the world I did with my lucky troll from 20 years ago and I remembered that it was in my memory box. So, I dug through the garage and found my troll collection (yes, I am that dork who collected trolls in the 90's) and here it was...my lucky troll with beautiful rainbow hair.

I sat there starring at my lucky troll , thinking about all the times I had it in my pocket when I needed that little bit of luck and thought okay, maybe if I give this student my lucky troll and tell him about it, maybe that will help. Then I looked again. Okay, this isn't going to work, my lucky troll is 20 years old. It's a typical naked troll with a butt! This kid is going to be so beyond off task if I give him this thing, there is just no way (photo in this blog). So there I was back to square one...not giving this kid socks because it's crazy. Lucky troll isn't happening unless I can paint clothes on it and that won't happen either. Finally, I had it, that "aha" moment again....lucky dolphin! I had this necklace on a million times last year. I know my students from last year's class have seen it over and over and over. It's a dolphin. It's made out of wood. It's gender neutral. It is not socks. It is not a 20 year old silly troll. It's perfect!  There it is, my  true "aha" moment.

So here is the plan.  I am going to give this student my lucky dolphin to keep in his pocket for the competition and I'm going to hope, just hope that it works just like lucky socks for those of you who've had those or the lucky troll that I grew up with and maybe, just maybe I can kill two birds with one stone and give the same dolphin to my student who won't stop second-guessing himself at the end of the year to keep in his pocket for the EOG.

So here's to "aha" moments and here's to hoping that this works. I'll keep you updated .

A little magic has never hurt anyone....so let's hope this lucky dolphin is ready for the job!

Yes, this is my troll from the 90's and there's no way this was going work, the dolphin is much cooler and more appropriate !      -