Regrets, I've had a few...

Unlike Sinatra, I have enough regrets to mention:

1)  In my first years of teaching, I wasn't straight up with parents.  I was slightly intimidated by parents and as a result, didn't deliver some of the news about their son or daughter that they deserved to hear. I've corrected this error in the latter half of my career and I hope my older colleagues at the time delivered the news I couldn't.

2)  To the girls basketball team that gave me a George Michael poster and an Alf key chain as a coaching gift; I am sorry if I did not seem suitably appreciative at the time.

3)  I said and did some things on high school basketball courts that I am not too proud of.  I lost my temper too many times and my language turned blue as well.  I forgot to play some kids and benched some who didn't deserve it because I wanted to win.  I was not very friendly to the opposing coach. Sometimes I let my ego get in the way and when I did, I made the game more about me than the kids.

4)  I took the support staff at the school for granted.  I'm sure I'm not alone here. At times in my career I didn't recognize just how important the secretaries, the custodians, the educational assistance and the child and youth workers are to the education of our children.   I've tried to be better at acknowledging their contributions but I regret that I was late to this in my career.

5)  I shouldn't have worn the rollerblades in class.

6)  There was a time in the late '90's that I was pretty bitter about how my profession was treated by the government of the day.  I let that government affect my attitude toward parents, some of my colleagues, certainly my administrator at the time and my community.  If it hadn't been for the kindness of many of those people over the years, I could have remained bitter.

7)  It turns out, I spent way too much time marking and not enough time speaking to students about their work.  Kids rarely read comments but when you sit with them and talk to them about their work and what you honestly think about that work, you make a difference.  If I had to do it again, I'd mark everything in front of the kid.

8)  I had no idea about LGBTQ, about privilege and little about racism when I started.  If I only knew then what I know now, I'd be a lot more sensitive to the people I taught and with whom I worked.

9) Dante, I didn't know Peter lit your hair on fire in class.  I regret this.

10)  I didn't give my wife enough credit.  Christine is funnier and smarter than I am and she has always tempered my reactions to things and as a result, she's made me a far better teacher.