It's quite possible that a day doesn't go by that in some form or another I ask a student or several students to step outside of their comfort zones. I may not say it like that, but the content may be beyond what they are comfortable with, the learning setting might stretch them, they might have to work with people they don't get along with...and the list goes own.
I suppose it's only fair that I demonstrate to them how I've been pushed outside my comfort zone. Today was a perfect example. The P.E. teacher had mentioned (more than once) that if I "ever wanted to join them for P.E." she could use an extra person (with eleven 5th & 6th graders I guess that's fair). Well, anyone who knows me knows how much I love the outdoors including hiking, biking, canoeing, and swimming. However, I am far from athletically coordinated. Anyone who knows 5th & 6th graders knows how brutally honest and judgmental they can be --you can imagine my excitement about participating in P.E. Yet, I did it. I got out and played soccer --a sport I never spent anytime doing. As in, zero energies from my childhood were focused on soccer. I wiped out. I got tired. I wasn't confident in my abilities. And I would totally do it again.
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