This was the last week of this sessions learn-to-skate classes. The coach I usually work with was sick, so I got the job of evaluating the skaters about advancement.

Fluid: I told the kids that we'd be testing their skills and that I was going to work them very hard and that I did. No play or games. I used dbny's suggestion about "chasing" the slower skaters and it worked like a charm. It's amazing how fast some of the slowpokes can skate when you're right behind them saying "don't let me catch you". It brought a lot of smiles. We advanced all of the kids.

Frozen: I'm not sure if it's ADD or just plain old not paying attention, but there were a couple of the guys in the Sam 3 class that had their own skating agenda. Fortunately, there were 2 other skaters helping me round up the stragglers.

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

Frozen SOLID: Ah, Monday Madness with my Insane Show Group. Half of whom didn't come because of school vacations. The other half completely forgot every maneuver and pose we've worked on for three weeks. I swear that one girl didn't even know where she was or why she was there. (Or maybe even Who she was!)

Six weeks left before the show and I'm not sure I'll make it. I actually asked the Director to fire me so I wouldn't have to work with this group anymore. She refused.

Fluid: I covered two group classes for another instructor and I had a lot of fun with those kids. Their parents came up to me afterwards and asked about lessons with me, buying skates, and other things. It was fun and (hopefully) I'll pick up some new students!

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FLUID: My Thursday SnowPlow class is doing really well. My little barely-three-year-old is unbelievable. Of the seven kids in the class, Id say he's the third-best, and the two who are better than him are a little boy who's almost six (he was in Basic 1, but he was a little behind because most of the kids were more like seven and eight years old, so his mom asked if he could be moved to my class with his sister) and a little girl who's already had a full set of lessons.

FROZEN: I have two little guys in that class who are going to drive me nuts. One is just awfully young (not four yet, I don't think, or barely four), just isn't super coordinated, and has missed two or three classes already. To complicate things further, while his mom will tell him in English to pay attention in class, the rest of the time she talks to him in what I think is Polish. SInce he's so young- young enough that I'm not sure he's necessarily in school yet- I sometimes wonder how good his English is and wheter part of the reason he's never doing what I've asked is that he doesn't understand me. I think his youth, lack of coordination, and having missed so many classes are the bigger issues though.

The other one is just never listening or doing what I've asked. I can't tell if he's just sort of a spacey kid or if there's maybe a little ADHD in there too. He doesn't seem super interested in skating to begin with, although he does talk about wanting to do hockey. Mom seems happy with his progress, and she watches the class, so it's not like she doesn't see how seldom he's following directions. I'll tell everyone to start doing rocking horses over whatever shape I've drawn with the markers, and when I look back there's six kids doing rocking horses (or trying to) and this kid will be eating the snow off his mittens or something. I guess there's one in every class.

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Shae-Lynn and Victor: We knew you were champions, and on 3/28/03 the whole WORLD found out! Thank you for twelve wonderful years!