Hopefully

Have you ever wondered what children think about your words? I'm at the point in my life that my older child tells me. As we were leaving school the other day, I told someone we were on our way to a soccer game and "Hopefully, we'll get a big win." Well my older child says to me, "you just made it sound like my team was terrible." He interpreted "hopefully" into "the team is bad and we've got to "hope" for a win.

I tried to explain what I meant, but what was done was done. No matter what I said, it wouldn't change how he interpreted my words.

Before I continue... They did win, and played a great game.

But thinking about this small instance with my child, it made me also think about the words I choose each day with the children in my classroom, the adults I work with, the parents I conference with, etc.

Word choice is important. I am in the process of reading (slowly) a professional book called Choice Words. It is written by Peter H. Johnston. It discusses how our language as educators affects our students. He stresses that words matter and how we talk to our students matters.

Hopefully, I'll make good word choices with my boys this week. :)

Ginger