Five is the magic number, I believe

At the end of last week, two different people I hold near and dear spoke kind and supportive words to me about this endeavor. One, who happens to be my brother, almost convinced me I was a superhero--a moment I will need to revisit a few times this year, I am sure.

After that, I met the school custodian, who was not only helpful but he also gave words of encouragement and support as I fussed about all I don't know.

Then, two OTHER people I think are fantabulous spoke even MORE kind words of affirmation to me--and even pooh poohed as I revisited how much I don't know (which is substantial). And that makes five. Positively delightful way to enjoy that number.

In other news, I was positively STYMIED by the notion of creating posters for my classroom this morning. It seemed I was committing something irreversible, indelible even, by putting tips and strategies on the walls. Sure I know how to read for deeper understanding, write with evidence to support my claims, and think analytically, but what if my students HATE the way I tried to explain it? What if they don't make sense? What if they do make sense and I have to follow through on them?

Whaaaat????

I wound up beginning with a generally accepted educational pep phrase ["Knowledge is power"] to get myself started. I even put it up to prove it look-at-able. Then I went crazy and made several others of increasing pizzazz, which made breakthrough poster less desirable, sort of like first-wife syndrome. :-/

OK, I know I'm going crazy. More to come...

As the world turns...

After A LOT of haranguing on my part, I convinced my children to start a book club with me. We meet for the first time on Friday. Let's see how that goes.

In other news, I am to meet with the other teachers in my department to plan for the year sometime this week. I guess we'll see how that goes also.

In the meantime, I am feverishly trying to decide how I will teach Elizabethean literature. We'll see how that goes as well.

More to come...

It's the finish that counts...

Just finished the three-day fall planning intensive and I'm so wishing it had been the bulk of my EIGHT WEEKS of training I did in June-July. Aside from the phenomenal passion, wit and humor the planning workshop leader exemplified, the content was SO practical, and so NOT disjointed theory with a dangerous proclivity for ringing hollow that I WANT MORE. The bottom line is that on the day students arrive I better be ready to p-e-r-f-o-r-m from the top of the day to the very end, and that's what I need to know how to do.  Period.

One of the many take-aways of the last three days was that there are many, many ways to engage students in the active use of their knowledge, which in turn can/should feed a larger goal of preparing students to succeed in college (as opposed to simply applying or starting).

In another stellar moment, we discussed how each of us comes to our students with assumptions and presumptions that we must reflect on daily as a means to hold ourselves accountable. We broached questions like: Am I enabling escapist behavior if I allow this student to disrupt class every time I assign work that 'is too hard'? What is 'too hard' and why? If I don't have an experience that mirrors that of the stereotypical troubled inner-city family, am I arrogant in my belief that I can help?  Is it more caring to insist that students find ways to work around/over/through tough life circumstances OR cut them slack? Just how much can I do in a year to transform hormonal middle schoolers into equipped and engaged sophomores (who have somewhat managed to check their hormones)?

Will there REALLY be a day when I wake up and feel I just can't do it anymore? What if I don't find teachers who DON'T spend every break complaining about the kids, the kids, the kids (and whom I've been duly warned to stay away from)? How will I get wind back in my sails? Blood re-circulating? Mind working?    

I'll stop there, but the list is by no means done. More to come...

Countdown

Only a few days left. Today I was up at City College doing a three-day intensive geared towards being ready for September. The workshop leader is a VERY enthusiastic person who says she uses her corny-ness [her word] to engage the kids. I wish I had a teacher like her back in the day. She teaches 10th grade Global Studies and she has them study one revolution after another (American, French, South American, what-have-you) as means of understanding civil liberties, group protest, and a bunch of other cool stuff. The kids organize a protest as their final project!! I had to memorize dates ad nauseum. BLEKH...Well at least someone figured out a new way to bring history to life!

She said one day when she was role playing a shopkeeper in Communist Russia who opened her doors to commerce for a scant 30 seconds at a clip, one of her "problem" students began to rally all the other students (who were prepared with rubles) to NOT get on line because "if we don't buy, she goes out of business!" When she offered him a lollipop for thinking that no other student presented, he refused it, saying if everyone couldn't get one, he would not take it. Talk about internalizing a lesson!

I hope to be just as creative/effective someday...by the way, that so-called problem student finished the year very well.

Gooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaalllll!!!!!

To do this, that, and the other thing

At last count, there were a bajillion things to do to be ready for September. Not least among them will be getting an enduring grip on what can realistically be done in a year, month, week, day, or class period. I have a horrific propensity to want to do waay to much with too little (time, energy, money, you name it). I must handle this habit like split ends on a salon floor and BE DONE WITH IT. So much more than a new look is dependent on me getting over myself!

And another thing...

I forgot to mention that in addition to seeing and falling in love with my classroom, I was also aided by a delightful colleague in the understanding of how SMARTBoards work. In that moment, I felt the love coming back to me. Yes I did.

Love at first sight

I got to see my classroom yesterday for the first time! There is sunshine, there are windows, there is a working AC (new) AND a SMARTboard. There are also LOTS of books. Lots. Boxes and shelves full.

What else can I say? I am in love.

I looove people, but humans? Not so much...

This week opened with two rather fantastic things: First, I received (and accepted) an offer to teach at a high school in NY. Second, I started the first of a five-evening commitment to my church's Vacation Bible School. Both are tremendously exciting because of the opportunities they allow for people-watching, which I think could be elevated to an Olympic sport one day, but I digress.

In less than a month I will attempt to set a tone for relationships with total strangers I won't be able to shake for a good 10 months. I've heard many a dire warning about beginning those 10 months on the wrong foot, which of course keeps me shifting from one side to the other. Some say maintain a stern visage and thaw it just a tad at the end of month two; others say make sure you're understood as slightly unpredictable, crazy even, just to keep them off-balance. One thing I do know for sure is I will be going for the gold. Hard, like Gabby Douglas and Michael Phelps.

On evening one of VBS we had 200 kids and no shortage of energy. I'm sure we could have fueled a mission to the moon with all the adrenaline we had in the building. It was awesome. Kids are so incredibly resilient it's close to a crime that we have to leave that stage so quickly. I believe it is at that point we become HUMAN.

You see, people cry with no shame when they're worried their mom won't come back, make you smile, or give hugs freely. Humans carry frustrations from hours, days or even years prior into every new conversation. People let it all hang out--whether they're in a church service or Walmart. Humans put up walls and stand on top of them to shoot arrows at you.

People mess is often immediate, in direct response to an event or emotion. Human mess is a slow, cumulative, hardening process that often takes a long time to unfurl. People emote; humans implode and make war.

For these reasons and more, I look forward to meeting, learning from and hopefully sometimes teaching the PEOPLE in my class to be no less than HUMANE.

Let's see what happens. I hope to keep you posted if I don't get swept away in a tide.