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| Day 3 of 31 at TWT |
It makes me sad to tear down a room. I think of all the successful moments, the discussions, the laughter. I see my kids bent over their tables, excitedly engaged in activities together. I see them shrieking and jumping up during games. I see them using posters to help themselves, trying out the "word of the day", asking questions about the countries on the walls. I see them whispering and giggling over familiar picture books in Spanish when they have a few extra minutes.
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| my room at School #2, until 3:30 yesterday afternoon... |
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| ...reduced to this by 8:30 last night. |
At School #3, I don't have a room. I don't get to put up decorations, move the desks into tables, or infuse language into all the procedures, supplies, and setup of the room. While all the activities will remain, the backdrop of language and culture is gone. Communities will still be created, laughter and engagement and connections will still fill the rooms. But the soul of the rooms will be diminished. In each, there will be someone else's soul; someone else's arrangement and content and philosophies overlaying the atmosphere. It will work. The kids will learn and grow and have fun. But it's not the same.
Goodbye room.
No space to call your own, that makes me so sad. The bare bones of the room show no life. I can't believe they were the same room. You put the life into the room with your "stuff." I loved the repetition in each section of your piece. It will be interesting how you build the community from a cart.
ReplyDeleteI remember you doing this same thing not so long ago. I don't know how you do it, but you do it, and you somehow make it work. That will be one amazing classroom on a cart if you are driving! Good luck.
ReplyDeleteLove how in the writing the room came to life and had a soul and how you could feel it's hurt in your piece as it came down (and how the pictures should that as well). I've always been a cart gal going into others' spaces (you find ways to carry the space with you and make room within the spaces you borrow). It will be okay! ;)
ReplyDeleteJennifer, it is definitely sounding like grief at this time. I'm sad for you & your room looked quite wonderful. I know that you will have fun and teach your students well no matter where you travel, but also that it's not the same. I travel now too, teaching little groups here & there. I have an office that I call my own, but only little groups come there. I understand some of what you mean. Perhaps you should decorate a cart & call it your rolling room-decorated with a new front poster each week, etc. I bet the kids would love it! Buena suerte! (I know this one, no translation!)
ReplyDeleteLove that we are able to reconnect doing SOL! Your classroom looked awesome! I can only imagine how tough it is not to have your own "physical" space, but I can assure you that your space is just one part of your teaching--I watched you get kids to speak Spanish with ease and grace. Take a few moments to grieve, but know that your lessons carry far beyond those walls!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kelli! That means a lot, coming from someone who actually saw me teach! :-)
DeleteI know how you feel Jennifer. It feels so weird not to have a space. It amazes me how much you have take down and move around. Is this the way it has always been? Will next year be the same?
ReplyDeleteBasically, yes, this is how it's always been. In fact, I just began to have rooms at my first two schools last year. Before that, I didn't have a room anywhere. Next year... who knows! I don't even know what I'm teaching next year yet. I do know that it won't be this... but I don't know what it will be!
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