Goodbye Room

Day 3 of 31 at TWT

I love having a room.  I love creating an exciting, homey space that surrounds kids with language and culture.  I love using every space in the room to support their language use and develop their curiosity about other countries.  I love arranging the room in a way that says, "This is a community. We are going to have fun learning together!"

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.

my room at School #2, until 3:30 yesterday afternoon...

But then I see empty walls, so bare and boring.  The soul of the room is gone.  It doesn't look anymore like a place where kids have learned and laughed and grown.  Goodbye room.  Goodbye community.  Goodbye connections, tough questions, and anticipation.

...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.