Love those kids

Tuesdays at Two Writing Teachers!

Before all the last-day hugs and photos, my students spent several weeks analyzing, reflecting on, and celebrating their learning this year. (More posts are brewing!)

Reading through their reflections, I nodded and smiled as my heart grew so full it seemed ready to leap from my body and fly onto their pages. So many kids now hold different identities, and they know it! So many kids became readers who connect to books and writers who write for real purposes and audiences. So many kids now inhabit a world where words have real power, and they are confident of their ability to participate in that world. I hope they always hold onto that.

I had so many ideas today of ways to reflect on my own year, but none of them seemed quite right. All of a sudden, Sharon Creech's Love that Dog popped into my head, and I knew that was it! I love those kids. I scrambled to find Walter Dean Myers' original poem, "Love that Boy"... and this is where it took me:

Love those kids
like a daisy loves the sun
I said, love those kids
like a daisy loves the sun
Love to call them in the morning,
"It's a great day, everyone!"

They curl in chairs
and dive into books.
I said, they curl in chairs
and dive into books.
They know that words can carry them
as close or far as they dream of.

They write their lives,
making words dance and sing.
I said, they write their lives,
making words dance and sing.
They recognize the power
their very own stories bring.

They walk with strength and courage,
reaching out and standing tall.
I said, they walk with strength and courage,
reaching out and standing tall.
They'll find their places in this world
with their words to keep them strong.

Year-End Reflection (2011-12)

As I discussed earlier today, I'm finally ready to write my end-of-the-year reflection, using Ruth's prompts to focus my thinking.  2011-12 was a difficult school year: our levy failed, bringing my 6th and 7th grade programs to an end, we were involved in challenging professional development initiatives about student growth data, and controversial politics in our state hung like a dark cloud over educators. But there was plenty of sunshine too, including excitement about increasing student learning, collaboration with colleagues, ever-emerging new technology, and the simple joy of sharing something I love with wonderful students.  Anyway...

I learned:

• My ideas are worth sharing!
• Embracing the reader and writer within me makes me a better teacher.
• I CAN make time for reading (books, not just blogs!) and writing every day!
• I LOVE teaching. Period.  Teaching students AND teaching my colleagues.
• Building relationships and sharing ideas with colleagues in my building(s) is one of the most valuable ways I can spend my time.
• Support from colleagues matters.
• You can never take for granted what you think students know.
• Allowing students to see you in a different light (such as on the DC trip) can do wonders for how they respond to you. 
• Building relationships with parents reminds you that every STUDENT in your class is a lovable PERSON in a family.
• There are plenty of things that are bigger than school.
• My family is awesome!  (Well, I already knew this... but it's good to have reminders!)

I was stretched by:

• Having to go re-learn my "cart-ninja" skills after having my own room for the first two trimesters.
• Balancing my time to incorporate blogging.
• Being sent to Washington, DC with the 8th graders while having to leave my 6th & 7th grade classes behind.
• Figuring out how to draw out enthusiasm from reluctant students.
• Trying (and mostly failing) to start working out more often.
• Incorporating new web tools into my classroom (and deciding which ones I wanted to try!)
• Supporting my colleagues in their use of technology and teaching them how to use Moodle, their webpages, SMARTboards, and RSS readers.
• Jumping more deeply into ESL by co-teaching the Welcome Center class at School #3.
• Learning to document and track my students' growth in more concrete ways.
• Taking on a leadership role within the Alumni Band.

I'm excited about:

• Continuing to CONNECT with my colleagues and friends I've met through blogging!
• Sharing more of my ideas with colleagues in my district!
• My big leap into High School ELL!
• Sharing reading and writing with students, and helping them love it too!
• Diving back into math, science, and social studies as I help my ELLs with them.  (I always loved all subjects in school!)

I'm beginning to realize:

• There will NEVER be enough time to do everything I want to do.  I have to pick and choose and make time for the most important things.
• Sometimes, I have to choose the not-so-important things too.  Because they're also important, just in a different way.
• Reading and writing are part of who I am.  A big part.
• Never focus so hard on the STUDENT that you lose sight of the PERSON that a learner is.  Those personal connections mean everything, and every person is valuable in their own way.
• Teaching is NOT going to get any easier, ever.  I will always feel like I have so much to learn... but that's a good thing, because I never want to stop learning.

Objects in mirror are closer than they appear

at Two Writing Teachers!

During the last week of school, Ruth posted a wonderful end-of-year reflection with thoughtful guiding statements that encouraged the rest of us to do the same.  I read it.  I connected with so many of her thoughts.

Now, I'm typically extremely reflective (as I'm sure you can tell from my blog!), but it's more of an ongoing, informal, day-of-the-lesson reflection process.  A final, cumulative look back at the year sounded like a great idea, and something that might give me some new insights. I saved Ruth's post in Evernote (which, by the way, I PROMISE to write about someday!) with plans to create my own year-end reflection.

But there were grades to post, Jarritos to buy, lots of stuff to pack, a year-end outing to attend with teachers I might never see again, and lots to think about for next year!  Oh, and the Memorial Tournament was going on, a family tradition since I was little.  And did I mention I had to get ready for summer school?  The reflection idea completely slipped out of my mind.  (Which, after all, is why I use Evernote!)

In the coming weeks, I read some posts by slicers who wrote their reflections.  Linda even reflected on her reflection, which was really cool!  Oh yeah!  I wanted to write follow Ruth's sentence starters to write a reflection!  But I didn't really feel like it.  

There was summer school... 
and a big pile of books to read...
and TeachersWrite... 
plans to finalize for our vacation to Spain...
it was so sunny out...
I wanted to meet my husband for lunch...
so much to think about to get ready for next year...
all these Spanish lessons I'll never do again that I want to blog about...

It's funny how time just slips by, sometimes slinking quietly like a gentle stream and sometimes charging through like a rushing river after a flood.  Suddenly, it's the last week of summer school, when it seems that just a few days ago I was planning our Olympics unit!  And yet, on the other hand, the school year seems to have floated away, a tiny speck in the distance behind me.

It's just like looking in the rearview mirror: I can barely see what's right behind me, because it's sitting in my blind spot.  I can only see the closest things if I turn and look on purpose, and then my view is focused on that one thing.  This is the kind of reflection I do during the school year.

photo credit: gustaffo89 via photo pin cc

To really look back at the wide view, I have to be far enough away for it to show up in my mirror.  This is the real reason I couldn't write my reflection right when the year ended.  I was still in the midst of it all!  It was still in my blind spot!  Now that I can see it, I'm ready to write.  After all, it's not as far away as it seems.  Just far enough away that I can see it.