A simple poem for my ninth year

Year nine of teaching -
Similar to years past, yet different.
No two years are the same,
All students change.

Who are these students?
What are their stories?
What do they need?
How can I bring them closer to God?

How many sleepless nights
will I spend worried about the classroom,
unsure about the data and assessments,
second guessing the time I spend or topics we cover?

I never feel like I've given enough,
yet each day I dig deeper than before.
I believe that God is in all children
and that all children can learn, just at different rates.

So, this is year nine.
My heart has grown,
my teacher toolbox is ever-expanding.
My students ground me and keep me humble.

This is failing.
And getting up. Again.
This is striving to love like God loves.
This is the start of another year.
This is my chance to say YES to God.
This is teaching in Catholic education.

I'm ready.

It's Magic

Watching students come alive - that's magic.

What's causing this joy and energy? Our school's new literary blog! We haven't had any submissions yet, but the students who are part of our newly formed club have a mission and a plan to get there.

Sure, I'm now giving up my after school time on Thursdays to moderate a club, but let me tell you, it's worth it. To say I have nothing to do with it (except for the opening of my classroom and occasionally redirecting the students back to their determined task at hand) is not a shirk of responsibility; nor is it me trying to be overly humble. It's honestly all the kids.

They are organized and ready to go. I can't wait for their project to get off the ground. 

And me? I'm just the lucky teacher who happened to plant a seed of an idea at the right time to the right student. Let's see how it grows!

Write WITH Me

If you want your students to work more diligently and/or if you want a humbling experience, let your students critique your writing.

I'm completely serious.

During Writers' Workshop this morning, my students tackled my literary essay in response to Sharon Creech's Love That Dog. It was amazing to see them take their pen to paper, labeling key items like the hook, thesis, transitions, use of quotes, etc. They also took notice of repetition, and some pointed out that I needed to replace Jack's name with a pronoun instead in some cases. (We talked a lot about balance.)

And I let them tell me everything - the good and the "bad." Then, one student proceeded to ask me if I meant to write it with those "mistakes" so they could find them. And, I told them all that no, I didn't. I wrote it as I wanted it, but even us teachers have room for improvement.

I think they appreciated the honesty and authenticity - as my coteacher so rightly put it, we critique their writing every day, so why should we be afraid for them to critique ours? [Plus, as I kept hearing over and over at the IRA conference a few weeks ago (see previous early May posts), students need to immerse themselves in models.]

Today's workshop was probably one of the best ones we'd had in a long time, especially since the students had plenty of writing time after the critique. (Some students have come so far this year!)

That whole "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" really resounded in my classroom today. As teachers, all of a sudden, we weren't just giving them an assignment - we became writers right alongside them.

And that seemed to mean quite a lot.