And so it begins…

Monday begins my fourteenth year in my district, my sixteenth in public schools, my eighteenth in education. I am as excited to meet my students on Tuesday as I was eighteen years ago.

Eighteen years ago I taught kindergarten at KinderCare Learning Centers while going to grad school at night to get my elementary education degree.

I’ve learned a lot.

I think of some students from my first classes so long ago – Auggie, Kelsey, Danielle, Derek – and I feel humbled. God knows I tried, and also God knows I had no idea what I was doing.

Even four years later – my first years at Monticello – I was learning. Brittney, Morgan, Robby, Kaitlyn, and many more were so kind to their teacher as she found her way. I am forever in their debt.

Thinking over the years I see faces – the students I will never forget, even if their names don’t come as quickly as they once did. Students are what keep me coming back to this job – year in, year out.

I am grateful for students who still greet me with hugs, reminiscing about their year with me so long ago.

I am grateful for parents who take the time to tell me about their children – where they are, what their future plans hold.

I am grateful for students and parents who have supported me these long eighteen years.

I am grateful for the words of Maya Angelou, “You did the best that you knew how. Now that you know better, you’ll do better.”

There are many times I look back and get frustrated with myself. Why would I have ever used _____? And then, I remember. I did the best I could. I’ve learned, grown, changed.

Over all of the years, however, there is one thing that hasn’t changed. I can picture the faces of those students in my first class as clearly as the students who just left me. I have loved them all. Relationships are something I didn’t need to learn about, it seems. I have always believed that knowing my students, and letting them know me, was critical to the success of our classroom.

In just a few days I will begin creating those relationships again. What has changed is that now I have eighteen years of experience in doing so. Our classroom will be alive with 80 children this year – three classes of 26 or 27 kids. But we are not alone. The hundreds of students I have already taught are there too. Their stories are our stories. My former students have shaped me into the teacher I am today, just as I have – I hope – shaped them into the people they have become. So as I enter my classroom on this eighteenth year, I know I am not alone. That first day I will sit down for our read aloud and glance up at my new class. I will see their faces, but also those of all of the children I have loved.

For this, I am grateful. 

The Start of the School Year

It’s that time of year – the crazy time before school starts. The time of year that I’m overwhelmed and just trying to get something done each day without losing my mind. When trying to realize why I was losing it, why after fourteen years of teaching the start of school still seems insane, I wrote down what I was doing and needed to do to get ready to start. This was my list last week:

Create these documents and put students’ names on:

·      Grade book pages

·      Master Data sheets

·      Homework check in

·      Master list (and numbered list)

·      State Book Award sheet – and that created

·      Folder cover

Put students’ names on:

·      Evernote notebooks

·      Kidblog

·      Biblionasium check-out

·      Plans created – new template

·      First two weeks of plans sketched out

·      ISAT results recorded

·      Schedule created

·      New bulletin board titles created and put up

·      Labels updated

·      Shelves cleaned

·      100+ new books labeled, put in the database, and onto shelves

·      All baskets checked for correct books

·      Room arranged

·      Shelves cleaned

·      Schedule cards created

·      Lunch count created

·      New classroom website and blog created

·      Seating chart created

This isn’t even everything, just what I thought of as I typed. There is so much more to do, and I’m not even “officially” back yet. We have one day to come back (Monday) and then the kids arrive Tuesday.

Deep breaths.

Yet, even with the stress, the excitement is building. I met a few students the other day – got my first hug from one of them. I’ve had texts, emails, and messages from new parents sharing how excited their children are. And when I look around the room, I can feel the anticipation of great things – great book conversations, Skype visits with friends, amazing writing waiting to come forth. I know, I am certain, it is going to be a great year.

And it starts in four days.

Yikes. 

Leadership Exemplified

Chris forwarded this email to me yesterday from a newsletter he receives. The newsletter is written by Doug Cartland, who writes and presents about leadership. (Doug's Website) With Doug’s permission, I’m reprinting it for you below.

I might blog about this tomorrow, or might simply let it be. I was very moved by this marine and young boy. I saw examples of great leadership, what good teaching can look like, and simply honor exemplified.

I will be sharing this post, along with the article linked inside of it, with my students this fall. We’re starting off the year with a great deal of discussions around character and I’m planning to help them look to what type of person they want to be.

Enjoy.

**************

Charlevoix is a small harbor town, tucked into the far northern reaches of the lower peninsula of Michigan. It's beautiful, round Lake Charlevoix is connected by a pretty channel to Lake Michigan and is a natural harbor for lake faring boats. It was also the place of a profound display of leadership just a couple of weekends ago.... Lance Corporal Myles Kerr finished last in the Jeff Drenth Memorial 5K Footrace in Charlevoix, a community event for all ages, shapes and sizes. Kerr is a healthy, athletic, strapping nineteen-year-old Marine. He finished so far behind his buddies, however, that they were concerned that he had gotten hurt. What gives?   Also running in the race was a nine-year-old boy named Boden Fuchs. Boden was not very athletic and he was slowly but surely slipping further and further behind the pack. He had become separated from the group he had come to run with. The young man was lopping along alone, hot, tired, about ready to quit. Peering back, Lance Corporal Kerr spied Boden struggling. Complete with his full backpack, wearing boots and fatigues, he circled back to the boy. Kerr asked Boden if he was okay. The nine-year-old was now well back of the closest runner. He looked up at the Marine. "Sir, would you please run with me?" he asked. The Lance Corporal agreed. There is a wonderful picture of Lance Corporal Myles Kerr running alongside nine-year-old Boden Fuchs, encouraging him, telling him that he would be okay and that he would be with him to the finish. Check it out here: http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/marine-helps-boy-finish-race-viral-photo-160700586.html In the end, Lance Corporal Kerr slid behind Boden, allowing the boy to finish five seconds ahead of him. After they drank some fluids, the Marine helped the boy find and reunite with his group. Kerr certainly ran true to the Marine credo that there will be "no one left behind." But more than that, he proved that true leadership isn't always leading from the front...and it's not always finishing first. Sometimes when it's at its most profound, leadership's rewards are least noticed...in hidden places. Indeed, sometimes leadership is at its best when, rather than running with the elite, it slows its pace...reaches out a hand...lends its encouragement...to the weak. And by that makes the weak stronger than it thought it could be.

Slice of Life - One Week From Today

Slice of Life is sponsored every Tuesday by Stacey and Ruth from Two Writing Teachers

Yesterday I worked in my classroom some more, setting up this library that is overflowing. I worked and thought of my old class and the new one coming. I thought about how cyclical teaching is. How much I love my class from the moment I know they are mine until the time they leave me and forever more. This poem popped in my mind and I thought I’d share.

One week from today,

School begins.

Excited

Nervous

Possibility.

One day from today

I will see my class list.

Seventy-five names

Will immediately be mine.

Love.

Seventy-seven days ago

My heart broke.

As I said goodbye

To a wonderful class.

Tears.

One week ago

I mailed them letters.

Wishing them well.

Saying a final goodbye.

Love.

One day from now.

I will mail my new class letters.

Welcoming them to our room.

Building a relationship.

Love.