Day 55- May 6, 2020

Day 55- May 6, 2020

One of the best things about Teacher Appreciation Week is the inevitable posts on social media about how wonderful teachers are.  As someone who has spent the last decade plus in education, mainly as an English Teacher, it makes me so happy.  One of my friends posted a note to "cut and paste" the following:

IF I TAUGHT YOU OR YOUR CHILDREN.....
For Teacher Appreciation Week, I'd love for my former students AND parents to REPLY to this post!

Tell me how you are doing and what you are doing (school, job, career, family, quarantine, etc..)!
OR a funny or memorable story from our time together!

Given that it's quarantine, I figured why not.  And the response made me cry- I knew my kids were usually happy in my classes, and I always tried to make them fun, and give them something inspirational to walk out the door with.  Rather than write endless literary criticism (though of course we did plenty of that), I combined it with creative-minded projects, taking a "menu-style" approach to assessments.  What this means, in the simplist terms, is my students always had a choice- I wanted them to show off what they knew about the topic in their own unique ways.  I remember a project we did on Existentialism, where the students studied the concept, read a play by Sartre called "No Exit" and explored the idea that we are what we do.  They literally could do anything they wanted, but they had to explain how it showed their essence, and demonstrate understanding of Existentialism through their explanation.  The results involved performance art, poetry, painting, essays, journals, collage, speeches, powerpoints- it was incredible.  Such a variety, each one as individual as the students who created them. 

My "kids" are now fully grown adults, some of them rapidly approaching the age I was when I taught them, and seeing what they are up to now made me so proud.  It also was deeply satisfying to see their memories of the projects they loved, how some of them inspired them towards the careers they now have, and how much I meant to them as a teacher.  It's little things- a simple message or phrase- that can keep you going as a teacher.

I'm remembering these lessons as I homeschool my own daughters through this pandemic.  I thought of it this morning, as E. was working on her manatee project.  Technically, she's supposed to be reading books and taking notes, which will later be retyped into a power point.  But she's skipped the note-taking and instead is writing her observations straight into the power point- because that's what she wants to do.  For a kid who hasn't wanted to do most of her schoolwork, this is huge progress, and I'm grateful to her teacher for listening when I sent an email saying "um, she's into this- can I let her get a jump on the slide show itself, and can you send me the assignment?"  It's so important for children to be able to have a say in their education, and to be able to demonstrate their grasp of concepts and ideas through a method that means something to them.  She's showing a pride in ownership that I don't always see, and it's really beautiful.

R. used her Couch Arm Jumping game as her newly invented quarantine PE activity for one of her assignments, writing out instructions of how to properly couch arm jump, and including pictures of her sister doing said jumping, and cartoons she drew on the computer to illustrate her points.  I'm happy to see their teachers embracing innovative thought, and finding ways to keep learning fun for the children.  There are only so many pages of a math book that anyone can stare at, even kids who love math as much as mine do.  

In the evening, the girls and I watched a Netflix show that spoke to this "individuality" concept, called "Blown Away".  It's a glass blowing competition, and the contestants were incredibly skilled, taking glass and blowing it, spinning it, and manipulating it into both abstract and concrete designs. We watched, mesmerized, as the heat melted the colors together, and the way the molten sand oozed before being tamed.  I binged it over the last few days before the finale we saw today, and the major lesson I hope the kids take from it is to be true to yourself and your artistic vision- the person who won may not have been the most technically perfect (the runner up was superior in that way), but her artistry and uniqueness sliced through like a battle ax, and it was her willingness to be different that set her up for success.  The girls were rooting for her because her final project involved a giant egg frozen in time slipping over a  pedestal, and a long rope of linked sausages, but I like to think they got some of the subtext.  

Either way, from this show, they saw yet another job that could be a possible calling when they get older, and the idea of having more options is a big one.  You can fail just as easily at something boring as you can at something you love, so why not take the leap to have the life you want?  Because as many of my former students are now telling me, it's worth it, and you just might find success.