All The Things I Have Not Done

It is time for me to make a confession.  It is time for me to come clean.  Because it is easy to speak about all of the things we do in our 7th grade classroom, it is easy to share ideas, to give advice, to hopefully help others engage students more.  And yet…some of those things that I love the most we are not even doing.

We haven’t started blogging yet.  This monumental cornerstone of our classroom has not found its hold.  It lurks on the horizon, taunting me, reminding me of its presence, and yet, we are not bloggers.  We haven’t had many discussions of how to change education, how to share our voice with the world, how to make a change so that the schools we go to become better with us in them.  We have not been geniuses or innovators.  Nor have we Skyped much.  We have not taken the system apart only to put it back together.  And I am ok with that.  For now.

Because while we have not done all of those things, we have slowed down instead.  We have gotten to know each other, we have read picture books, we have book shopped for half a class.  We have written stories for our eyes only, the classroom so quiet I barely dare move.  We have talked about what it means to be a reader, a writer, a human being.  We have stopped when we needed to instead of forged on.  And the ease at which we now operate in our classroom is profound.  The conversations that slowing down has allowed me to have with my students are irreplaceable.

So while we are not global students.  While we are not innovators.  While we are not out there changing the world, I know that it is only a matter of time.  That my students will get to experience those things when they fit into our day.  When we feel the need to take our voices further than our own four walls.  I know it will happen, it just has not happened yet.  And I am ok with that.

If you like what you read here, consider reading my book Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students.  Also, if you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.

 

 

Filed under: aha moment, being a student, being a teacher, being me, student choice, Student dreams