There were no tears today. There were lots of laughs over "by zombies" thanks to that lesson on active and passive voice. There were questions about paraphrasing and parenthetical citations. But no tears.
Yesterday, every time I thought about school, even when I was writing the Nitty Gritty, I would tear up. And I wrote and complained and vented. And then I was encouraged. I was encouraged by friends and former co-workers. But then the nicest thing happened. I had an Ann moment. Misti and Talaura will know what I mean because they were given the same blessing of having Ann Frankland as a guide, teacher, encourager . . . super amazing woman that taught us to think. I have always held Ann, Sarah Webb, Roger (and others) up as my gold standard. That is what I want to be when I am in class. I want to give students permission to be themselves, to think for themselves, to dream, to find their bliss and not let go. Oh yeah, there are state standards and all that too.
Sometimes, it is really hard to tell if I am hitting the mark. There are always kids who sit, eyes glazed over just waiting for the bell, and then there are kids that listen. But do they get it?
And then just as I was shutting down all the gizmos for the night, I got an email from a student, a friend now, who once sat in my class. She got it. She appreciated it but more importantly, she got - from me- all those things that Ann gave us. Permission. Inspiration. Courage. Independence. The idea of a powerful woman.
And I cried and snotted some more. Thankful tears. Reassured, I went back to my challenging class today. They were still a handful, but I don't think they enjoyed it as much today. Turns out I still had a few tricks in my magic bag of class management. I handled them with grace because some one reminded me that I could. The rest of us learned a little that hour.
Thank you my friends.
That's what we do.
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