It’s the perfect time for me to remember, I am not a superhero. I make mistakes. I’ve had many conversations with my students about this during the beginning of the year. I shared how they should celebrate their mistakes because that is how they will learn. I read multiple picture books on this topic to cultivate our thinking like The Book of Mistakes by Corrina Luken or The Bad Seed by Jory John, but when it comes to me, I seem to forget the lessons I wanted my students to learn. This is especially true in the season of parent teacher conferences, report cards and assessing. Luckily, my Avengers teams had my back and reminded me of what’s important. Attending the NYSRA (New York State Reading Association) and NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) conferences my PLC came along when I needed them the most to help renew my spirit, reinvigorate my practice and reinspire my thinking.
One of the amazing members of this community is Katherine and Randy Bomer, a tag team duo who readily combat injustice and fight for equitable education we hope all students receive. I heard them speak at NCTE and one moment that reverberated in my being was when they shared, “We are never done becoming.” A simple, but profound statement.
In the rush of my daily schedule I need to stop and remind myself that my students and I are enough. Let’s honor where we are in the learning process and find joy in the growth we will continue to make. Let’s not see things in a deficit model (I don’t have the skills to…they can’t…etc.). Instead let us embrace where we are and think of our next steps to grow. It’s okay if these are baby steps, we will get there. If we start thinking in an appreciative perspective model we should even get there in a joyful journey.
I share this because attending these conferences, I get to learn from some of the most brilliant minds in our field. They encourage me to take more risks in my own education endeavors and give me the courage to become more.
Here are my new goals, ways I will be challenging myself in the upcoming months. Writing them down and making them public for both you and my second grade students will be the first step in my journey.
1. Start Daily Journals with my students and myself - These will be separate from my students’ writing journals. This idea was inspired by the work of Katie Cunningham and my purpose in setting this goal is to help me get to know my students better. I want them to feel that their voices are heard and valued in our classroom.
2. Create new poetry VLOGs with my students to share their love of poetry, and their work and thinking on this genre. Inspired by my many conversations with poets (including Amy Ludwig VanDerwater - check out The Poem Farm website at www.poemfarm.amylv.com), teachers (including Emily Callahan) and students (like Olivia Van Ledtje) at NCTE and online, I want to help my students see that their voices matter, that they have the power to influence and teach others.
3. Rethink my teaching units by prioritizing skills, so I teach more and cover less. Inspired by Kate Roberts and Maggie Beattie Roberts I want to help increase my students independence and agency over their own learning.
I hope that you will tune in during the next few months as I share our work and how it is going. I know mistakes will be made, but education should be messy. We will learn from our mistakes and develop new strategies. Most importantly, we will honor our choices, our knowledge and our passions as my students and I learn and grow from one another.
