28Aug

A Kind of Prayer for the First of the Year

I ran across an old Facebook post today that I banged out when I was still in the throes of not only running my PBL classrooms but also trying to run a school where I got to recruit students and coordinate parent involvement, which was essential to our success.

Please let me make it through the next couple of weeks w/o crashing. It’s the tough time of year when newbies are making BIG mistakes and it’s easy for good parents to get a little “mama bear-ish.” Every single email makes for sleepless nites until I can breathe and craft a professional response. And with this many kids, the number of emails has also grown. Still, I’m ETERNALLY grateful for good parents who care!

When I read the post, I kind of chuckled with a heart-sick feeling, missing the storm that was my life during those years, working 18+ hours a day, and having really very little idea of what we (the students, parents, staff and I) were building with our mixed age classes, mashed up content, no-snow days, and operating on the really radical belief (that was proven right every single day) that all students are capable of doing and being so much more that what traditional school has ever let them be. We were a scrappy crew, to be sure.

And I think back to teachers who are both getting ready to see kids and those who are right now in the midst of doing things differently and hearing back from those “mama bear-ish” parents who aren’t quite sure why things are changing in schools today.

And I acutely see places today where I’m no longer that teacher. “good parents who care.” Yeah, I know now all parents care deeply, even if I don’t see them at the school all the time. ALL parents care about their kids. ALL of them.

I miss those days.

And at the exact same time, I’m eternally grateful I’m no longer in that position. Yet I still wish I was.

To the teachers in the midst of the turmoil right now? (thanks for pausing to read this post)

We see you.
We hear you.
We’re with you.

Have a great year, doing the right things for your kids.