To All the Students I’ve Loved Before

In that moment I don’t know if I have what it takes to truly know the wonderful mysteries sitting before me on day one. I know they will baffle, thrill, and annoy me to no end. They’ll give me a thousand stories to tell my husband and my friends about the clever, stupid, rude, or sweet things they do all year long. But then the last day will come, and I’ll be thinking, “I don’t want it to end,” and some pain in the butt kid will actually say it right out loud.
AND I WILL BE DONE FOR.

Failing the Students We Pass

Tonight, I want to quit teaching… but I won’t. I work really, really hard to create active, engaging lessons. I read over 150 pages of student writing a week. I give detailed feedback on style, tone, organization, and grammar. I also comment on what students say about themselves, their worlds, and their ideas. I know my students. I LOVE my […]

DO I FAIL YOU?

Dear Suspended Student, For the past couple of days I have been struggling with a question I can’t shake- Did you fail, or did I fail you? You see, I knew from the first day that you were hard, but not unreachable. I knew from the look you gave me when I asked you to take your headphones out and […]

DOUBT- WHERE WISDOM BEGINS

James 1:5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.   Why are we here? What is the point? Does life have meaning and value? These questions intrinsically reflect doubt. They implicitly challenge the notions that there is a reason for life and that each one of us is significant. […]

ON THE PASSING OF A FORMER STUDENT

When I look into their faces as I read them the poem, I still see the young man (who was almost constantly in a cast of some sort) sitting in a middle school classroom. I see his energy and exuberance in their young and promising eyes, and my heart breaks again… and again… and again.

GIFTED AND TALENTED

The students that are non standard according to the academic world are trapped behind desks where they are pushed to operate in their weaknesses rather than their strengths. They are told they need to work harder and achieve more and that they are not enough in themselves. (Does this sound familiar to any of you that are trying to live up to the false standards our culture promotes?)

%d bloggers like this: