One down, 35 to go!

Whew! What an exhausting, emotional, encouraging first week of school!  I've survived four 13 hour days, an almost emotional breakdown, volleyball and basketball try outs, new 7th graders, and I am more than ready for my three day weekend.  However, at 1:34am on this Friday night (or technically Saturday morning), I can't seem to find the off switch to my brain.  It just won't stop playing information on the backs of my eyelids.   This is not normal for me.  Normally, at 8pm I'm asleep on the couch on a Friday, and especially with the events of the week, you'd think I'd be exhausted.  Of course, my brain is not normal, so here I am in the middle of the night, giving in to my outlet.

Instead of sleeping, I'll just brag on my students and how awesome I think they are after one week.  This has been probably the best first week of my ever-so-lengthy teaching career of four completed years.  I'm pretty blessed with a great group of littles this year.  There are a few things about the week that I will choose to celebrate:

1.  They spoke up about the kind of classroom they want to create.  On the first day, I went through my mantra of classroom expectations and procedures, but before they left, I asked them what kind of classroom atmosphere they wanted to create.  I was so impressed and proud of the responses that fell from their pencils upon the notecards they were given.  I took what they said and posted all of them at the front of them room so that both of us are reminded of the kind of place we want to be a part of.  I wish I would have taken a picture but I forgot.  Some of the responses looked like this:
- I don't like to be left out.  I don't want to feel invisible.
- I want to feel like I can create whatever I want and that it will matter.
- I think a writing class should function like a newspaper.  Everyone writes their own stories and then puts them together.
- I will positively affect this class by encouraging others to like writing.
- I would like to be a part of a positive, peaceful learning environment.
- I want to be treated with respect.

I'm paraphrasing several of these, but you get the idea.  There were several more really thoughtful ones, but I can't remember them now.   I was just impressed with the thought that went into these powerful, little sentences.  I hope they feel empowered.  I want them to have a voice too.

2. I spent some time getting to know them.  On day two of school, I decided I was already tired of hearing myself talk, so I let them do a little sharing.  We moved our chairs into a circle and played the "Take what you need game" with toilet paper.  For each square of toilet paper they took, they had to share a fact about themselves.  This was a lot of fun and I learned so much about them!  Yes, it took a while, especially with my larger classes, but to me, it was worth it.  Afterwards, I explained that my goal for this game was to lay a foundation upon which we could build a community of writers.  The more comfortable they are with each other, the more likely they are to share their writing, and isn't that the point?  There is power in sharing among a community of writers, in affirming peers and receiving affirmations from peers, which is why I wanted to start nailing in the stakes of respect, community, and camaraderie.  I just hope they buy into it with me!

3. I had them write me letters.  This is something I do every year.  I write them a letter introducing myself and require them to do the same.  They use my letter as a model for their own.  This helps me gauge where their writing skills and of course get to know them a little more.  I haven't read all of them yet, but I'm excited to.  These littles are uber creative!

4. I had them perform skits.  Seventh graders know how school works.  They know the expectations of a classroom, and hearing my voice drone on expressing proper procedures is like paddling the English Channel with only your hands.  Eventually we'll get to the other side, but I might lose a couple along the way.  Instead, I had them create skits that demonstrated our classroom procedures.  These are called CHAMPS and are displayed on the walls.  A.) They had to read the wall to know how to demonstrate them, B.) they practiced working together, using our procedures, and C.) I still taught my expectations without losing anyone to the lulling waves of my voice.

All in all, it was a great week.  I'm so excited about the coming year, and I hope all my other teaching comrades could celebrate a stellar first week as well.  Next week we start 6 word memoirs, which is probably one of my most favorite things we do all year.  They are fun, and I love to see how creative they get with 6 words.  My students have awesome brains, so I'm sure I'll be sharing more from them next week.  Yay 7th grade!

And so it begins again.

It's that time again.  The start of school is upon us, and honestly, I'm kind of ready for it because this is the time of year when I get really excited about being a teacher.  I get a clean slate, a refresh button, a chance to start over.  I read teachery books and teachery blogs all summer in hopes of revamping my classroom and gaining more teachery wisdom from those who do it better.  I sift through endless grains of information, straining to find my gold.  What I read churns up new ideas, so by the time school starts, I'm brimming with awesome.  All summer I feel like I've been clicking my way up to the top of the roller coaster, gathering inspiration, preparing for the drop.  I feel ready to implement all my new teachery ideas and rock my students' worlds, and I'm such an idealist, a dreamer that I think all of these will flow uninhibited, flawlessly into my classroom, like a gentle breeze of revolution.   As I've learned from past experiences, though, after a couple weeks, I realize I'm not all that, and my classroom doesn't always resemble the well-oiled, pristine machine I'd visualized all summer.  And I'm becoming OK with that.

It's always difficult to process the feeling of not measuring up, which creeps to the forefront of my mind often.  There is always someone who does it better, which means I must be doing it wrong, right?  My brain gets gray and hazy with self-doubt sometimes, and I'm a little too hard on myself.  But I've been doing some soul-searching and reminiscing of past years in the classroom, and I've decided that I do some good things.  It's unrealistic for me to assume that I can adapt a hundred new strategies from Pinterest and completely restructure my classroom around others' ideas.  Where's the ownership in that?  I'm firm believer in kids taking ownership of their learning, but I wasn't taking ownership of my teaching.  I'm not saying I can't learn from people, but it was getting to the point where I was discrediting my own experiences, which is just not healthy.  I've realized that I need trust myself too.  There's no way I can possibly implement all the ideas that have crossed my eyes this summer:  1.) Everyone is different and runs their classroom accordingly.  2.) That's just too much multi-tasking, and I'm not that talented.  3.) The fun of teaching lies in the atmosphere I create.

I never want to get to a point where I feel like I know everything.  That's a like a tree willing itself not to grow.  I love learning and will continue to research ways to better myself, but learning to trust myself is an invaluable lesson too, one that I can't read on a teachery blog.  So, this year, I think I'll try a couple of new things in class as well as continue to build upon what I do already: build relationships to reach kids where they are.

I've still got A LOT of work to do before the year starts (seriously, I won't sleep next week), but as I nail down specifics of how my classroom will work, I wait at the top of this coaster for the last couple of clicks.  Then the only thing left will be to close my eyes, lift my hands, and drop.