Thankful

My first teaching experience was in a wonderful, wonderful school. The principal was amazing. When I asked her once how long she had been the principal, all she said was, “I was principal when most of the Moms were students.” She was tough, but she was great. She loved the school. She loved the students. She didn’t have an easy job.

The school was full of talented teachers. These were some of the best I’ve ever worked with in all my years of teaching. They were insanely creative, dedicated, and passionate. They had to be. The student body was hard. It was a school where 90% of the students were free and reduced, at least 80% were from single parent homes, many students were being raised by someone other than a parent, and many had trouble learning. I taught special education at the school. It was hard, but I loved it.

     My first Thanksgiving as a teacher (prior to the days of googling cute activities) I developed a wonderful lesson plan about Thanksgiving. It was a cheesy lesson in which the kids were going to use their hands to draw turkeys, write something they were thankful for, and then share their sentences with each other. The night before the lesson, I got nervous. In my naive bubble of a world self, I was worried that the kids would not find something to be thankful for. I decided at the last minute to change the lesson. I decided that we would make the turkey hands and then the students would trade the turkeys and write about what they appreciated about each other. Each of the feathers would contain one thought from each of their classmates. Each thought would detail what they liked about their friend.

     The lesson went surprisingly better than I had thought. Of course, my students struggled with spelling and some of the organization of their thoughts, but in the end I was thrilled. The students spent a lot of time reading their turkey hands once they received them back and the amazing things that their classmates said about them made their hearts happy. That afternoon I was the only teacher left in the school getting ready for the next week (you know how we new teachers are) when my principal came by to kick me out or so I thought. She was in my room before I knew it with one of my students and his grandmother.

    I was so worried as this grandmother always protected her grandson-no matter what he did.  I really didn’t want to begin Thanksgiving break with an issue. The principal looked at me and said to the grandmother, “Mrs. Lynch will you tell Miss Eaddy what you just told me?” The grandmother stepped closer with Roger, her grandson, attached to her arm. She started to speak and started to cry. She wanted me to know that Roger came home upset. He was upset because no one gave me a turkey. The grandmother didn’t understand and that is when Roger detailed the activity that we had done. She said that she didn’t even know that others thought that way about Roger (her words-especially since he is so d$&^ mean to them all the time). She said that she realized by looking at his face how much those nice words meant. But he wanted to bring me a turkey since I didn’t get one. He even went to the apartment of two other classmates and had them write on a feather. I was speechless. I was touched.

     I still have that turkey. I keep it in my smile file. On the days when I have little to find in my work that I am grateful for, I pull out this smile file. I am reminded that one of the things that I will always be most grateful for is this work we do. It isn’t always easy. It isn’t always fun. It isn’t always what I want to do. But it is always important. It is always life changing-for me and for my students. And who could not be thankful for that?

Opening Emails....

    Rosebro1 spent most of the fall applying for colleges and college scholarships. It is an amazing journey  watching him move from a kid to a young man. On Friday afternoon, he received an email. It was from the school he really, really wants to attend. These days, you don’t get snail mail like we all did, but rather you get an email to “check the status of your application.” I sat beside him waiting for him to open his portal. I tried not to admit how nervous I was for him.  He looked at me and said, “Mom, (then the longest pause ever) I got in.” With the biggest smile I have seen on his face since last year when our world fell apart, I hugged him with such pride. He left me soon after to find out what other of his friends found out about their applications. I was alone and that is when the emotions took over. As a Mom, you never forget your babies. The new country song, “I’ll always remember you young” is so true. He is my baby. And he soon will leave me. But this is what I want. This is what we have worked for since his birth. This is why I read to him since I could see a baby bump. This is why we studied spelling words, listened to rap music of the multiplication tables, worked on countless projects, and fussed about effort. I have prayed about this journey more than probably anything else.

    Then I started thinking about when he started kindergarten. He had been in preschool (and his mom was a teacher) so he knew all his letters and sounds and was a beginning reader. And I loved watching that process. Learning how words work, being able to break unknown words apart, reading “real” books for the first time was amazing to watch. I remember when Rosebro2 was in 1^st grade, we had to change the cover of his Junie B Jones books to Magic Tree House covers because he didn’t want his friends to know that he loved Junie B. Jones books. I was humiliated when I preached and preached against AR points and Rosebro1 was the 1^st grade AR point winner for the year.

     This is why we do what we do. It is going to hurt when Rosebro1 leaves in August. I know him very well and he is not a home body. Yes, he will come home occasionally weekends and holidays and maybe summer, but he will not live with me full time ever again. It is a different kind of grief. It is a happy grief if that is such a thing. But it is what I worked for. It is why I’ve done what I’ve done for 18 years with him. It hasn’t been easy. It hasn’t always been fun. But it sure has been worth it.

     Isn’t this what it is like to be a teacher?  It is hard. It is not always fun. It is a lot of work, but it is worth every bit of it WHEN it is done right. Rosebro1 has a friend who has not made good choices always. His mother has made less good choices than him. It has made her job as a parent even harder. She tries, but she just never seems to carry out all of her promises. She called me Sunday. Her son not only didn’t get in to college, he had never applied in the first place. I thought about her and I thought about our work here. We can do it half way and get nothing but heartache or we can go all in and see the benefits of our hard work. One is so much more fun and one is educational malpractice. You make the choice.

Voting

I have loved politics since our family friend, Carroll Campbell, ran and won the office of Governor of SC in the 1980s.  I enjoy following the political races and the platforms that each candidate uses as the basis of their campaigns. As a youngster, I had a strong belief in how politicians could use their power for lasting positive change. While I may have become a little more cynical about it all over the years, I am no less fascinated or interested in the political process. I have no desire to ever run for office or hold political office (sometimes my current position is political enough), but I think, ultimately, I still hold on to the deep seeded belief that our democracy and its foundational theory can and will make positive changes for our community, our state, and our nation.  With all that said, I attended an event recently surrounding a Spartanburg election. This pseudo- debate/forum was uneventful so my mind wandered throughout the night about our schools.  Repeatedly “one Spartanburg”- a tagline that we are familiar with in Spartanburg-was mentioned. I started thinking about the fact that one person matters-something we talk about in our vision each year. And should not each person in our classroom matter?  Then the candidates started talking about the power of their positions.  Then I got to thinking about what our schools and staff would be like if we had to run for office.

What would be your platform if you had to “run” for your position? As a younger adult, I voted based on my family’s political views, then I started changing based on what each candidate could do for me or how they felt about each issue. My voting can, at times, seem very diverse as I rarely, if ever, voted for one party’s ticket. I tend to look at candidates that are most like me, candidates that motivate me, provide for action, and bring us together. Isn’t that what we want in our classrooms? 

Don’t we want teachers who will motivate students? Teachers motivate by being excited about their teaching. Nothing excites me more than a teacher who shares a book with students as if she has never read the book.  Teachers who fill their classrooms with engaging activities because they know their students’ needs are motivating to students. Motivating students means coming in a few minutes early to give an extra push or staying late to help a student who is just not getting a key concept. Motivating is taking the time to really respond to each piece of work that a student does so that student understands the important value they have in your eyes. Making a student feel included and making a student understand their place in the classroom motivates a student.

Teachers who empower students to take action are teachers I would vote for in an election. Teacher empower students by giving students choices. I found in my classroom when I allowed students to have choice, they produced far greater products than when I put my demands on them for assessments or assignments. Empowering students to take action is done through helping students reflect. Engaging in reflection is done as part of “messing up” or making an unfortunate decision, but do we engage students in reflection for other parts of their day. Reflection helps students make sense of learning. Empowering students also comes from giving students a voice-do you ask for their opinions? Do you listen to their feedback?

And finally, bringing folks together is a quality in candidates that I look for-political and teaching candidates as well. Some of the best teachers I have ever worked with made each of their classrooms sanctuaries. They made them places that I wanted to sit in and stay for a long while. What these teachers understood was that the most important part of a classroom was managing relationships. How many of you stand at your door when the bell rings and shake each student’s hand or greet them all by name or a smile or a secret handshake or a pat on the back? How many of you look for ways to praise students all day long? How do you spend time with each student getting to know them?

So if “elections” were held tomorrow for teachers, would you be elected?