Layers

“A grownup is a child with layers on.”
~Woody Harrelson

It is late and I am STILL working...  Today involved the kind of crazy busy-ness that invigorates.  My mind has been stimulated and today (even more than yesterday, but less so than tomorrow), I am convinced that this will be the best school year yet.  During faculty meeting today, excerpts from 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny, Life Lessons from Teaching by Phillip Done, were read aloud.  (Yes, even adults enjoy listening to stories!)  This is a book truly after the elementary school teacher's heart.  One of the vignettes especially hit home.  Often as teachers we refer to our years according to labels like "The Year of Jordan" or "The Year of Taylor," each pertaining to the outstanding successes (or admittedly, the nightmares) that permeated a particular academic tenure.  I have been fortunate~ unlike the author~ in that I have never referred to any given one as "The Year of Satan."  This school year has already been given a label, even before the students arrive in the classroom.  You will think I am selfish.  This year is "The Year of Stephanie."  Stephanie.  As in me, the teacher.  Yep, that's what I said.

This year I am going to do exactly what I want in the classroom:  I am going to be the best that I can be...the best reader, the best writer, the best friend, the best role model to the children around me, the caring adult in the classroom.  I am going to think in ways I have never thought before, to contemplate, analyze, wonder, take risks, and to solve problems.  I am going to ask questions.  Important ones.  Especially ones that begin with "Why...?" and "How...?"  I am going to search for the answers, too.  "I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma." ~Eartha Kitt

Most of all I am going to learn.  I am going to take all the lessons my students teach me and make them into something beautiful.  Somehow.  Some way.  My friend told me recently that I enrich the lives of those around me.  I don't know how true that is, or really what to say about it other than this:  In our classroom this year, the goal is simple.  We will live and breathe and work and laugh and learn together.  And by doing so, we will enrich the lives of others.  To take what each of us brings into this classroom and use it to make something beautiful...well, that is the best kind of selfish we can be.

“Growing up is never easy. You hold on to things that were. You wonder what's to come. But that night, I think we knew it was time to let go of what had been, and look ahead to what would be. Other days. New days. Days to come. The thing is, we didn't have to hate each other for getting older. We just had to forgive ourselves... for growing up.”
~The Wonder Years