Greatness Lesson #1

The most common thought in my head is that these students deserve someone better than me teaching them. I've watched great teachers teach and they are amazing. They engage their students in a way no one else can. But why am I the teacher they get? We do some cool things and I make sure we get through the curriculum, but most of the time I think I have nothing else to offer. I have nothing to give them. What even creates greatness? How does a teacher become the great teacher? When I take a look at great teachers I have noticed a few things. I want this year in this blog to be about these lessons.

First, many of the best teachers never actually planned on being a great teacher. Some, didn't even want to be a teacher. Ron Clark, founder and teacher at the Ron Clark Academy and winner of the National Teacher of the Year, only went into to teaching to be a substitute until he could figure out his career. Mike Feignberg and David Levin, co-founders of KIPP, the largest network of charter schools in America,, also had not planned to be in education and were completing a simple Teach for America assignment. There are many others and they each had a different plan for their life but they were open to a new plan. In their new plan, a passion they didn't even knew existed, arose. This is an interesting point because it means that greatness comes from within and is not a designated career path. Their greatness in teaching was already apart of who they were. This is not to say, you can't become better skilled, but it means that your greatness is not about what you DO but who you ARE. You simply being you is what makes you ready for greatness. Who am I as a teacher? What is inside me that cause a spark that in turn will ignite a generation?

Empty

Quiet. It was unbelievably and painfully quiet. All of the voices of children shouting out answers, reading aloud, talking through problems, a discovery made seemed to have vanished as quickly as they came into the room. A room filled with laughter and discussion was now filled with an eerie silence. I stood alone in my room staring out at the window. It was like an empty gymnasium after the championship game. It was over. Finished. I had to get up and leave the year behind. More difficult however, was I had to trust my ability as a teacher and trust the kids and move on. I wished I had had more time. Surely I hadn't taught them everything they needed to know. They need to come back! I didn't warn them enough about 5th grade...I didn't tell them my last story...Maybe they still need to review long division...I need to show them another way I forgot about to take notes...They don't come back. With all your power in you as exhausted as you are by the end of the year, you have to believe that you did the best with your students. You DID teach them everything they need to know. It's done now. The author puts the pen down, the last person in the stands has left, the audience has gone home, and you, teacher, walk to your car with your box of drawings from students, pictures from the year, and some books students returned to you at the last minute. Yes, this year is finished, but as only a teacher can, that quiet room will be transformed with magic again. The magic of adventure and discovery will intrigue new minds.

The Kitchen Table

Where did you do your homework after school? Where did you share the ups and downs about your day where someone was listening to you? Where did you let everything out that you had bottled up in front of your friends all day? Where did you ask someone wiser advice about a problem with your best friend or what to say to that cute boy or girl in your class? The kitchen table is the meeting place where many children dump their bookbags, eat a snack, and begin the toturous night of the homework mountain. I'm sure you can hear them...the groans, the sighs, the complaints, the arguing. Then, and if you're not careful you can miss it, very quickly as they begin....something happens. Something good. They share their life. They express what is important to them. I did this as well, as my mom often cooked dinner. She didn't realize what she was doing. I'm sure she was more concerned with what she was cooking and making sure our families chaotic life was in order, answering a call from Dad or helping my sister. However, I watched her so much then. I watched when really listened to me. She didn't have to say anything although she often listened and gave me advice or helped me understand how life works. These moments are often so small and can so easily go by without us knowing.
This evening as I was ready to leave school, I had a boy who was so frustrated about his homwork. He was worried it was going to take forever and that he wouldn't understand what to do. I sighed and told him to pull up a chair to my desk and I would help him after school. We started out with me trying to convince him that it wouldn't take very long. There was some groaning and sighing. However, by the end I realized how important this time was. As he was working out his problems, he began to talk. I let him talk. As I was finishing my things, he talked more. And more. He told me what "REALLY" happened at school. He told me what he did over Spring Break. He told me how he felt about things. He told me why he thinks he says certain things to people. Was this all it took? A chance to listen? I would like to recreate this Kitchen Table experience in the classroom. I am still brainstorming how best to do this. I think it is an important time to teach children their value and importance in this world.

Go All In

I remember the first time I played poker. Of course it was on the school bus on our way home. I remember the hot and sticky air of a June afternoon when school was almost out. The bus would quickly fill up with dust from the gravel roads we followed and out would come the playing cards. At 9 years old, you don't bet with much, mostly it was someone's valued possession pulled from their bookbag, a special rock, a trading card, a bracelet, anything of value. Being one of the only girls on the bus, I took my cues from the boys. They all "knew" how to play and I pretended to know as well. I didn't. In fact, my mom would have probably killed me if she had known I was playing "poker". In reality, "poker" was a slight twist on Texas hold 'em where each boy made up his own rule and everyone got their stuff back because everyone felt bad taking it. Now fast forward 15 years...
2 a.m. and I'm sitting there again, surrounded by all guys. I'm the only girl at the table and it's down to 3 people. I've beaten about 10 other guys. I'm looking at my cards and trying not to smile. "All in, " I say. They are taken back and fold. I didn't have anything but confidence, and I was ahead.
The fear associated with "going all in", a popular poker term, refers to the possibility that you might loose everything. You loose. In the movie Rounders, they talk about losing:
"And it hurts doesn't it? Your hopes dashed, your dreams down the toilet, and your fate is
sitting right beside you."
Playing poker is one thing. It's just a game. It's just money. Although life is similar? How often do we fold our cards because our fear of losing is too great? Why are we paralyzed with this fear? It keeps us from doing the very things God is calling us to do.
As I continue to teach, one thing becomes more and more apparent...I HAVE to go all in. I am committed to the kids I work with. I talk to kids at night to go over homework, we share our concerns in class, I spend hours looking over data and creating lessons to help my struggling students as well as I continue to push my challenging students. My passion is still there, however it is my commitment to these kids that keeps them moving forward. I feel that I cannot be afraid for what is to come. I am moving forward and I am bringing my students with me. Might I lose? Yes. It is possible that when it is all said and done, I may fail. However, when I look at my students' faces come to life when they get excited about something they have learned and when I see them working hard, there is no doubt in my mind that it is indeed worth every single student to go all in. There's no turning back now.
Oh, and contrary to what you may think, there's no luck at all in poker...it's pure confidence.