NH literacy journeys

In a recent post, Amy said, “I agree with Suzanne and Darron.  I have been in a few public schools now and it all seems the same, how many of us are really that insane to keep giving up as much as we do for 25 years!  I don’t think I will make it….” As one of those “insane” ones who has been in the work for 25 years…I have to answer. Boy, do I love this work. It requires everything I’ve got, makes me yearn to do better year after year, and suprises me (almost daily) with moments and conversations with young people. I know the list of frustrations; I’ve lived them. I started with 34 third-graders in a portable classroom in the Mojave Desert in California where we had to completely move out of our classrooms and into a cupboard every three, six, or nine weeks for a break in our year-round school. But what I remember about that year are the kids–the joy–the moments when we laughed together, sang together, and learned together. And I remember that I ended that year just wanting to be a better teacher.It is still like that. Maybe it is because I’ve changed jobs so many times–from third grade to full-time teaching at a university–the landscape kept changing, as did the challenges and epiphanies. But I still find myself walking to first block with a smile on my face, anxious to see my students, interested in how their writing is going, hopeful I can motivate and encourage them to do the best work they can. I see this work as a privilege.So….I’d like to invite you to share a few of your best times in teaching. We’ve got enough dreariness here in mid-March with multiple feet of snow on the ground and a looming budget vote, so skip the complaints. Find a moment or an experience when you said, “Yes!” as a teacher and share it…I look forward to your responses.