Making Miracles

Along with many of you, I am stirring restlessly on the evening before the start of a new school year. I thought I was being creative when I began to pen "Twas the Night Before School". One line in, I turned to Google, thinking Someone has to have done this before... And, of course, they did.

In today's world, nearly all knowledge is accessible in a few clicks. To conceive an original idea is much less probable given the widespread, immediate, and public transmission of information and text via the internet - no longer do we need to wait for information or ideas to be published and transmitted between cultures, across professions, etc. (Much less memorize mountains of facts!).

It was easy to concede that my moment of inspiration was anything but original. But, even after searching and finding an already-penned poem about the night before school, I contemplated creating my own version, too. Before I continued though, I paused to ask myself, What would be the purpose?

Living in a connected, digital world beckons the question of purpose much more than it is asked.

I didn't pen my own version of the poem because my purpose was not to sort through the anxiousness of the night before school - after eight years, I don't really get the jitters anymore. My purpose, however, was to articulate the tiny wonder that is teaching - the reason I can't sleep. As teachers, I believe that our work is indeed the stuff of miracles. And, as much as education policy or internal politics may give us reason to vent, I truly believe what was already articulated for me when I googled my not-so-original idea:

"...they cannot take our voices, our ideas, our knowledge or relationships away,
so happy back-to-school to all, may learning and leadership be our mainstay."

Just because an idea isn't original, doesn't mean it isn't powerful. But as teachers, we must ask What is my purpose? What do I want students to learn by doing this? We must get beyond the standard, the jargon, and the test. We must answer this question truly and authentically. And when we do, miracles will happen.

'Twas the Night Before School (student version)

'Twas the Night Before School (teacher version)

The Importance of Audience

The media specialist and I spent a portion of today looking over writing portfolios for each grade level. There are so many reasons I love looking at portfolios - not in the least is some amazing examples of invented spellings! For example, a first grader wrote, "I got the sam fet azz like my mom." (That's 'the same feat as my mom' btw). How can you not laugh and love that?!

Our district defines the types of writing samples that need to be included in the portfolio each month. We were checking the narrative sample - an "about me" prompt, varying from a 3-5 sentence composition for first grade to a more formal piece for fifth grade. The array of approaches to the same requirement across teachers of the same grade level was astounding! I learned just as much about our teachers today as I did our writers. But the take-away thought I have for everyone is this....

As teachers, part of our job is to make learning purposeful. This is true for writing as well! We need to make sure that students' writing does not just stay on a piece of paper hidden in a folder and that's that! Every time our students write,  we need to have an audience in mind. Each time your students pick up a piece, ask yourself, how can you create an audience for your students' writing beyond the teachers' eyes?  Can we...

• have students' books as an option to read in the auditorium?  (our students begin their day by reading silently in the auditorium while listening to instrumental, meditative background music before being dismissed to class; it's lovely!)
• set up days with other classes or grade levels where we can share our work in an authors' cafe (this could be just for your class, too - students could eat in lunch and have an authors' share time without cutting into the curriculum!). 
• contact the local library, coffee shop, etc. to see if we can get our students' work on display? 
• use RAFT when we don't have a real audience possible 
• be sure to include an authors' share time for students to read their work (this doesn't have to be at the end of the writing process, either.

Waiting until the Creative Writing / Young Authors festival in the spring isn't good enough! 

Do not let your students' writing remain dead. Give it some life by giving it an audience!

 Happy writing!