This puts things into perspective. It is my annual display of annuals, my yearly display of yearbooks. From my first year (1990/1) to last year (2020/1), I now have a complete collection of 31 of these precious mementos.
Really! Thirty-one years.
Really! Thirty-one years.
This is more than a pile of pages, a plethora of pictures, a menagerie of moments. These are the last 31 years of my life - a big chuck of them anyway, 31 years of connections with other human beings, 31 years of entertaining and teaching, laughing and crying, 31 years of living.
This, the 32nd year of this great experiment, and I continue to tweak and tighten my teaching. Those in the know have long realized that a teacher never "arrives", that we never experience mastery in this profession. I suppose that's because there is certainly a human factor to our job. We don't assemble our products on the conveyor in a standardized line. Here are some observations:
On and on we could go, filling the pages of a book with thoughts concerning our students. At this time of the year, I tend to have double vision: I look back at over three decades of elementary students, and I look forward to tomorrow.
We're all a little apprehensive.
Nervous.
Anxious.
Are you ready?
This, the 32nd year of this great experiment, and I continue to tweak and tighten my teaching. Those in the know have long realized that a teacher never "arrives", that we never experience mastery in this profession. I suppose that's because there is certainly a human factor to our job. We don't assemble our products on the conveyor in a standardized line. Here are some observations:
- Our products have names.
- Our products have souls.
- Our products have flaws.
- Our products come packed with history.
- Our products come to us with appetite.
- Our products are not lessons forged from ore discovered in data mines.
- Our products are more than graphite on paper.
- Our products have tremendous potential energy.
- Our products require occasional troubleshooting.
- Our products move on their own, think on their own, and make decisions on their own.
- Our products cannot be bought on the open market.
- Our products are both consumers and producers.
- Our products have tremendous potential to succeed, but only after they fail.
- Our products are precious and fragile.
- Our products affect other products.
- Our products do not come to us under warranty.
- Our products grow and adapt.
- Our products are sentient beings.
On and on we could go, filling the pages of a book with thoughts concerning our students. At this time of the year, I tend to have double vision: I look back at over three decades of elementary students, and I look forward to tomorrow.
We're all a little apprehensive.
Nervous.
Anxious.
Are you ready?
