"We must absolutely do what we love, or we run the risk of doing nothing at all."

I'm not sure who gets credit for this quote, but it is ringing true this week. I have spent part of my week in an elementary school where the adults absolutely love what they do. They bend over to hear a shy, quiet child's request...they celebrate a random basket made on the court at recess...they sing, they smile, they laugh with each other in the staff room and they look like they are having fun--and they truly love what they get to do every day. Lucky them!

I also have witnessed professionals spinning their wheels--pretending to be so terribly busy that the whole notion of taking care of their customers, the children and their families with whom we service, had to be passed on to another person. Me. What ended up begin a very pleasant 2-3 minute telephone call to explain something and answer a concerned parent's question was passed off to me--a perfect stranger in the parent's experience at our school. I'm not even sure why the parent agreed to speak with me about their child's math test results--obviously I sounded like I knew something--or perhaps that I cared enough to actually call and attempt to answer their question was enough. The parent simply had a question--a question that could have been answered by the first person they had called--or maybe even the second. I guess they felt lucky that I called them back with an answer, so they listened, agreed, understood, said thank you and hung up. Two to three minutes to keep that parent believing for one more day that we should be trusted with the education of their child....I wonder if I did them a dis-service?


Packing up my office
No matter what happens in the next few days, I won't be returning to the office I have occupied for these two years. I guess I should feel something, but I don't. Recycling paper. Storing textbooks. Boxing up unmet promises and unused information. It's sad--sad that I wasn't able to make an impact on this staff. I know that my impact has been felt by students--thank you's and pictures on the walls. It hasn't been a loss, but certainly not what I signed up for. It is appropriate to move out of the office, then move back into a classroom later--at the end of summer-- if that's what is in the cards for me. I am excited to move my poster from the Monet Gallery into my home office--even if it's just temporary!

First graders
Like I said, I got to spend some time in an elementary school this week. First graders are so real. They are honest and tell you if things are hard or confusing for them--and if they're really easy. I got to interview students one-on-one about the way they think about math. Counting, mental math, putting numbers in order, estimating blocks--cool stuff. These kids are pretty sharp--many comfortably use relational thinking to make sense of numbers naturally. They are confident and they like math. They know they're good at it. What do we do to them to beat that feeling out of them? We should be ashamed! Talking to them makes me a better teacher--and a better person. I will be watching them with great interest as they move through the grades.

XXOO