Salam, and good morning, worthy friends! Please, please come closer. Welcome (back hopefully) to my blog, place of musings, word plays, and the many bizarre thoughts buzzing around in my brain right here for your reading enjoyment! Come on down! Look at this - a return to the blog after a lengthy summer hiatus. During summer, I wrote, I doodled, I listed - but I never posted.
Wait, don't go! A new post is finally in tact. This is the famous it's-a-new-school-year-and-I-have-so-much-to-say post. My mind is scrolling the faces I met this week seated around my tables, hoping to still remember their names come Monday morning. I see their smiles, their hesitancy, their questioning eyes. I feel my anxiety, my excitement, and my many many uncertainties. And I remember: as the merchant from the beginning of Aladdin says, "...it is not what is outside but what is inside that counts."
Important backstory break: somehow, this is my twentieth (!!!) year to teach. I have no idea how I arrived at this milestone; I confidently assure you that there is an obnoxious sixteen year old stuck inside my graying body. I have two new preps for the first time in ages. The last time I taught English 2 was 1999 (were you even born, my reader?), and this is my very first journey with Practical Writing. Also, I have the honor and immense responsibility of hosting a student teacher.
So. Much. To. Say. And. Do.
Where do I begin? Some of my students do not consider themselves readers and have not enjoyed a book since their elementary days. Others eagerly adorned writers' notebooks, ready to explore words and ideas and issues. Still others have taken the test five, six, seven times without success, their eyes reflecting the few remaining embers of a former burning desire and motivation. Another student studies with keen observation and immense knowledge, preparing his plans to educate the future.
And so, as we embark on another year of learning and growing, I commit myself to hope. The noun kind. The kind my kids' principal talks about here. I have hope that we can grow readers and writers in my classes and across our school. I know we can get those students across the finish line of testing. I am already witnessing the hope of a new teacher ready to change lives.
Thus, here's to a year of reading and writing. Here's to staff blogging and #Inklings and #HAWKSwrite. To #HebronReads and #FriendEng2. To always having fun in the classroom. To sharing and growing and exploring and risking. To learning. To doing.
Here's to hope.
Wait, don't go! A new post is finally in tact. This is the famous it's-a-new-school-year-and-I-have-so-much-to-say post. My mind is scrolling the faces I met this week seated around my tables, hoping to still remember their names come Monday morning. I see their smiles, their hesitancy, their questioning eyes. I feel my anxiety, my excitement, and my many many uncertainties. And I remember: as the merchant from the beginning of Aladdin says, "...it is not what is outside but what is inside that counts."
Important backstory break: somehow, this is my twentieth (!!!) year to teach. I have no idea how I arrived at this milestone; I confidently assure you that there is an obnoxious sixteen year old stuck inside my graying body. I have two new preps for the first time in ages. The last time I taught English 2 was 1999 (were you even born, my reader?), and this is my very first journey with Practical Writing. Also, I have the honor and immense responsibility of hosting a student teacher.
So. Much. To. Say. And. Do.
Where do I begin? Some of my students do not consider themselves readers and have not enjoyed a book since their elementary days. Others eagerly adorned writers' notebooks, ready to explore words and ideas and issues. Still others have taken the test five, six, seven times without success, their eyes reflecting the few remaining embers of a former burning desire and motivation. Another student studies with keen observation and immense knowledge, preparing his plans to educate the future.
And so, as we embark on another year of learning and growing, I commit myself to hope. The noun kind. The kind my kids' principal talks about here. I have hope that we can grow readers and writers in my classes and across our school. I know we can get those students across the finish line of testing. I am already witnessing the hope of a new teacher ready to change lives.
Thus, here's to a year of reading and writing. Here's to staff blogging and #Inklings and #HAWKSwrite. To #HebronReads and #FriendEng2. To always having fun in the classroom. To sharing and growing and exploring and risking. To learning. To doing.Here's to hope.
Love that you're linking to another blog and celebrating a community of writers. Love that you always ALWAYS hope.
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