November 3, 2019
Relationships. Perhaps it’s a mark of getting older
and more reflective or an aftereffect of having a heart attack at 43 but either
way I find myself pausing more often in life than before. In those
pauses, I find myself thinking about relationships more often than
before. This week I attended the celebration of life for a
friend. Vickie was a bonus big sister for our group of friends, inherited
through marriage when she became one of our friend’s sister in law. For
me, she was a role model and in the sea of physicians in our group, she was a
fellow educator. Most of all, she LOVED kids and poured her heart into
them fully whether they were her own or not. She’s the type of educator
we all admire and hope our own kids can have. It was fitting that she was
buried on her favorite holiday because it was about kids. The priest
shared with the packed church, full of family, friends, and former students,
that she loved them fully. Her love was so deep, she battled stage
4-colon cancer for the past four years enduring 70 rounds of chemo and 2
clinical trials to stay alive not for herself but for those she loved.
She always had a smile on her face and didn’t complain about the discomfort and
pain. There is great sacrifice for a love like that. Many of us
have been touched by cancer and have seen firsthand what chemo and cancer does
to a body. From her initial diagnosis to final breath, Vickie spent every
second focused on relationships and making sure those around her were going to
be okay. Relationships.
In our day-to-day time with kids, we make hundreds of
decisions every day about learning and teaching. How many of those decisions
about learning and teaching are connected to our content versus
building/sustaining relationships with kids? Or are they all
interconnected and we build those relationships with kids through teaching our
content? Do we really need to have relationships with kids in order to
teach our content? When we pause and reflect on our work, how do we want
kids to remember our class and teaching? What will they have
learned? What do we know about each of our kids? When we problem
solve around kids, do we know them well enough to know why the negative
behavior is occurring? Why is our crazy principal babbling about
relationships? The questions are endless.
The reality is that we pour our hearts into kids each
day. What we pour into each of them looks different from one teacher to
the next but we pour just the same. Twenty years from now, how will our
kids remember what we poured? It’s not a secret that I believe middle
school is the most impactful period in kids’ lives. As middle school
educators, it’s easy to feel underappreciated and frustrated by the behavior of
kids who don’t seem to get it or are super self-involved. It’s easy to
fall into the trap of focusing on those behaviors and letting the frustration
take hold. The frustration begins to take away from what we pour and
sometimes affects (positive or negative) what others pour. I leave you
with this, a place each individual educator has to come to, is it building the
relationship first that is most important or teaching the content? In
twenty years, will kids remember they loved your class because of the content
or because of the relationship they built with you that allowed the content to
become more meaningful?
This week, across the building, I witnessed relationships in
a variety of ways. Kids in Art 1 created beautiful bowls to donate to the
Webster Rock Hill Ministries annual Empty Bowls dinner. They not only
learned how to craft these beautiful pieces of art but how to also serve others
in the community who are food insecure. I witnessed students in ELA 7
celebrate their writing by demonstrating vulnerability and inviting each other
to read their pieces. In Spanish classes, kids learned about Dia de los
Muertos and the significance of someone else’s culture and celebrations and try
Pan de Muerto. I witnessed teachers and the lone brave administrator show
kids they still love to have fun and sacrificed themselves for the pie-throwing
contest, taking one in the face. It was a moment of kids and adults alike
screaming and laughing and standing on chairs, having fun together.
Relationships.
Acquisition, meaning making and transfer connects deeply to
the relationships we create with kids. While kids do learn with teachers
they don’t have relationships with, imagine how much deeper what they learn can
be with a relationship. Thank you for your continued work and reflection
in best practices. What the world outside of education does not know is
that nothing stays the same in our classrooms. We continually grow and
evolve for kids and learning.
I see you. I see your heart. I see what you are
pouring and it’s good stuff.
RACE Play, 11/6
On Wednesday, the Civic Arts will present a free 35 minute
production titled RACE. It will be followed by a conversation for those
wishing to stay. Please invite your family and friends out to our school
for this production. The play will begin at 7pm in the auditorium.
Flyer attached.
Orchestra Concert, 11/7
Join our talented students on Thursday at 6:30pm for their
Fall concert!
Un-Conference, 11/10
WE Stories and Educators for Social Justice (ESJ) will
co-host an Un-Conference at our school from 12-4pm. Join other educators
from across St. Louis for conversations around the equity work happening in our
schools. Share ideas and expand your professional learning network.
The event is free and you can register on FB.
Faculty Mtg, 11/11
Our next faculty meeting is next Monday at 3:30pm in the
cafeteria.
OUTS for This Week
·
Sarah and Linda out on Monday
·
Aimee, Mike and Grace out on Thursday from
7:45-9:45am for Book Club Mtg @ CO
Happy November!
With gratitude,
Grace
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