Summer vacation has arrived in the life of this teacher, and I was ready. I typically pretty deliberately take the month of June to recharge, thinking very little about classrooms and students and professional literature, etc. I reserve June for reading books I never seem to have time for during the school year. June is for getting up early, sitting outside on the deck, and immersing myself in history books and story. This June has been wonderfully no different, with one exception.
This June in addition to reading books and literature I enjoy "for fun" and my own high interest, my wife and I have been working with our six year old son on the challenge of reading his first chapter book. I have to admit reading with my own son is very different from being a teacher of reading. And at the same time it's hard to "not know" what I have studied and learning about what makes young people enjoy reading and what helps them become life- long readers.
He's chosen to read a Minecraft book. My goal was to be a dad and try to put the teacher part of me aside, except I am not succeeding. (and I've decided I'm not upset with myself about it.) I won't tell you this has been the best written book I've ever read, but I will tell you it's having a fun affect on my son. It's doing what books are supposed to do... and as a reading teacher, I can't help but see that. I just can't. and I'm having a blast participating in it. Let me explain.
Good books cause kids to think and dream and visualize. Books are suppose to expose to kids to new vocabulary and ask questions. They make kids into enthusiastic explainers and imaginers with lots of "what if" and "if/ then" realities, etc. I've had such fun watching this happen to my son this summer and I simply have no regrets understanding what is happening in his brain as he develops confidence learning to love reading.
I've learned more about Minecraft this summer than I ever thought I would want to. I know the difference between Rainbow Griefers and Creeper Mobs. I get why diamond swords are more valuable than iron ones. He's taught me so much as we work our way through each five page chapter. No chapter is complete without there stopping for explanations of words like "emaciating" that are new to him, but critical to understanding the story. I have seen Justin draw pictures and retell parts of the story that were of high interest to him. Because of all the conversation, chapters take more time to finish, but it's truly enjoyable time. It's been fascinating for me to see reading strategies come to life as a dad. Justin's learning so much in our slow, measured,, cognitive, and thrilling journey through the world of Minecraft.
I suppose it's fair to reveal that this experience will ultimately alter and impact my classroom as well. It's made me really decide to add more literature to my classroom library so that my students can connect the "history" we are learning to story that I hope will be enjoyable for them. It's made me really consider using excerpts from good literature as sparks that will get students thinking about the "what if's" and "if/ then's" of the topics we immerse ourselves in. I'm confident my time spent in the world of Minecraft will have a splendid impact on my ability to continue teaching reading strategies and exposing students to new experiences as they study history. I'll stronghold some of what I have seen and make it part of my evolution as a teacher of reading.
I recently read a meme that simply said "Stop, rest, notice, delight".
What a perfect string of words to describe my June. As June has traditionally been a time for stopping and resting, I'm not sure I've ever unintentionally noticed as much and delighted in what I have seen. Next week we are pausing to celebrate getting half- way through our first chapter book. I'm thinking bells and whistles and high times when we finish chapter 8. I can't help but know what I know about what helps kids become book lovers, I just never though about seeing it happen as a dad and being so happy about it.
Summer reading has been a blast. It's been something I deeply believe in for a long time. What joy there is in including Justin as a part of my stronghold and perhaps even greater joy in recognizing that love of good literature doesn't only have to be a "June" thing.
"We never know the impact and consequences of a word, an image, a sentence, a prayer, or a smile."
-Elie Wiesel, Holocaust Survivor
"For always roaming with a hungry heart... Some work of noble note, may not yet be done,... Come, my friends, Tis not too late to seek a newer world... One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will, to strive, to seek, and not to yield."
- Alfred Lord Tennyson, Ulysses
My grandmother passed at the end of the school year. She as much as any one person I have ever known shaped much of who I have become. Grandma was a reader and writer and a lover of story and all things past. She was the gate keeper of my family history. As a child she shared the world she loved with me. Everything from antiques to country living. A walk into Grandma's living room was an invitation to wonder and question and regularly led to some of the best conversations I can ever remember having with anyone.
Her living room was filled with treasures. There were books and magazines and portraits and paintings all neatly arranged on old antique furniture. Everything had a story. Everything belonged to her history and the things that she loved and wanted to share with those around her. Everything there was warming and ready to be talked about. As I look back I must admit I miss those Saturday mornings just sitting and listening and learning. They shaped so much of who I have become.
Wisely, Grandma fed my love for learning; my hungry heart. She bought me books and found articles I'd enjoy. She shared stories she'd written for her Pen Women's Club about the Great Depression and other cherished times. She passed along family treasures and stories like candy that I could savor. She encouraged me to write with hand written notes on the inside cover of a new book or on a birthday card. I can still remember how she once quipped that I "shared her gift for Blarney", which I admit I wear at times like a badge of honor.
Her kindnesses will not be lost. Her prayers will continue to echo. Her words and sentences and smiles have become much of what I stronghold as an educator. I think Grandma would love my classroom. I hope that it for my students what her living room was for me.
Strangely her passing came at a time of year we as educators use to reflect on the events of the past year. We want to know that all the time and energy and thought we put into our work mattered. We want to know that we touched lives and that children grew.
I'm sure that my grandma, a favorite teacher, touched my life and helped me grow.
In the midst of this reflection and at a time sadness I was handed a note of clarity. It came from a student I had worked with in Drama Club since sixth grade. As an eighth grader she sat in one of my Honors classes. As her teacher I am pretty certain I had passed on a love for history and writing and a joy for learning to her, but in our business one does not always know for sure. Her note confirmed, in a special way, success for me, at a time that I really needed it.
What I received in her sealed envelope was unlike any thank you I have ever received from a student. In the envelope was story she'd penned. The centerpiece of the story was the quote from Elie Wiesel. It's a quote I like to use to help students understand how humans survive events as tragic and horrific as The Holocaust. The quote speaks to me about the legacy we can choose to honor from tragic times, like the Holocaust. I have to believe the legacy associated with honoring struggle and sacrifice lies in the simplest forms of kindnesses we can do everyday. I often tell students every time we do the simplest of kindnesses for each other we honor those struggles. Her hand- written story and its use of the quote was among the highest of honors I have ever felt and known. The time she had taken to construct this story was kindness enough to last a lifetime. Grandma would have loved her story.
This simple act of kindness reminds me, as Tennyson suggests, that it is never "too late to seek new worlds". we must thoughtfully reinvent our "living" rooms so that students feel the kindness and comfort they need to become confident learners. Our "heroic hearts" may at times feel "weak by time and fate", but we must take time to see how conviction and strength of will strongholds us to continue seeking and striving, and never to yield.
A simple act of kindness was the vehicle that brought clarity and rejuvenation to me at a time when I really needed it. I have Grandma and Ellen to thank for that reminder. As summer begins I find myself relaxed and fondly remembering a great lady, Delores Nanette Baird Deane, my grandma. While there is sorrow, there is more joy. What she taught, I learned from, and I have had some success passing down. Seeing some of this manifested in Ellen's story is enough to get me excited for a new school year and new students and new opportunities to seek new worlds.
