Do you want to know how to make it feel like Christmas morning without spending a dime?! Have your mail held while you are on vacation. yep. There is nothing quite like opening the doors of the post office in a "the hills are alive" sort of way and gingerly stepping up to the counter to utter these words. "I'd like to pick up the mail we have held." The postmaster so loving and so kind disappears for a moment and then returns with stacks and stacks of unopened promises. Okay, okay yes I am exaggerating. It was one stack and instead of promises it was mostly junk mail. but still.
So I take my stack of Christmas morning out to the car. I shuffle through, smiling from ear to ear....hey if you think this is bad...you should walk with me through an office supply isle...right Josh?! ;)
I flip through the magazines. I love me some magazines. A few cards. Thank you card writers! And then tucked behind an offer for better insurance from Geico I see something that looks vaguely familar...."Pri...." Suddenly the music stops. The hills aren't alive. The birds stop chirping and Christmas morning ends. It is a letter from my school. Aren't I dramatic?! :)
Reluctantly I open the envelope to see what is inside. It is thicker than normal so I wonder if maybe they have added more kids to my class, or maybe they got some thank you letters in the mail from parents of my last year's class and are sending them along... a girl can dream?! :)
Hidden inside the thick envelope were a few papers. The normal hope your summer is going well letter and saying how school is starting soon. It was actually a nice letter...then the acronyms started to fly......you'll have some PD in DDI and your observation will be ASAP. Okay I added that last one. It went on to talk about my assessment cycle schedule and benchmarks, etc. My teacher peeps hear me, right?
I feel my chest start to tighten and my mind start to fill with doubts of..."what if I can't do the CCLS correctly, or what if...what if..." See, that was my normal first reaction. I'm human and hopefully since you are reading this you are too. ;) So I stopped the doubt dance going on in my mind and did what I have been trying to do a lot of lately. Look for a better perspective.
Here is what I saw...
The reality is this year is going to be different, but isn't every year?
The reality is we WILL have to implement the CCLS through DDI and have some PD. Can I change it? nope! Am I alone? Nope! I have many amazing colleagues that will be right there in the boat with me. We may lose an oar, hit some rough waters, say mayday mayday.....but we'll still be in it....together.
Despite all of these changes some things will remain the same....
-we will have beautifully sharpened pencils the first day of school (and probably only the first day, haha)
-our students will still inevitably calls us mom or grandma at some point throughout the year.
-we will have many students that say..."ooooh I get it now" and guess what?! that's because of our help!
-we will get to use white board markers. (okay maybe I'm the only one that gets excited for that?!)
-we will hear a cheerful "Good morning, _____________" every day for the whole year.
-we will lose our papers and ask the students where we set them down. And they will tell us. haha..I love that I have 20 other sets of eyes.
-we will have students that say we are the "best teacher ever!"
Please add to the list my teacher friends.... I love you in a teacher love kind of way and am looking forward to the year ahead! :)
