A few weeks ago, during our poetry unit, we made all the students write a few poems. While I usually write the pieces I ask kids to, I hadn't yet, so when a student asked me, "Well, where's your poem, Brezek?" I decided I had better get to work. This is what came about.
Magic
Once upon a time
I stepped into a kingdom
where I was queen
and students were my little monsters
In the beginning, many days I felt
Confused
Overwhelmed and sometimes
Sad
because my apprenticeship
had not yet prepared me
for the spells I had to cast
over my students.
In time I earned my wand
that radiates stardust over the littles, like
love, and
belonging, and
acceptance;
making them sparkle and shine
inside and out.
The monsters picked up all those ELA tricks:
20 pages a day
Journals and quickwrites
Signposts and book clubs
TIQA and poetry
Acing assessments
But even more dazzling was our family.
Kids quickly
became besssstfriends
joked together
said hi in the hallways
let their true selves be seen as they
had lunch together and
loved one another
Sixteen empires have come and gone
and not one has quite been
the special realm
that is
BB3
Thank you
for making my teaching life
magical.
Next year I'll be at Heritage, a school that is such a special place. I will continue as Literacy Coach but not have a section of ELA anymore. Hoping to coteach with a few of our teachers in various units throughout the year and can't wait! (Well, first day of summer... so I can wait a bit!) ;-)
Hope all the teachers have THE BEST summer vacation!
