When asked to pursue an area of passion for me in the realm of teaching, I first needed to ask myself the question: "What is my passion?" I know this is a question that I will need to get my students thinking about, so in order to do that, I better be able to model it.
So, "What is my passion?"
I love to write. Not the Nobel Prize kind of writing, although if they wanted to give me one I wouldn't say no, but writing is how I make my life meaningful.
What is the first thing you do when you want to remember something, or you want to try and organize your thoughts? For me, I need to write it down, but this is not enough. A collection of fragmented thoughts on paper is no more meaningful than a collection of fragmented thoughts spinning around in your head.
I once wrote a short poem about this:
I take a step into the new,
I hear the voice of a friend
calling,
And hurry towards it.
It is dark and I cannot find
my way.
The swirling darkness eludes
my senses of their purpose.
I find myself smitten
With thoughts unwritten,
And realize the darkness
Is a collection of boxes,
Unopened, yet full
Of everything that might pull
me
To my destination.
Understand that I am not a
human,
But I am a purpose.
I am not a body,
But I am an understanding.
Take me lightly, if you dare
Take me hard, lay it all to bare
Open, on the table, unpacked,
handle with care.
You now see that all that was
dark,
You now see the animals out
of the ark.
You now see who you really
are,
On the pages that show your
story thus far.
Read them, regard them,
Ponder them, assemble them,
But not too tightly.
What is written will never
change,
Yet your prospect will
attempt to feign
That this story is one of
stone
When really it is of pages
Paper
Fragile, fleeting,
forgetting,
But never completely.
The fragments of the
remaining pages are enough
To stave off the darkness
from its bluff
That it is strong,
That it is right
For it will never tear
asunder
The pages of your light.
Like I said, we can't all be Wordsworth or Shakespeare (although I do share the same first name as those fine men), but this poem is all about walking out of the darkness of disassociated thoughts and walking, no running, into the light or connectivity of thought, experimentation, willingness to take risks, and trying to hold onto all that is good and meaningful in our lives.
This is the type of teacher I want to be. I don't want to teach a "3-part lesson plan," I want to teach a story with a beginning, middle and an third part that is not an end, but that serves as a new beginning. For me, a lesson is a story, and my students are the authors. I am merely a mentor to help keep on them on track.
This blog will be a muse of sorts to throw some of my ideas out there and share the ideas of others that want passionate classrooms where learning is all about asking questions, because an answer is a period that ends thinking.
BUT a question mark is the most beautiful punctuation mark because somewhere between the curve and the point is an empty space that doesn't mean "I don't know" but rather "I want to know."
