back to class

Oh, after a few weeks of meetings and previsits and schediling and cleaning, I am finally back in the swing of teaching. Fears of diminished multi-tasking skills, and vocal problems were washed away. It is all going smoothly. My two fifth grades are ready to give me a hard time, and I am ready to give challenges right back to them.

I had one of the moments today that reminds me why I teach. A girl, who had never drawn from observation before, held up her drawing for me to see, and told me incredulously, "I drew this?!" I asked her if she thought she could draw so well when she walked in the door. She gave me that amazing 10 year old face of disbelief, "uh . . no." And then she smiled because she had created something that surprised herself.

I love it when I surprise myself with what I create, when I am in stunned disbelief that I have translated soemthing in my head to something tangible and something that I can share wordlessly.

And when I can encourage someone else to have that feeling, the day becomes, as my yoga teacher said this morning, productive and easy.