All That Matters: a co-authored poem

This summer, I've spent much of my time writing poetry incorporating the educational setting. I've spoken from the view of a retired teacher, a pregnant teacher, a quiet student, and an aggressive student.

I've even spoken as myself.

But, I wanted to work with a collective group of educators. So, I asked all of my Facebook teacher friends and my wonderful Twitter PLN to write with me. I gave the skeleton for a poem (just a couple of the categories) and asked that the co-authors not touch my last stanza. Then, I opened it up as a GoogleDoc for all to edit and the following is the outcome.

Here's the deal. The life of an educator is not easy. There is SO much to consider. The poem below shows all of the pressures, all of the thoughts, and, finally, the one great joy, the one simple truth.

Thank you, fellow educators. Enjoy the poem!

All That Matters

by

David Theune, Eric Kipling, John Golden, Tracy Meinzer, Michelle Rynbrandt, Danna Yeager, Paul Henry, Amy Perry, Erica Beaton, Tammy Hagerz, Chris Norton, and many Anonymous Authors

All these categories:

Curriculum

Pedagogy

Assessment

Commencement

Instruction

Management

Administration

Special Education

At-Risk

Economically Disadvantaged

All these platforms:

Edmodo

Schoology

My Big Campus

Blackboard

Moodle

Kidblogs

All these buzz words:

Blended Learning

1:1 Technology

Virtual Learning Environment

Makerspaces

MOOCs

Flipped Class

Holistic Grading

Project-Based Learning

6+1 Rubrics

Cross Curricular Integration

Differentiation

The Whole Brain

Multiple Intelligences

Differentiation

Flexible Grouping

Formative Assessment

All these tests:

No Child Left Behind

AYP

ACT

SAT

Smarter Balanced

AP

IB

MEAP

MME

Explore

SRI

DRA

District

Formative

Summative

Interim

Benchmark

NJASK

All that’s measured:

Narrow abilities

Narrow knowledge

Socio-economic status

Parental participation

Multiple choice elimination

AYP

Student achievement

Teacher achievement

All that’s not measured:

Student thinking

Student learning

Creativity

Character

Student Motivation

Citizenship

Ownership

Engagement

Desire

Growth

Excitement

All these meetings:

Staff

Department

PLC

Professional Development

Conferences

School Improvement

Parent Teacher

IEPs

Evaluations

All these meetings:

Quietness and Thoughtfulness

Pencil and Clean Paper

Head and Heart

Evening and Morning

Idea and action

Inspiration, time and materials

All these resources:

Community

Technology

Books

Paper

Ink

Desks

Blogs

Pinterest

Twitter

teachers

experiences

heart

Corporate grants

Instructional Leaders/Coaches

parents/guardians

All these missing resources:

Technology

Books

Paper

Ink

Desks

Supplies

Updated spaces

empathy

Quality professional development

Continuous professional development

parents/guardians

time

time

time

administrative assistance

All these technologies:

iPads

Chromebooks

Macbooks

Twitter

Podcasts

Vodcasts

Screencasts

QR codes

Wikis

Social media

Smart Board

All this support:

Colleagues

Administrators

Parents

Community

Government

Literacy Coaches

PLNs

ISDs

All this missing support:

Colleagues

Administrators

Parents

Community

Government

ISDs

Parent involvement

Caring mayor and board of education members

All these teacher types:

Old School

New School

Open Minded

Non-traditional or New Age

My Way or the Highway

Do What You Love

Do What I Say

Sage on the Stage

Entertainer

Inclusive

Inspiring

Blame the Student

Complainers

Coach

All These Learners:

Loud and Boisterous

Quiet and Thoughtful

Reflective

Confused

Apathetic

English Language Learners

Right Brained

Left Brained

Premature at birth

Home Impaired

Advanced

Adult

Students who Learn Differently

Special Needs Students

English as Second Language Learners

All that's missing:

Student Choice

Student Voice

Time for passion

Time for collaboration

Time for lunch

Time for bathroom breaks

Capacity

Creativity

Celebration

Time for failure

TRUST

Passion

student/parent accountability

All These Hashtags:

#NWP

#teched

#MichEd

#edchat

#engchat

#edtechat

#ElevateTheProfession

#mathchat

#nerdybookclub

All that matters:

Human connection

Vulnerability

What is the number which makes something a trend? And what makes a trend a simple truth?

In all of my reading, writing, and--more importantly--experiences of this summer, I've learned that it is vulnerability which allows for personal growth.

Most recently, I've been reading Stephen King's On Writing. (It's part of my summer goal to read books on writing by writers; I NEED for my students to shift their identity from students to writers.) King writes, on page 127 (Link to Amazon), "I'm convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing." That's a bold, simple statement. The fear of knowing all the rules, the fear to share, the fear to reveal soul. There is just so much to fear when we write, but it appears, from King anyway, that overcoming the fear is the key to success.

King, by himself (no matter how powerful his voice), does NOT make a trend. I've also read Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird (Link to Amazon), though. And she's hitting on the same sentiment. On page 198-199, she writes this in regards to the author's voice:

"You can’t do this without discovering your own true voice, and you can’t find your true voice and peer behind the door and report honestly and clearly to us if your parents are reading over your shoulder. They are probably the ones who told you not to open that door in the first place. You can tell if they’re there because a small voice will say, 'Oh, whoops, don’t say that, that’s a secret,' or 'That’s a bad word,' or 'Don’t tell anyone you jack off. They’ll all start doing it.' So you have to breathe or pray or do therapy to send them away. Write as if your parents are dead.'"

So, there's another important writer suggesting that we must rid of our fear in order to write honestly, to write well. Lamott understands the power of vulnerability and she encourages it in others.

By participating in a month-long writing workshop called the Lake Michigan Writing Project (a branch of the National Writing Project), I was able to put these authors' thoughts to practice. Between blog posts, scribbled notes, and finished pieces, I played with vulnerability. I tried to reveal myself--even in the darkest places. It's there, in the darkness, where I grow. I wrote this poem about that very thing.

For the First Day

I grow in the dark

Unlike perfectly planted flowers.

No, I grow by discovering my cavernous self

By shining a light on monsters that hide within.

In the darkness, there IS truth

And school doesn’t really want you to know this.

We say–

“Here–let me tell you everything I know and you give it back to me.”

“Let’s do some meaningless worksheets.”

“Let’s do some note-taking where you find the definition around the boldface word.”

“Let’s do some work that doesn’t really matter, so you can sit with your friend in the hall and copy from each other.”

“Let me teach you, in EVERY class, about what the ACT expects, so we can keep our standard.”

“Let’s really DO nothing and pretend that it’s something great.”

But, that’s the light.

That’s the surface.

No growth there.

Just recycling,

Reusing.

The growth is in the darkness.

Over time, I’ve looked at my own darkness:

My children’s birth stories:

the ones that I know (three months premature for the twins–on the brink of death and life)

and the one I don’t know (where was Nia born? in a house? on a street? how DID her mother come to the decision of giving her up?)

My marriage disputes:

the ups and downs

the expectations and the falling short

the silent–

pauses–

which hold–

so–

much–

tension.

My weight:

the thing that frustrates me to NO end…

and I can’t see an end to this battle, so

every time I look in the mirror, I lose a little confidence, but I DO gain–

gain the knowledge that my life won’t be as long unless I do something about this.

And it’s in those dark corners

In those shadows

I grow

Because I share things that scare me.

Fear is my fertilizer.

And I need you, students–

To sit by my side

In the darkness

And grow.

Finally, the trend is complete thanks to my tribe of writers developed from the Lake Michigan Writing Project. It's not just King, Lamott, and me who believe in the power of vulnerability. When our group of seventeen decided on a t-shirt slogan to capture our month together, we went right to vulnerability, right to the quote we heard the most throughout the month: "I've never shared this with anyone..." We recognized that it was that fear of sharing things we never had before which allowed us to become so tight after just one month together.

Now, we have to get that vulnerability from our students. We have to show them that it is that vulnerability which will create more empathy, allowing all of us to be better writers. Ah, who am I kidding? If we can create more empathy, we won't just be better writers, we'll be better people.