Meet My Kids

Selfie with "my kids". Class of 2018, I miss them!

Can I get an AMEN? Can I get a Hallelujah!

Classrooms should be beautiful; a place of inspiration, fun, and awe.

Middle School dances don't have to be awkward.

Yes, I did rent costumes to host a Mock Trail for "my kids". It was awesome and the kids did amazing.

This.....is middle school.

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"My kids"; it's a phrase I use repetitiously and without thinking. I'll drop the phrase  leisurely in conversations and it is often met with the question, "Oh, how old are your children?". That question snaps me out of the moment and and I smile, realizing that talking about my students as "my kids" could be a source of confusion at a happy hour with strangers. "My kids" are my students and I love them as such. 

In fact, I think this maternal adoption is the source of my success as a teacher. Middle schoolers are raw and wild. They move and think impulsively. They are attention seeking and as malleable as sponges.  And guess what? Guess who they want attention and love from? You, their teacher. 

The teacher should be student centered. Focused on the student's individual needs, and I'm not primarily speaking about their academic needs. No, I'm new school. I think the priority is the person. How are they feeling? Whats the mood of the room? Are they feeling seen? Are they experiencing and seeing beauty? Is there excess energy and too much stagnation? Are they having fun? Are they experiencing joy, gratitude, and innovation? How can I make this lesson fun? How can I make this a memorable experience? Because, learning is comprised of memorable experiences. 

These questions have formed my teaching style and they shape my daily planning and decision making. These questions have pushed me away from the traditional practices of daily homework, archaic grading that is molded by rubrics, excessive testing without feedback and opportunity for expression of knowledge, an over-emphasis on discipline and blind obedience, a bland and prison-like classroom that lacks beauty and fun, and finally (and most importantly) a concern for what is easiest for me. 

These questions have formed my desire to create fun and whimsy in my daily lessons. It has inspired me to invoke my inner entertainer and to be goofy for the kids...whether that means dawning a costume or transforming the set-up of the room. Being a student centered teacher has allowed me to be a mentor and to spend my recesses playing pick-up basketball, instead of sitting on the sidelines looking at my phone. I eat my lunches with the kids. I ask them about their evenings, their favorite songs, the newest tik-tok dances, and how they are feeling. I daily look to find the fun. I take them outside to perform skits, I turn a vocabulary lesson into a game, I set up an intricate mock trail so they can understand To Kill A Mockingbird better. I spend hours decorating for them to awkwardly avoid each other at the middle school dance. I'm the biggest dancer at those dances, not only because  I love to dance, but because if you show them its okay to be ridiculous then they buy into it. I teach them social skills like handshaking and eye contact and how to hold small talk while you ''keep the holy spirit" between you two during the slow dance. I teach them how to salsa, embrace the sway of their hips, and to love their bodies. I plan whole school events and play the ring master because I believe that each school day should not only have some fun, but have some magic. I volunteer to coach the basketball team, because they have no parent-volunteer and. I want them to play. I come to work in my colorful thrift store outfits and gold hoops to show them the beauty in self-expression and self-confidence. Everything I do at my job is student centered. It is why I am there. I am there to cultivate a community, provide a place of nurturing and growth, and to show them that life is good and fun. 

They are "my kids". I love them....past, present, future.