There’s a place between. Sometimes it’s easy to find. Sometimes–the saddest times–it’s never found. Most times it’s in the middle. Other times it’s closer to one edge than the other. But there, somewhere between, we come together. We have to, else our work’s for naught. Teaching becomes teaching when learning becomes learning, each side gives meaning to the other there in the between, where comes to life learning, a symbiotic organism mutually dependent on the sides which meet. There, between.

Two questions hold me. What is teaching? What is learning? I mean, really, what are they? Yes, I know there are plenty of answers out there. But it’s that there are plenty of answers–some of them even for sale–which gives me pause. And while some claim the corner, I am wary of corners, leery of ends, for those places are distant, insular. They are too far removed from the between. So, I tend to the center of the room where things are not so isolated, not so certain. And there where I stand in the middle, I find my kids in as many spots as there are individuals, each place a different truth, a circle with no corners, a place with no ends, only meeting points. There, between.

Today, I will seek the between with my young writers as I try to meet them in middle as we talk about their writing. And, I will have company. I have my first formal observation of the year, roughly my fiftieth time in my twenty-four years to “prove” I can teach. As I considered my observation this year and what I would do to prove, I found myself considering the between, for it is the only time I really feel like I am teaching. I don’t feel like it when I am talking (used to–oh boy! did I used to think that talking was teaching, and so I talked and talked and talked). And I don’t feel like it when the kids are silently working. Those are ends in their own ways, broadening the between. I feel like I am teaching when I am sitting with kids, talking with kids, giving feedback to kids. So, that is what I will do today. The kids determine if I am teaching, for teaching–to me, at least–is responding. So in essence, I wait for them to bring me to life. There, between.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will experience…

…connecting through Smiles and Frowns.

…growing with grammar.

…getting feedback on our writing.

…reflecting in our Journey Journals.

…hearing a Sappy Sy Rhyme.

Happy Thursday, all.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.