Day Sixty Five. Happy last Monday, all. Though we still have “school” this week, it’s largely a formality. Kids will have some “last minutes” to get things in, and I will post final grades, but the work is largely over. And as I pause to think about the work we’ve done these past three months, I am more pleased than I thought I might be when we first started down this path sixty-five days ago. The kids and I found our way. And their “learning letters” help hit this home. Here are some lines that hit home with me as I learned about their learning during this strange time.

“In your class I have learned more about Language Arts than any other class. Not because you crammed things in or put a load of homework on us, but because you understood that not everyone learns the same way, and that some people need more time than others. You didn’t force us to do a lot and told us that a grade shouldn’t only define what you did right or wrong, but if you learned what you were supposed to, even if we weren’t always correct the first time.”

“I rarely like being formal, but I feel as if I owe it up to you as my teacher, and the work that I have not been getting done. I procrastinate and I fail to do something on time. However, I still learn. Although it might not be at that exact time or exact moment you would prefer me to get it done, I still learn. So this weekend, I am going to go and get done all of the previous assignments I did not do. Most importantly, I am going to go and learn the material this weekend. That is my promise. Thank you Mr. Syrie for teaching me and trusting my promise.”

“It felt like all outside cliques, all dumb ideas of popularity and status even, just kind of went away when we went into your class. And it sounds pretty cheesy I know, but that was a really big thing for me. I started to really feel connected to classmates that maybe i’ve been going to school with for a long time, but have never really felt like I could be friends with. And we learned together. We had amazing discussions that helped me really think about things, and want to participate and learn more. And it was really really hard to keep trying to learn when that was taken away.”

“Your view on learning and teaching really helped a lot of us. It helped me. It helped me let go of my grip on grades and just learn. So thank you for this year.”

“For example, without even knowing it, your class made me think more about how I feel and what’s happening with the pandemic and now with the Black lives matter movement. I found myself wanting to use the things that I learned about ethical appeals and sentence structure and write something. I wanted to use the knowledge gained from your assignments to write my own take on this pandemic. I wanted to write about the black lives matter movement, and I did not only want to write about it but I also wanted to share it. I kind of wanted to be heard for the first time (and usually I’m fine with being in the background). Knowing that I wanted to write an essay about those topics and not get a grade out of it, I think is not only somewhat of academic growth but also personal growth. It shows that I started to apply the things I learned to real life.”

I am proud of my kids. I am proud of their words. I am proud of their wisdom. They came to me learning. They are leaving me learning.

As I try to talk and also try to walk in room 206, learned is an end. Learning is a road. Have they learned? I don’t know. They kept moving. Are they learning? They must be. They are leaving. And only they know what they are taking with them.

Happy Monday, all. Have a great week.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.