Cannot believe we moved into triple digits today. 100 days. In August, 180 seemed so many. But now, in February, it seems so little. Time is indeed illusory, a tease, a mirage, a ghost. And in such times as this, it confounds, for one worries about his use of the fleeting moment he has been given with this year’s charges. Has he done enough, covered enough? And he is beset by haunts from his past lives and classrooms where such a thing as “coverage of content” sang its siren song, luring him away from his course, teasing and taunting, exploiting and empowering the doubt atop his left shoulder. Time was he would succumb to such sound, such noise, giving into doubt, forsaking conviction. But that time has passed. Oh, the noise still threatens, but he has secured himself to the mast of his mission, facing the noise from without with his voice from within, and he is resolute in his quest to follow his horizon, secure in his knowledge that he is singing a better song; the song of his students. They are the star he follows in the vastness of of his sea to find a better place for those with whom he has set sail. That is his song. That is my song. And as each day passes, I try out different tunes, looking for harmony in a sea cast with doubt and discord out here in the expanse of the unexplored.

Today, my tune finds company in my gradeless, grade-ten peeps. Today, we offer a chorus to our students as we seek to help them sing their own songs about their learning. Below is a draft of a message template that kids will send home as part of their learning stories each week to their parents via email. A bit of tweaking and revising will occur as we seek harmony, but this is the gist of what our message will be.

All year, 100 days so far, I have asked kids to learn a new tune. It is not an easy tune, for it is unfamiliar, but with each passing day their voices become more resonant. Yes, I worry from time to time as the days pass if I should not bring back some of the familiar tunes of the past, but then I see and hear my kids’ earnest attempts to sing, no longer caged birds, free and unfettered, and I am mesmerized, held captive by the promise of their voices, their beautiful voices. And I see my horizon.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will…

…begin with Smiles and Frowns.

…view Life is Beautiful, seeking more truths about the human experience.

…end with a Sappy Sy Rhyme.

Happy Monday, all.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.