It was only a dream. It was only a dream. It was only a dream.

Last night I dreamt. Last night my subconscious fears broke through, haunting and taunting.

Testing was over (that will be a dream come true). The kids and I were back together, relieved and ready to resume. But as we started our first Smiles and Frowns, after nearly two weeks, things were different. Things were unkind. Things were chaotic. Things were uncomfortable. Things were broken. Kids weren’t listening. Kids weren’t speaking. Kids weren’t empathizing. Kids weren’t kind. Things had fallen apart. I was not I. They were not they. We were not we. We were lost. Lost.

But it was only a dream. Thank goodness it was only a dream. I’m not sure I could handle such a reality as that.

Of course, I think the kids have planted the seeds in my subconscious mind as they daily lament our loss of routine, our absence of normalcy. They miss us. I miss us. And I do what I can. I tell them I am sorry. I tell them that things will be back to normal soon. And they will be, but, then, they will soon be over. At the outset of our journey, 180 days seemed a lifetime. But now that we are here, a short 35 days away, it seems but a blip on the radar.  And I am not ready. I am not ready to say goodbye to the people I have learned this year. And I have learned them. I meant to. It was no accidental, incidental outcome. It was intentional. I worked on it every day. Every day. And I will continue this commitment until the days run out.

We are going to learn a lot this year. A lot. I am going to push you to make the most of our opportunity together. And while the content of the course will occupy the majority of our learning experiences, it is not the most important thing we will learn together. Yes, syntax and rhetoric are important, and, yes, we will treat them as such, but they are secondary to what matters most: the people around us. Our worlds will always be full of important stuff, but they will also be full of people. And it is my belief that if we want to learn about the world and to learn about ourselves, we first have to focus on the people around us. So we, my young friends, will spend time each day learning about each other.

This is from my Relationships are not Accidents post back in July. This is how I introduced Smiles and Frowns to my kids this year. And now that the end is near, and I reflect–and dream–about our experiences, I am proud and pleased of what we have learned this year. We have learned each other, and through each other we have learned our world, we have learned ourselves. I am not sure there is anything more important to learn. It is the stuff of dreams. And dreams can become realities. If we can dream it, we can make it. I have long dreamed of more-humanized and less-standardized experiences in education. And years like this, kids like this, make me believe. And it all started from a dream.

It was only a dream. It was only a dream. It was only a dream.

Dream. Reflect. Dream Bigger.