What's happening in the silence

It's been 6 weeks or so since I posted. Let me start off by saying the very nature of my blog and the fact that I've been silent for a while now are no indication of how my life (in general, but more specifically as a teacher) is going. In fact, the last several months have been some of the most rewarding months of my life.

I LOVE WHAT I DO EVERY SINGLE DAY. My first year of teaching was a lot of "I should have done that differently" and "Why didn't I plan for that to happen?" and "Just put one foot in front of the other: one class period at a time." Now, I'm no perfect teacher --I'm still learning from my mistakes every day. But I've taken my rookie teacher failures and turned them into opportunities to learn about myself, my teaching, and my students.

Teaching in a small, private school gives me a unique opportunity: my class is tight-knit --for better or for worse. That's a truly beautiful thing: we see each other at our best and our worst because we spend 40 hours or so a week together. We celebrate our victories. We learn from our mistakes. We console each other through losses. We're navigating our ship through the delicate preteen years of life, and while I may be the captain of this ship, it's an effort from my whole crew that keeps us above water and headed in the right direction.

For those who know me personally, life's thrown some curve balls at me the last month or two. In those challenges I've been humbled by the families at school, and more specifically by my students. For someone who finds it difficult to accept help, I've been given no choice at times. Many would argue that 10, 11, and 12 year olds are rather preoccupied with themselves. I'm here to tell you that not all of them are. My students have shown me compassion, love, and grace in some of life's finest moments of defeat. The maturity and responsibility that they have demonstrated at times is admirable, to say the least.

My hiatus from blogging could be summed up in this way: I've been too busy loving life to sit down and write about it.