Our personal lives do not always allow for peaceful repose upon walking into the classroom in the morning. My mentor teacher and I can both attest to this recently. However, in several ways, walking into that classroom does bring me a sense of normality and structure which helps me thrive and love what I do, allowing the outside world to fade away while fulfilling that glorious role of educator.
"Time is nothing": a quote from one of my all time favorite novels, The Time Traveler's Wife. And while I agree with this statement in so many respects, time is everything in the classroom. I cling to this time; I marry it; I follow it religiously. Ten minutes for bell work -- thirty minutes for grammar -- thirty minutes for literary analysis -- remaining minutes devoted to finishing up individual work and assigning homework. Aah, so structured. So sure.
Relationships -- so messy, aren't they? Well, not in the classroom. I am the teacher; you are the student. There is no gray line there. There is no question of roles or status or hierarchy. I want the best for my students and will do anything in my power to help them along their path to success, and my students respect me. Of course, the daily goings on and hashing out of this are not always so clean cut, but the understanding is always there, underlying everything we do and say.
White paper. Black ink. Words which bring inanimate pages to life. Words which have meanings and correct spellings. Sentences which have correct structures. Paragraphs which have correct formats that funnel and flow and connect. These are the clay to my potters hands. These are my forte. These are unchanging. These I know. These I understand. These I can teach.
Yes, my life, our lives, are messy, unstructured, riddled with difficult relationships, straining situations, ambiguous futures. However, as educators, when we step into that classroom, all of those things should fall away. These things should fade as we enter the classroom and put on the apron and begin molding young minds. We need not only to find our repose and peace and strength in the structure of our classrooms, but we should provide this stable environment for our students as well. We should foster it, grow it, allow its aroma to fill the room in such a way that when those students enter, there is no question what is expected of them and how the class period will play out.
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