the day before

After I took Chaucer for his walk (I took this picture of the bumblebee there. They tend to cling to flowers at night and wait until the dew dries to fly around again) I went to school today. The kids didn't, but the day before they come is usually filled with meetings and information and general getting ready. Its also my most nerve wracking day. My mind usually races with what my students might be like this year. How will I have to bend in order to help them all, to meet all of their needs? Its a struggle. My student load has been going up, non-stop for five years. Teaching, if its done right, is super complicated.... a massive game of chess. Where do I position myself, and for how long, in order to make the greatest impact for the greatest amount of kids. It's kind of crazy really. But I love it.

I have these crazy writing prompts that I throw at my students. They are completely off their radar and purposefully so. My whole goal is to get them out of the ruts that naturally form from being so long in school. Writing, whether it be poetry or prose, really starts to shine when it illuminates things from a strong, and new point of view. That's what the goal is, to get them thinking and not just recirculating easily remembered information. So, I throw them into strange places, and force them to swim around in there for 10 minutes in the beginning of my classes. That writing is never graded ( I want them to feel safe enough to take risks in what they are writing) and I never force them to read it out loud. Its become a tradition of sorts for me to start with one particular writing prompt. "Here is an orange. Take a full ten minutes of non-stop writing and describe the thing. Take chances. Use all of your senses. Think about simile and other ways of describing the thing. And, you can never use the word "orange" in your writing.

I got three, pungent, fiery-red, sour, plump and juicy oranges today.