Learning to Dance Again

Tomorrow morning, twenty-three 7th and 8th graders will waltz, stumble and creep into my classroom. It's been two years since I did this. Stand in front of a group of kids and begin a 180 day journey. I love this time of year. My favorite metaphor to capture it is a boat pushing away from the shore, oars in the water, destination unknown. Well, not exactly. It won't be a carefree, unstructured meandering through the joys of literature and community building. I know that I am required to put into port for MCAS testing and establish routines that provide comfort and safety to enable all students to succeed. There will be few moments like this one to reflect on the journey. I wanted to mark this moment as I head into my 11th year of teaching.