“Sometimes, you have to look back in order to understand the things that lie ahead.”

Although I usually write my blog on Sunday morning, this week I decided to be a rebel and save my blog for this Thursday, June 5^th—the last day of school.  We are HOURS-MINUTES-SECONDS away from SUMMER BREAK.  I am using all caps because this elicits great joy and excitement from me!  I feel really good about the year I had.  I learned a lot!  I made some big mistakes; I had some surprising successes.  My family preserved and was strengthened through some tough, challenging stuff.  My son graduated high school and my daughter will become a freshman.  I have a lot to think about and reflect upon.  I really genuinely cherish reflection.

As this year ends, it may sound crazy, but I have heard myself say to multiple people, “I am so excited about next year.”  I mean, I need summer.  I deserve summer.  I can’t wait for summer.  But, as I have poured over my student reflections and written some of my own, I am genuinely excited about next year.  You see, one of the most difficult things for me to embrace is the fact that there is no such thing as perfection, but there is always ALWAYS a chance for better.  I started something this year where my students and I, at the end of each project, take about 15-20 minutes and reflect on our work.  At first this was very surface and insincere.  But real reflection takes practice and bravery.  It is never meant to criticize, but it is intended to take a critical look at the process and honestly consider our strengths and weaknesses.  That is one of my biggest failings when my year began.  As regular people, we must practice reflection in order to be good at it.  At the end of the first unit my students were simply looking at the surface, but as we started to dig in, we realized we weren't really being authentic.  Holy macaroni has that changed.  My students were able to genuinely think about their learning and opportunities for next year at the end of this year.  I cherish their reflections.

In my class, our final project (thanks to my amazing teacher friend, Jessica Shelton) was slam poetry.  I have never slammed a poem before, but I was more than willing to learn.  This project went with our study of The Crucible, the famous John Proctor line: “Because it is my name!  Because I cannot have another in my life!...I have given you my soul; leave me my name!”  Students were asked to create a poem based on what their name means to them and to consider the legacy they intend to create as they become the seniors in our school.  I was very nervous about this assignment.  At the beginning, the students were concerned.  A slam poem is a performance.  It requires practice and memorization and reflection.  Overall, the poems were AWESOME!  So much better than I ever would have dreamed.  As a human being and teacher the only thing I get really angry about is disrespect, so I always have high expectations of audience.  As we are an audience, we listen intently and offer compliments.  As part of their reflection, they had to come up with a

one-word adjective to describe the poet.  When all the poems were finished, I had each poet stand in front of the white board and each student wrote their words around the poet.  Then I took their picture.  Finally, when everyone was seated, the poet could look at their words.  I did not check the words in advance.  I only gave the instruction above.  When you are standing in front of the board, you have no idea what words are being written about you.  It is terrifying.  The results were greater than I ever could have hoped.  Once the student returned to their desk, they were to reflect on this process.  Again, I was so surprised.  Students were overwhelmed.  I was overwhelmed.

As they finished, I heard them start in, “You need to go in front of the board.”  I was thinking that was DEFINITELY not going to happen.  Did they think I was crazy?  I willingly humiliate myself in front of these people each day.  But, they know my weakness, “You say you always do everything with us—you have to participate in this—PLEASE!”  Against my better judgment, I got in front of that board.  The looks on their faces were priceless.  They gleefully wrote as I stood there letting them know how incredibly nervous I was.  They continued to laugh, and exclaim, “Look at that one,” and “Did you see what they wrote?”  I was certain it would be a board filled with profanity and jokes.  I was 100% wrong.  They begged to take my picture and I let them.  I made a funny face because I figured that would be reflected in my words.  I was wrong.  The words overwhelmed me.  I turned to look at the words and I started to cry.  The

words that littered the board ranged from “Boxer” to “The Freaking Bomb.”  I started to cry.

One of the options for their final reflection was to choose three words to describe our class this year.  I have created a wordle of the words they chose.  If you are unfamiliar with this program, I love it because each time a word is repeated it is made larger in the final rendering.  These are my student words.  I hope you will look closely at these words.  I cherish them. 

As I reflect on this year, I think many of them are reflected in the student work.  Here are my top three reflections:

YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT ACTIONS WILL IMPACT SOMEONE:

One student reflection that is dear to my heart was a student who was asked, “If you could say anything to Mrs. Moore/ Mrs. Shelton, what would you say?”  She wrote about our friendship, “Ya’lls friendship is golden.  And seriously a big part of why I haven’t dropped out…I’m truly grateful you were my teacher for the past two years.  Even though I may not seem grateful, I truly am.”  The fact that I love the people I work with is not something I thought students cared about.  I guess they do.  You never know.

ALTHOUGH I PUSH KIDS, THEY SEEM TO LIKE IT A LOT

The most common word I had was “fun” followed by “challenging” and “accepting.”  Fun and challenging?  Most of the kids’ reflections focused on the need to find their voices and think more deeply.  One of my AP Students reflections, “I wanted to drop this class at first.  I felt like I wasn’t smart enough but Mrs. Moore wouldn't let me know matter how many times I asked.  Maybe it was God telling me I needed it…this class is important.  I didn't think I could have a voice.  I've discovered a lot about myself and where I stand in this world.” 

GO OUT ON A LIMB

I was absolutely terrified to slam a poem in front of my kids.  I had no idea what I was doing.  It is something I will never forget.  Without risk, there is no reward.  Most of my students wrote about how scary it was to participate in most of the activities I asked them to do.  But one of my favorite student reflections, an answer to the question, “What advice would you give Mrs. Moore’s juniors next year?”: “PARTICIPATE!  The more you participate the more you learn.  If you aren't learning every single day, you are asleep.  I can’t believe how into everything we all got.  It made this class my favorite!”

My wish for you, as you begin your summer is that you will give yourself permission to reflect.  Learn to embrace the opportunity to improve and move forward.  It is my favorite thing about being a teacher.