It's been a while since I have sat down on a Friday and written one of my Friday Reflections; the days have collided with each other, pushing one week after another past me.
It's been a while since I have looked back on the week and thought about what has happened in the classroom; the lines of learning and life blending together in an orchestrated dance.
It's been a while since I pondered what the rest of the year holds for us; the future is so much closer these days. I wish our days would stop colliding into the weeks.
The pulse of the classroom is racing as if we've just completed a 5-minute mile. The subject areas are intertwining with one another as they offer each other their place within the mosaic of thought we call education. We quickly transition from one activity to another yet we hold on to everything we have learned thus far. Incorporating the lessons of yesterday to help make sense out of the lessons today...to prepare for the lessons of tomorrow.
The expectations of student and teacher alike are high and often demanding. We build play-time into our days, sometimes several times a day, to ease the pressures that silently lurk just underneath the surface. A tightly woven interaction of work and play is what fuels our energy to reach our goals.
It's working. This interaction of work and play is paying off.
I can see the inter-disciplinary learning that is taking place. I can see how my students are using all facets of each subject area to help them understand and make sense out of what I teach them. They have crossed the bridge of simply being told information to embarking on the soils of independent learning. It's what I set out each year to have my students accomplish.
"The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without his teacher."
~Elbert Hubbard
It's been a long time since I've seen my students through the lens of my mind as I sit in a quiet place.
They are remarkable.
Mr. Casten
April 20, 2012
Copyrighted material of Michael C. Casten
