A Recap of Winning Beginnings

Our first Invitation to Write, on the topic "Winning Beginnings," has been a pleasure to share with you over the past couple of weeks. Talented educators and writers from across the state have contributed their reflections, ideas, and advice, providing for the rest of us inspiration and a reminder that we are not alone. I wanted to take a minute to recap where we've been and encourage you to read, reread, and share what these teachers have contributed. 

Beginnings: "One of my favorite parts of teaching is the idea that we get New Year's twice a year, whereas those suckers with "real" jobs only get them in January. The resolutions I make in August are similar to the traditional ones; they're designed to make me better. Except in January, most resolutions are self-centered, focusing only on me as a person. In August, my resolutions focus on how to be a better teacher for my students."

Day 1 Activity: "I never start my year with rules or procedures. . ."

An Epilogue to a Former Disaster: "I was very invested in my students’ lives and I took their struggles, both academic and otherwise, personally, and I forgot that teaching is much more than just throwing creative darts against a wall hoping for a bullseye.  Even if they are creative darts, you can only survive chaos for so long."

Do and Do Not; You Can Always Try Again Tomorrow: That list in your head? It’s in my head too. It never goes away. Teaching is a vocation with an inexhaustible spring of inspiration. Channeling that inspiration can be in turns exhausting, intimidating, and exhilarating. 

Why I Assign Seats: "As I run down the hall to homeroom, my skirt starts to slip, but I hold it in place with one hand as I step through the door. The bell rings. I look around for a friendly face. Mr. Sprott stretches to see over the podium, glances at his seating chart, and his nasally voice says, “You must be Brenna Griffin. You’ll sit there behind Lindsey Greenwood.” I quickly slide into my desk.

     "It is the first time that morning that I know who I am."

Cheesy But True: "It’s time to take a deep breath, to remember why I teach, to remember what motivates me, to call upon that impalpable yet interminable energy. The source of that intangible vivacity is not impalpable at all. It walks, it talks, and I can attach names to it." 

The Lure of the Distant: "I teach, I have a graduate degree, I volunteer, I have a family—in short, I feel that I am very accomplished. However, the aforementioned conversation still pushes me to wonder: What does one have to do to establish his or herself as “doing something”? More importantly, how can teachers make students feel that they're always doing something worthwhile with their own lives?"

To the First Year Teacher: "First year teachers, at least the ones similar to me, like to pretend as though they have everything together.  Admission that you don’t makes you feel like a failure.  The result is 'safe teaching'—lack of risks, over-planning, and far too much over-analysis of lesson plans."

Blending the Passion of Poetry with the Common Core: "Of course, no one became an English major in hopes of having to prove how the teaching of Frost or Soto or Dickinson meets with a set of educational standards.  However, as it turns out, so many standards can be effectively addressed with the likes of James Weldon Johnson or Jorie Graham." 

Thanks to all our writers once again. We're still looking for contributors on our current topic, Letters to Students. Let's keep the writing coming. We all have much to gain from each other.

- Shannon Dykstra

ICTE Online Content Editor