Getting Declarative

I am a public school teacher.

I wake up before the sun and am probably in my office before you brew your morning coffee.

I didn't get into this by default or because spring, summer and the three o'clock hour offer freedom.

I didn't get into it because it's easy (it's not) or because it was the only thing to do.


I got into it for the kids, but realize I'm in it for the world.

I don't babysit... A 16 year old babysits - I do more.

I talk, I inspire, I enhance - I'm more than just one teacher, I'm more than just one job.

I flip through my roladex of skills and understandings with the speed of that businessman and then execute with the knowhow and precision of a surgeon; sewing up wounds in reading, mending bones in math, helping kids stand in new situations.

I experiment. Guess and check and guess and check to ensure I am finding ways to turn what I know into what they know.

I am on my tippy-toes longer than a ballerina, dancing with and around the pressures put on me and my students by this city.

I paint on canvases Van Gogh and Divinci never touched, swirling my paints into activities far away from chalkboards and boredom.



I still believe a kid can be a kid can be a kid can be a kid, especially in a classroom, even though others  have such a hard time believing it too.