Reflecting on the New Year with Students

In the next week, I hope to have two great posts!  Bear with me as I gingerly dip my toes in this big ocean of education bloggers.  I am putting together a post about one of my favorite free apps including a tutorial and different ways it can be used.  Second, I will be putting up my very first Teachers Pay Teachers item. It'll be a freebie!! I've presented this item at a couple of ESOL/TESOL conferences in the past year and a half and have had great reviews. I hope it will be a fun one for your classes.  

Until then, I am feeling reflective.  It's the last weekend of Winter Break, and the preparations for seeing the kids are in full swing.  I'm already starting to see their little faces in my dreams.  During the break, a lot of magic happens. Families have time together, maybe see extended family, travel, shop, and relax during the time off from school.  Another little magical thing tends to happen during this mid-year break.  I'm not sure what you call it, but everything the students have learned from August to December seem to fall into place.  I compare it to tenderly raising a flowering plant.  During the first part of the year, we plant little seeds and offer them water, nutrients, shelter, and just the right ecosystem.  They begin to sprout roots, not roots we can see with our eyes and not roots we may be aware of, but they are there.  By January, those roots are getting strong, and with our bear eyes, we begin to see a tiny green leaf sprout.  We begin to see how strong it is as we continue to offer the little plant everything it needs. 

As a teacher, I have the love and hope to take care of a plant way before we see this perfect, bright, happy little sprout.  Some days I think I've given the students too much; sometimes not enough.  Some times I've moved them from all the sun they need, and sometimes, I've baked them with sun. Gosh!  Have I rotted their little roots?! And I will tell you, no plant is like the other; they all have unique and special needs.  The succulents offer the world just as much as the rose; the daisy is as precious as the young oak tree.  What's different is that I don't yet know exactly what future plants I have, but I can't wait to see it, beginning with this tiny little sprout.

I'm looking forward to 2014 and seeing the students continue to grow and absorb all that I offer them including care, encouragement, and high expectations.  I hope you all had a wonderful break, but it's time for them to come back to school.  To my fellow teachers, I hope you're all greeted by happy sprouts this week.