Episode 8
Reflecting on joy.
As the school year comes to an end and I clean out my classroom, I stop to reflect on the times my students and I shared together. I find their “Student of the Week” nominations, their “teacher evaluation” letters and the last-minute messages they left on the dry-erase board. These pieces cause me to pause and consider the young authors and their perspectives of my class.
Their “Student of the Week” nominations show they have been watching each other for strengths and positive moves. Their “teacher evaluations” are enlightening, sweet and detailed. Their last-moment messages display their true feelings about the end of the year.
In our final Tuesdays With TWIG conversation, we contemplated the following guiding question, “How do we create spaces for reflection that highlight and cultivate joy?”
We started by listening to Jess read “The Traveling Onion” by Naomi Shihab Nye (https://poets.org/poem/traveling-onion ). We reflected on the small, forgotten miracles that happen around us every day.
After we shared our reflection on the poem, we discussed how we create space for reflection in our classrooms. I appreciated the idea of using rituals to help our students find joy. Giving students choice in their assignments and methods of completing those assignments, or in our morning meetings are both great places to find joy.
My students don’t typically complain about my class or the work we do, but to say that they find joy in learning might be a stretch. The idea of needing to build a scaffolding for finding and experiencing joy in writing was brought up in our conversation.
As I process this past year and plan for the upcoming year, I have a list of ideas to think about as I consider purposefully planning for joy in my class in the fall.
· Define joy
· Share the joy we find in ourselves as well as others
· Honor students’ ideas by displaying them or bringing attention to them
· Celebrating growth (not just achievement)
· Create routines that name moments that brought joy to our class
These ideas are broad. I’m glad I have the summer to ruminate on them and create and refine ways to bring them to life.
Every year, around the beginning of May, I tape an eight by ten note card to the top of my desk. On this note card I write down lists of things I need to purchase, lists of posters I need to create as well as other random bits of knowledge I’d like to start off the year with. On my note card this year I’ve written, “JOY!” Starting school next year will look very different from the start of last year. I will be including joy-finding in our daily rituals.
This was our final Tuesday’s With TWIG for this school year. Join us again on September 14, 2021 at our new time, from 7:00pm to 8:00 pm Mountain Time.
Have a joyous summer.
