I owe the title of this post to Sean Wheeler who wrote this on his Facebook Page. I love blogging, it helps me process and it bothers me that it has been so long since I've written a post. I have started at least ten pieces since October but never been able to complete them and Sean totally nailed why not-I haven’t owned my own brain for months.
I think that is the one notion that non educators often fail to understand or grasp. When you spend all day with kids, kids who you love and encourage to be innovative and creative you lose yourself in the process of helping them find themselves. I am by nature an introvert, I love to read, to write, to watch a good movie and noise distracts me. Yet I spend my days amidst crazy awesome noise and I love it, I encourage it, I wallow in it. I hear stories; sad stories, funny stories, inspiring stories, stories that tell me so much about the lives of my kids and help me better understand and serve them. I hear ideas; ideas about how we can learn, about what we can learn, about how we can change the world together. I hear curiosity, anxiety, enthusiasm, frustration, pride, disappointment, joy, grief, nonsense, genius! I hear questions about…everything. The cacophony batters and sustains me.
When somebody asks me during the day why I haven’t read or responded to an email it’s a clear indication to me that they have no clue what I do. I don’t sit in a quiet office, I don’t meet in a calm conference room with peers, I don’t eat lunch sitting down and I don’t go to the bathroom when the need arises. I swim in a turbulent sea of sound and between the hours of 8 am and 4 pm I am trained and employed to listen to it, hear it, feel it, and respond to it.
I received the most wonderful gift today, a beautiful hand knitted blanket and a message that restores my faith in the fact that some people truly do understand what we do: This blanket represents what you have given our children for the last four years; Love ,Warmth and Kindness.
Tonight the noise has subsided; I can own my own brain for the next two weeks. I’m looking forward to spending time making noise with my own family, snuggling up in my new blanket and relishing in my own thoughts so that I can be rested and prepared to embrace the thoughts of my amazing students in 2014.Happy Holidays everyone!
