This morning I wrote to advocate for more time for a teaching unit since our team spent considerable time at the start of the year building team and setting the stage for successful learning. I'll go along with the decision made, but my research and experience tells me that if you skip the team building and contextual work at the start of the school year, then you never reach the depth and success possible. Most teachers subscribe to Ruth Charney's wise advice in Teaching Children to Care years ago which stated that the first six weeks of school should be a time to build a positive school culture.
While I thought about the request for an extension with regard to a unit's completion, and our ongoing effort to build a positive TeamFive culture, I rewatched the film we made at the start of the year, a film that highlights lots of smiles and positive team building activity:
As I watched the film, I found that it reawakened in me that desire to serve these wonderful students with so much potential well. To do my job well means to advocate for what they need and then to work carefully with my grade-level colleagues to meet those needs in a large variety of meaningful, engaging, and both collective and personal ways.
I imagine I'll find myself looking at this film every so often throughout the year to bring me back to our essential purpose which is to provide our students with a wonderful year of academic, social, and emotional growth, happiness, and success. Onward.