What’s Important

My grade level colleagues and I have spent a lot of time “together” lately. It has been a time of bonding, of hashing things out, of agreeing to disagree and disagreeing with what we agree on. That is what happens when a group of Queen Bees, because aren’t we teachers all Queen Bees, has to narrow down what they plan on teaching to the exact same thing.

But what’s important to my kids?

We have played tug of war over each subject. Too much, too little. How to word it, when to assign it. Do we need one, or two, or three. Ultimately we all feel quite proud of ourselves and each other. Good ideas spring from the tumult. And sometimes those ideas are even great.

But what’s important to my kids?

Because, you see, we are sticking really close together right now. Norming our expectations across a grade level. Developing unified plans to stay strong as we move forward through these uncharted waters. There are really good things happening, but my kids keep reaching out to me.

“When are you going to read us, The Wild Robot Escapes?”

That is what is important to them. We finished Peter Brown’s book, The Wild Robot, on the Friday we said good bye to our classroom, our home. They knew I had the sequel in my magical drawer (its a big drawer full of books!). They knew I said I would read it to them once I learned how to record myself reading and post it to Classroom. But it’s not what my team has agreed to do, not yet. “Soon,” I keep responding to my kids. “I’ll read it to you soon.”

“When are you going to read us, The Wild Robot Escapes?”

So now, as a group, my colleagues and I are moving towards “read aloud”. Video recordings of ourselves reading a book aloud to our class. We all agreed to start with one book. Dip our toes into the water. See how it goes. And then, once we are all on that page, perhaps then, it will be time.

Because some things are actually important to our kids.