Who We Are and What We Do

A roller coaster couple of weeks.

We have experienced great highs as a class, as well as great lows. It has taken awhile for me to both process the events as well as muster the courage to publish these two posts about a particular experience. They are from Wednesday and Thursday:


Yesterday:

The past week has been an emotionally draining one. 

Last week saw us sharing intensely raw and emotional blog posts together. There was an incredible sense of us coming together as a group and sharing our experiences. I heard student after student beg for more time to write so they could express what was on their hearts.  

What they shared was messy, raw, and emotionally charged. It showed their brokenness, their struggles, their burdens.

It was beautiful. 

There was an incredible sense of trust and honesty in the room. I felt like we made it to a new level of connectedness. 

And then today all the connectedness fell apart. 

The details are immaterial, but the impact was intense. A deep division occurred and emotions were at their peak. It was truly one of the most painful things I have ever experienced. The outrage and frustration was aimed at me and I would not be honest if I said I wasn’t deeply hurt. There were multiple students who came to my defense, but I still felt the blows.

But this isn't about pain or hurt or who said what. 

This is about grace and moving on.

I am thankful for an opportunity for us to spill our guts to each other, even if it was not done in the most respectful of ways. I am thankful to have an opportunity to demonstrate grace and what a fresh start looks like rather than just tell them about it.

We need to pull ourselves back together. We need to heal. We need to move on.

Fresh starts and clean slates are for us all, whenever they are needed.

Today saw us burned down to ashes.

Tomorrow will see us rise as something better.

Today:

I wrote yesterday's post in the car as I sat by the beach processing the day. I committed to putting my thoughts down and then focussing on being the husband and dad that my family deserves and needs me to be once I got home.

Being a very analytical person, it is often quite difficult for me to not examine previous conversations or events from every conceivable angle, thinking of things I should have done or said. While I did have images of the day flash in my mind, I found myself thinking more about the end of the year when I could high five, fist bump, or shake hands with my eighth grade students as they conclude their time at our school. I kept imagining how significant it will be to shake or slap hands with a deep knowledge of all that we have been through together. The triumphs. The challenges. The wounds. The healing.

Today, that restoration and healing began.

We begin every class with students reading the mastery objectives for the day. I always write them in "I can" language, and the first one on the board was "I can rise from the ashes." I saw so many smiling and eager faces as a student read that. She happened to be the one who articulated the meaning behind OOTA at the beginning of the year and she knocked it out of the park again today: "That's just who we are and what we do."

That is who we are and what we do.

For the majority of class, we moved forward by going outside to examine trees for Winter Moths and will be reporting our findings through Vitalsigns.org.

For a few students, restoration looked like individual conversations where we talked about how to move forward and be the best that we can be. It was incredibly touching to see students ask for forgiveness and a fresh start.

It was wonderful to give a fresh start and see smiles on faces that have recently held frowns.

Today, we rose from the ashes and became something better.

It's who we are and what we do.