Growing up through the ‘90s of course meant watching TV (for you young-ins this means real TV… not cable or Netflix with all the choices and conveniences) and that meant being able to experience one of the greatest things ever to hit the airwaves – “Boy Meets World”!

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 You had to love the crazy antics of Cory and Shawn.  And Cory’s older brother Eric was always good for a strangely odd laugh.  But a main story-line of the show was the lifelong relationship between two of the main characters – Corey and Mr. Feeny (oh and I think there was a Topanga??).

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

 

By the time the show was hitting it’s stride, I had put away the “cool” answers to this question, and had settled in on being a teacher.  So I watched Mr. Feeny with keen interest.

 A year or so back, I remember half jokingly posting on Facebook that when I grew up, I wanted to be a teacher just like Feeny.  While I’m not there yet (and certainly hope I don’t follow my students through middle and high school), I had a stunning realization this week.  As we were winding down our Getting to Know each other conversations and activities, I took time out to let my current 3rd graders ask me questions.  One hit me with, “Why did you decide to become a teacher?”  I told them how when I was a kid I always answered with policeman, soldier, secret agent etc. but always heard “teacher” in the back of my head.  I also explained that by the time I was in high school, I knew I had been called into this profession and felt I could be great in it… not great for me but great for them.

 The conversation twisted and turned (as it will with newly minted 3rd graders) and they finally asked two more wonderful questions.  “Why hadn’t we done any subject stuff?” and “Why had we done all that other stuff (ie. motivational, class/school cultural, relational activities)?”  Both questions led us to a place I’d never fully been before.  I was sitting in front of my 14th class of students about to do something I had never done… be totally committed to them!

“They Deserved It!”

 I told them that what we had done was far more important than anything else we’d do with “subject stuff”.  I told them that I believed in every one of them and knew they would do great things.  I told them that homework would be amazingly important to and for them  instead of being worksheets that were only important to whoever bought the books they came from.  I told them they deserved and should expect me to be a great teacher!  Some of this I’d said before to other classes, but not with this much passion and certainly not with this much belief.

 As this went on, there was an energetic buzz in the room, in the students and in myself.  This was a different feeling.  This new year had now been set on a new, inspiring trajectory.  A proclamation had been made!  In the back of my head, for the first time as a professional educator I felt like I might just have begun becoming Mr. Feeny.

August 14th has arrived. While I’ve officially been back to work for two days, this being the first Monday makes it all the more real. So too does the fact that this evening is Meet the Teacher.  A new anxious and excited group of students and parents will come flowing into my classroom.

 

Ahh… the classroom.  As I look around Facebook (and my own building) at all the many Pintrest perfect rooms, mine can best be summed up as “Smoldering Crater”!  My desk is where it belongs, the ton of new math supplies are mostly stored appropriately but other than that, there isn’t much that screams, “parents and students will be here in mere hours”.  And I am completely at peace with this.

(Where’s my desk?)

I’ve never been the greatest decorator and my artistic ability is quite limited, so I’ve never been one to stress out too much over how my room looks.  But in years past I have spent much of the first few days back focused solely on “getting ready”.  That meant, desk tags, rows, laminating (oh the laminating) and poster hanging.  This was followed by creating stacks of papers for each desk so parents could go home with a forest full of different district centered information.  It left little time to really focus on what (or who) mattered most – students.

“Good is the enemy of great!” – Steven Covey

“Good is the enemy of great” is a quote that has come to mean a lot to me as this year begins.  For much of my career, I have been focused on being good enough.  But this year I wish to be great. Not for me, but for my students.  They deserve it.  So as I start this Monday morning, I’m thinking about engaging lesson designs, how to communicate more effectively with parents, students and colleagues to enhance student success and how best to shift teaching/learning from being centered on me up front to the students and what they are creating and how they are thinking.

 

The crater will get filled in… and whatever parts don’t look Pintrest perfect, the students can help create and improve once they arrive on Wednesday.  It is better like that anyway.  But just as a church is only a building and really becomes a church because of the people… my classroom is only a room until it is full of happy, engaged and energetic students.  Their desires, their passions and their creations focused on learning and being successful will make this room the caring wonderful place I hope it will be.