~and so I gave myself an assignment~

     From over the big mountain, down into a valley and along a blacktop road that we live on here in south western Colorado, good morning dear  friends and family.  It's the early morning here and gazing out the window to see the little city of Montrose, it's apparent that there aren't too many of us up just yet.  Slowly and surely everyone and everything will come to life and the day along the Western Slopes shall begin.  Traffic on Highway 50 is rather spotty right now but several semis have passed by already as they make their trip east to Gunnison and beyond, over Monarch Pass and down to the other side of the great Continental Divide.  You can tell it's summer time, vacation time for people and this part of the world is a great destination spot for them.  Motorcyclists by the score can be heard roaring down the highway all the time from April until late autumn.  I remember towards the end of  last October seeing what I thought was surely "the last man out" roar by on his Harley trying to get over the pass at Monarch before winter's snow would set  in, making that kind of travel at little bit on the weird side.  This is Thursday the 10th day  of July and thus, let the day get started!

     I gave myself an assignment for over the summer break and yes I do suppose it's the "teacher" in me that did so.  After admonishing my now former fourth grade students to be sure to read a good book over the course of the next couple of months, I determined that I too would do the same.  I wasn't sure what the book would be but only a few days later I would find out as another teacher, a wonderful woman named Kathy, would press a soft back copy of a book into my hands at the end of the school year.  "Read it Peggy.  You will really like it!" she told me.  It sat in my book bag until a few days back and now I am beginning the process of reading it.  The book is called "Elaine's Circle" and it is written by Bob Katz. 

     The book tells the story of a teacher, a woman who is about 8 years younger than I am now as I push forward into the winter of my 59th year very soon.  Her name is Elaine Moore and she has what some folks would refer to as a dream job, one of being an educator in Eagle River, Alaska.  She is a teacher who believes in the concept of the classroom community, one that I have always followed myself.  Although I didn't realize it at first, the book tells the story of how she uses the idea of community, of the students in her room going through their year together as part of a school "family", to help her class cope with the very sad realizationthat they will all face together.  One of the students under her charge, a 10-year old boy named Seamus, has been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.  Cancer of the brain.  There would be no getting better for Seamus, only the inevitable end that he and his family knew would be coming sooner than later. 

     As I read the first chapter, "Elaine's Voice",  I had to stop and reflect a little bit what my voice must sound like to the students I teach each day.  Author Bob Katz goes into great detail about the fact that the voice Elaine has is very soft spoken.  It's the kind of voice that the right class of kids could "run away" with, overpowering their teacher and turning the classroom into mass chaos at any given moment in time.  Even though she is soft spoken, Elaine chooses her words carefully and delivers them with meaning.  The book speaks of the fact that her students seem to hang on every word that she says and when their teacher talks to them they listen to her.  Intently.  Focused.  My voice is different than hers and I know it.  I catch myself from time to time as I am working with students raising my voice above theirs in order that I can make them hear me.  And when that realization happens, I know that it's time to change the way that I am delivering the message.  Even after nearly 4 decades of being a teacher, I still have a lot to learn.

     And then, there's "the circle".  The circle is Elaine's way of drawing her students close as a group for a time together on the floor each day.  She is a part of the circle, sitting cross-legged with them at their own level.  "Circle time" is a place where many classroom discussions occur, where the problems of the day are discussed and solutions are found.  I love that idea and have implemented it from time to time with my own students, those back in Kansas and the new ones here in Colorado.  In my younger days it was a whole heck of a lot easier to plop down on the floor with the kids than it is today, that's for sure.  My nearly 6 decades old knees send me a message quite often it would seem and the message isn't a very nice one.  I guess I never realized in my first year of teaching as a barely 23 year old woman that as the years went on it wouldn't always be so easy, that "getting up and down off of the floor thing".  But I never gave up trying and as of late, always preface my getting down on the floor at school with the kids by saying~

"OK, so now remember you guys.  Somebody may have to help me get up again!"

     Today I am ready to move further into the book and read the story of a marvelous teacher.  It seems strange to admit it, even to myself, but while it is true that I am facing the 37th year of being an educator I am STILL learning brand new things about how to be a more effective teacher.  In education it seems as if things change all the time and a person like myself is thankful to stay at least a step ahead of the changes or at least no more than a half step behind.  And on that subject of change~it IS what it is.  Inevitable.  Painful at times.  In the end, always good. 

     Have a great day dear friends and family, wherever this message finds you.  To all of my teacher friends back in Hutchinson and here in the Montrose/Olathe area, have a great rest of the summer.  I hope that you have gotten some extra rest, had some fun and enjoyed your time away from school.  Before we know it, we'll be heading back once again.  It's inevitable.  It's good.

Avenue A Elementary ESL students-May of 2010
Hutchinson, Kansas

 The day that some motorcyclists came to OUR house~  Mike and his cousins and their friends.  KANSANS! 
July 4th of 2013