Scribbles by ME

Remembering the 1st Lesson Students Taught Me

I suppose I need the blogging/journaling experience more than most folks.  I sitting here looking at the screen and discovered that I don't have anything to say.  All the students that I have had in my classroom over many years are laughing about now.  My husband just peeked over my shoulder and he began to laugh.  How interesting:  Mrs. Estes with nothing to say. 

I know I can't address the quote of the day....I'm not too good on those.  Quotes seem to me to be really personal.....like religion, politics, and other intense high-contact sports.  If you choose the quote, I'm not inspired.  Why?  Beats me.  But I learned one man's quote is another man's dilemma.

I began using a Quote of the Week bulletin board the first year I taught.  During the journaling experience that week, the quote would always be an assignment for the students to reflect upon. 

They complained.  "Why do I have to write about this?  I don't know what that means.  How can I reflect if I don't even know what the word reflect means?  I don't ever reflect, Mrs. E, I watch television."

"Just quit whining and write," I'd smile back at them.  One usually desperate student seemed to catch on one day.  He folded his entry in the spiral notebook in half and taped it shut.  On it he wrote, "Too personal to share."  I thought this was a pretty cool idea.  I shared it with the class. "Class, there are times when we journal that we may not want others to read our deepest held ideas or thoughts.  That's fine.  That's what journaling is all about.  If you have a personal entry, use Harry's example and fold it over, tape it and writer PERSONAL on it."

I noted as the weeks progressed toward Christmas Break, more and more students were getting down and personal and taping their entries shut.  That was all right with me.  I could see through the paper a bit.....enough to see they had written almost a page for that week's quote.  I began to become more and more impressed with the number of personal posting by my students.......even the guy who slept in the last seat, third row began to wake up and journal. 

One day I asked to see hands of all who had written on the quote for the week and everyone raised their hands.  Man, am I a great teacher or what?  I must share this technique with my neighbor across the hall.  I had no idea teaching could be so contagious and rewarding.

At lunch I told Mrs. Sharp that I wanted to share with her the great responses I was getting to my journaling assignment.  "It seems the more difficult the quotes are to understand, the more personal responses I am getting.  The students have stopped complaining about journaling and are really hooking into their inner selves.  "Here's the key," I told her.  "I promised to not read them if they were especially personal.  They fold the page in half, tape it closed, and write PERSONAL on it to signal me to just count the lines written on, not what they wrote."  And, merrily I returned to my room.

Two weeks later, it was time to "grade" the journals.  I could see what I assumed were cursive writings.  The more journals I looked at the more they began to look so much alike.  Finally, I took several to the window to hold up to the intense light--so much for private thoughts.  I needed a better look at what the precious ones had written.........nothing.  They were full of wavy lines, not words, just gibberish........almost every last one of them.  I had been had!  That was Lesson #1 for this beginning teacher and I wish it had been my last lesson.  Unfortunately, it wasn't.  That's when I realized the best quote of all:  Teachers and students learn many lessons in the classroom.  Not all are about freewriting, but they are all about lives.