ELLEN
BERG
Special Summer 2002 Diary
A
Summer of Delights as We Grew and Learned
"My
goals for the summer? To laugh more, teach my students to recognize
the creativity each one of them has, and to renew my joy in this amazing
profession I have chosen." – Ellen Berg, Diary #38
It has been a couple weeks since summer school ended and I took off to travel the coast from San Francisco to Portland. The coastal scenes and human-dwarfing redwoods provided the perfect backdrop for reflection about myself and my summer. As I began to plan for the fall, I returned to my final diary entry of 2001-02 to refresh my memory about my goals for the coming year. I was excited to see my goals for the summer session I taught were accomplished beyond my wildest dreams. "To laugh more..." I tried to work on my reactions to my students. Were they really being defiant, or were they confused, bored, or making a joke? When I felt the familiar heat rise, I took a few moments to cool down and THINK. I was able to deal with the few discipline problems I had more rationally, and I allowed my students to think about the situation and save face as well. Building a caring, considerate relationship with my students was the necessary first step towards laughing more often. How could students laugh with me if I had swept down on them like the Wicked Witch of the West? I laughed at my foibles, shared jokes, and giggled at humorous parts of my students' stories. Several students sent articles and jokes to me via email. We were serious, but we knew when we were taking ourselves too seriously.
"To...teach my students to recognize the creativity each one of them has..." Being creative and developing one's own style requires a lot of risk taking. I am aware many of my students have been expected to parrot back standard forms of writing, and they have developed a sense that writing is either "right" or "wrong." I had to make it safe to take risks so my students could begin to discover the writer within, their own unique creativity.
With smaller classes, it was easy for me to get to each one of my students for writing conferences at least twice a week. I tried to focus in on what parts delighted or intrigued me rather than focusing on those parts that weren't as well developed. After asking permission, I shared my students' creative leads or well-written passages with their peers and pointed to them as resources for the rest of the class.
I saw more thoughtfulness in my students' writing and more seriousness in their work habits than ever before. I watched two students who had severe behavior problems (one of whom is classified behavior disordered and is ordinarily in a self-contained classroom) blossom as writers, sharing their childhood memories with their unique senses of humor. Their behavior problems all but disappeared in my classroom. By the end of the summer they were less dependent on my official stamp of approval and were beginning to become peer- and self-critiquers. It is something I will build on in the coming year. "...and to renew my joy in this amazing profession I have chosen." This, above all other things, I am most thankful for. Without joy in the work I do and the students I work with, nothing else is possible. The lens I looked through last year was chipped and dirty; the new lens I selected this summer is clear and allows me to see the shine in everything and everyone I turn it towards. This summer was not about school reform, paperwork, or colleagues, it was about my students and the challenges, delights, and opportunities for learning and growth they bring to me every day. It's a brand new day in room 238 at Turner Middle School. I can't wait until September 3.Editor's
note: We're pleased that Ellen has agreed to continue her diary
next school year. Watch for her first entries in early September.
Read next week's diary
Read Ellen's last 2001-02 diary
