Learn, Think, Write

The rain comes steadily now.
Not like last night when Heidi, David, and I sat on the steps of my house, handing out candy and chatting with princesses, lions, and monsters. During the drizzle , the eighth-grade girls dropped by to say hello and get their sugar.
Seven or eight of them surrounded my front steps where we were sitting, all talking at once, huge smiles plastered across their faces. Heidi, ever the history teacher, challenged them with questions from class the day before, saying she wouldn’t give them a treat until they could answer. They did. Others excitedly yelled to me, “Give us an English question! One from the book!”
Laughing, I threw one out. They screamed the answer back, throwing their heads back in giggles and joy.
It was hard to not love the moment. Kids taking the time to stop and visit, wanting to share a moment from school, delighting in showing what they knew. Not for a grade. Not really even for candy because they would have gotten that anyway.
I awoke early today, hearing the steady rain hit our roof.
And as I sit here working on still more ways to teach A Tale of Two Cities, I am reminded of how much I love the relationship with my students, which inevitably leads to them wanting to learn and share.
And that what I do and say matters to them.