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Time to Rest
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13 thoughts on “Time to Rest”
I hear ya!!! today was the end – last day of finals, and thankfully ALL my kiddos were in attendance, so no need for makeups on Monday! I can just grade the finals this weekend, and then clean up on Monday and get ready for San Diego and Dallas! I am even going to drag MY bicycle out of the garage tomorrow!!! 🙂
Happy summer folks!
??? What happened to all the heart posts???
I was in the middle of reading one, responded and POOF they all disappeared???
Am I hallucinating?
I second that! I watched the Ted Talk, then had to go out to run errands, looking forward to continue reading when I arrived back home. Will you be putting them back up Ben?
Thanks! 🙂
I delayed them. Sorry. Just felt right. They’ll appear in July. I’m trying to organize things a bit.
The lyrics below describe how I am feeling.. it was such a hard year…. good in many ways… but so hard!
As always Ben your posts are so timely and so dead on! Thank you with all my heart for all you did this year to make my year bearable and more effective for kids. Thanks to all who shared and invested in the work of this plc.
“Worn” by 10th ave north
I’m Tired I’m worn
My heart is heavy
From the work it takes
To keep on breathing
I’ve made mistakes
I’ve let my hope fail
My soul feels crushed
By the weight of this world
And I know that you can give me rest
So I cry out with all that I have left
Let me see redemption win
Let me know the struggle ends
That you can mend a heart
That’s frail and torn
I wanna know a song can rise
From the ashes of a broken life
And all that’s dead inside can be reborn
Cause I’m worn
I know I need to lift my eyes up
But I’m too weak
Life just won’t let up
And I know that you can give me rest
So I cry out with all that I have left
Let me see redemption win
Let me know the struggle ends
That you can mend a heart
That’s frail and torn
I wanna know a song can rise
From the ashes of a broken life
And all that’s dead inside can be reborn
Cause I’m worn
My prayers are wearing thin
Yeah, I’m worn
Even before the day begins
Yeah, I’m worn
I’ve lost my will to fight
I’m worn
So, heaven come and flood my eyes
Let me see redemption win
Let me know the struggle ends
That you can mend a heart
That’s frail and torn
I wanna know a song can rise
From the ashes of a broken life
And all that’s dead inside can be reborn
Cause all that’s dead inside will be reborn
Though I’m worn
Yeah I’m worn
Dear Skip,
I so appreciate your candor and thank you for that song. Now that you’ve shared the lyrics, I have to go and hear the music.
You are worn and you need to rest! You will get through this. Until I became a teacher I had no idea why teachers had summers off, now I’m reminded of the obvious reasons every June.
You are worn, we are worn. I’m exhausted and I’m not even done, being stuck in my building until the 25th.
Right now I feel as if I really have to drag myself out of bed every day to go meet my obligations, if it weren’t for my kids who still manage to keep my spirits up.
This job is definitely not for the weak of heart. Skip, forget about teaching for now, go enjoy life, go cultivate your own garden as Voltaire would say b/c life is still unfolding out there, go and enjoy your family.
Happy Father’s day Skip! Can’t wait to see you and give you a hug in Dallas!
I’d like to second skip. Thanks Ben for all you do to keep this plc going and thanks to everyone for the overwhelming support as I dove into CI this year/support in general as a teacher. Before finding you all (actually you all found me), I was planning to run away from teaching after the year was over…and this was only my second year! But you all collectively have modeled the true spirit of teaching for me, which is with the heart and to the heart. And of course I got to learn that language is acquired subconsciously, which is still blowing my mind everyday.
Thanks to everyone for a great year and happy summer to all!
wow Skip — thanks for sharing! You are also very good at “hiding” – I had no idea you were having a hard year!!! so sorry!
Well if skip and mb are both hiding, so am I. And we’re not alone, I’m sure. I always thought that it was me who couldn’t quite measure up to all the things required of me in my profession both as a traditional and now as a comprehension based language teacher. But now I know that it isn’t me, not really, and it never was. It’s the system. It is the ridiculous situation that we are put in as teachers. You’re worn out, skip, because of that. It’s not you. I know that because whenever I teach adults it is so much different. Schools are creating fires in teachers’ souls. All the data and all of that. You know. My opinion that teachers who go into school buildings these days are among the bravest of souls. Whether they are considered by those around them to be a good teacher is not the point. They are all my heroes.
While you’re all in summer hiding and rejuvenation, consider a book about a teacher who figured out a way into Alaskan kids’ hearts: The Kids From Nowhere, by George Gustafson. His daughter Gretchen is one of my colleagues, and it is an inspiring read. You’ll want to come take classes from him. So, for that matter, do I!
OK – I will be in hiding after tomorrow, but when I used that expression for skip, I meant that he was good at “hiding” the fact that he was worn out!! He’s such an incredible teacher and inpiration to all of us up here in this neck of the country/world! Thank you, Skip!
Please rest, so we get your inspiration again when we next meet in August!! 🙂
What an incredible year! What an incredible community! What an incredible treasury of practical wisdom for people who practice this craft of teaching. With deepest gratitude to you, Ben, and to you, all! Happy, restful, sweet, juicy days of summer!
Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer! It has been nice sleeping 8 hours a night again rather than the school year 6.
I haven’t posted on the list for a while but wanted to share this. I just got back from China where I was on a recruiting trip. Besides teaching Chinese, I am now also the coordinator for my school’s new Chinese student program. We have 11 students enrolled to attend our school this fall. On this trip, I interviewed lots of Chinese kids who want to attend high school in the US. All that I have learned this year really helped me in the process of evaluating the English language skills of the Chinese applicants.
One day in Shanghai, this big athletic Chinese boy came to see me for an interview (our school attracts a lot of basketball fans because LeBron James is a graduate and just donated money for us to build us a new gym). He was a quiet soft spoken boy but his English flowed beautifully as he expressed his ideas. At one point in the interview, he said, “teacher, I have to tell you, I only have a ‘C’ grade in English.” I asked him to tell me more. “I have so much trouble with the grammar. I just can’t remember the rules.” I asked him if he likes music. His face lit up. “I love music. I sing and I’m teaching myself guitar,” he said. I explained to him what an auditory learner is and I accepted him as our 11th new student.
Most of the Chinese kids I interviewed are running away from the exam based Chinese system. I watched for good listening skills over good speaking skills. When I asked those with good listening skills what they do to improve their English, all of them said they spent time outside of class listening to pop music, or watching movies and TV shows in English with subtitles.
Looks like the Chinese Ministry of Education could learn a thing or two from Dr. Krashen!
I am really looking forward to meeting many of you in San Diego!