FEAR vs. PASSION & KNOWLEDGE

Tomorrow is the big day!  The floors are polished and shiny.  The decorations are up.  The books are ready and the pencils are sharpened.  But are YOU ready?  The beginning of a new school year brings about many emotions.  As a teacher, you may be feeling a variety of emotions about the upcoming school year. You may be feeling sad because summer is over, or excited for a new school year.  You may be dealing with life changes and be feeling anxious about this year.  I’m sure there are some feelings of uncertainty because of changes that have been made in curriculum.  So—here is the advice I gave to the teachers in grades K-3 as our district heads back to class tomorrow.  Just take a deep breath, keep calm, and TEACH ON!  I also reminded them that the bottom line is—they know what kids need to learn in their grade levels.  As a team, they’ve looked at curriculum and the Common Core standards and mapped out what kids need to know.  I asked them to remember that now it's time for the FUN part—the reason they became a teacher.  Now it's time to start building relationships with the kids and show them OUR passion for learning and reading!  I encouraged them to give kids one thing they need in order to be a successful reader—a LOVE for reading.  

I also encouraged them with something I heard at a conference I attended over the summer.  Maybe it will resonate with you as well.  I am sure that I will not relay the story as eloquently, but hopefully you can see the point of the story nonetheless.  Lester Laminick, the keynote speaker and an author, told a story about his friend, his friend’s aunt, and a hive of bees.  This aunt had a beehive and had spent much time studying about bees and their behaviors and had been passing that knowledge along to Mr. Laminick’s friend, her nephew.  One summer afternoon when his friend was a young boy, he was taking a nap on the porch of his aunt’s house after they had been working with the bees.  His aunt was out in the garden and as she came back up onto the porch, she saw an amazing sight.  The bees, attracted to the pheromones that were on the boy, had covered his torso, but were not stinging him.  At this point in the story, Mr. Laminick pointed out that a person who had not studied the habits of bees might have let their fear of what could happen cloud their judgment and react irrationally.  However, because the boy’s aunt had the knowledge she needed, knowing that the bees would not sting unless they were provoked, a tragic event was avoided.  She spoke calmly to the boy and told him to just start waking up but that he didn’t need to open his eyes yet.  After going to the hive and making herself “attractive” to the bees by putting the pheromones on her arm, she went to the porch, laid her arm near the side of the boy, and allowed the bees to transfer from his torso to her arm.  When the bees were safely back in their hive, she returned to the boy and told him he could open his eyes.  Lester Laminick was using this story to encourage us, as educators, to not let our fear of the unknown—new curriculum, the CCSS, etc.—drive us to act irrationally.  He said, “If your fear trumps your PASSION and your KNOWLEDGE, your whole year is ruined.  Fear immobilizes something amazing.”  This story really made me stop and think about how often I let fear override my passion and my knowledge and cause me to not step out and try something new or different.  I shared with my team that my goal this year is to learn all I can about reading, writing, and the CCSS so that my passion and my knowledge are not overcome by my fear of the unknown.  Hopefully, teachers everywhere will join me in this endeavor.

Happy first day of school--whenever that may be for you!