“August 30th We started the new school year this week, with all of my students returning from last year. We have changed our instructional format, creating more of a tutorial center that supports the independent coursework that students will complete this year. I am challenged to bring this concept to life, as I am used to daily interaction with students, and this new digital focus is not easy for me to create on my end. How do I still provide that daily connection for students but also allow them to work at their own pace, on their own timeline during the week? How do we come together?”
September 24th… I tried to write again, apparently, life happened…
So it is now November 2nd, and 9 weeks into our school year, and I am not sure if I have a better answer. I have always said you must be the educator of the students in your room, not the curriculum in your head. So that means for me this year, really wrapping my head around students that come to me with a sense of urgency to get on with their lives outside the four walls of my center. Their focus and responsibilities lie elsewhere. They have jobs, and complex lives and challenges to navigate that frankly conflict with the program I had planned. So we made changes. The connections are more independent, more individual coaching than traditional small group teaching. I will be honest, I have struggled. A lot. Questioned. A lot. But I keep trying, keep reimagining, keep asking questions and seeking answers. The easy was to compartmentalize and individualize the program, but I know we can be more than that. We should be more than that.
At my heart, I am a writing teacher. I want to bring literacy and relevance to students who demand to know why reading matters? What is the value of writing? I take this responsibility seriously, as many of them will leave my classroom in the next few months, and I have one last shot at introducing that book or writing that means something, that connects them to what I feel can make a powerful difference in their lives.
We have had some early successes. A group of seniors read Dear Martin, and for some, that was the first book they ever completed. Some comments:
But we move forward. One thing remains the same this year, the need for students to connect, and my passion to create a space where students can write and share their voice. And they have taken some steps in that direction. This is a response to Dear Martin by one of my students who last year would never allow her writing to be shared publicly, much less her name. We take these victories. 
So now after the first quarter is completed I have figured out a way to allow students to connect although we don’t meet as a small group often anymore. We are creating a new space on YouthVoices that began last year with our work on American Creed. This will be a place where students can share their work for others to view and respond. It will take me a few weeks to curate some of the work we have already done, and then to create the spring semester English coursework to all fall under this one umbrella of voice and change. Using the text Story Matters by Liz Prather, and inspiration and support from writing mentors like Paul Hankins and Paul Allison, I can’t wait to see where this leads. 