{"id":110,"date":"2016-10-23T17:20:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-23T17:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/danielleganley\/?p=110"},"modified":"2016-10-24T18:07:58","modified_gmt":"2016-10-24T18:07:58","slug":"mama-said-there-would-be-days-like-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/danielleganley\/2016\/10\/23\/mama-said-there-would-be-days-like-this\/","title":{"rendered":"Mama said there would be days like this…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"screen-shot-2016-10-23-at-1-45-13-pm\"<\/a>I was asked to share one of my favourite teaching days today. I carry four or five around in my heart but rarely have I been required to write out the details of such moments. \u00a0I can tell you it\u2019s much\u00a0easier to look back one those days\u00a0through\u00a0the lens of time. \u00a0It offers greater clarity and gratitude. I must confess that I\u2019m not always so aware in the thick\u00a0of it all. \u00a0How many of us really are? \u00a0When you are in the midst of that<\/em>\u00a0type of day, do you know when it\u2019s really, really great? Are you that present in your life that you can be living and reflecting simultaneously? I\u2019m working on it but not quite there. \u00a0However, I\u2019m pretty sure I had a niggly feeling it was pretty awesome day but I needed space and time for a real sense of the magic in it all.<\/p>\n

I may have serendipitously stumbled upon one of the best days of my teaching career just three years ago. Not a lights turn green as you roll up to the intersection-coffee is fresh and warm-first parking spot available-kind of good day, but rather one that is nothing short of transformative and magical. A day that may come so rarely and one that begs for reflection\u00a0 in order to see its true value. I do fear that even upon close retelling, some of that magic will be missed, a comment not heard, a line of poetry unsaid, a student\u2019s thoughts not fully captured. But even with those fears facing me, I still feel a call to ruminate and reflect.<\/p>\n

The day began with a simple email from a student. She asked if I might consider showing a slam poem video on YouTube. The student covered all her bases by suggesting that we could review technique and also explore the class view on the poet. The title of the piece was Suli Breaks\u2019 Why I Hate School But Love Education.<\/a> Unknowingly, this became the intro to our poetry unit and the day that will be stamped on my teaching passport forever.<\/p>\n

There was something housed in that request, in that video, in that room and in the darkness that spun magic. Students connected with that video, the message and the medium. We talked for 80 minutes. We laughed. We cried. Okay, I cried. Just me. But there were tears. We talked about what we love about learning and what we hate about school. I heard voices that had been silent. \u00a0I heard voices that had been angry. \u00a0I heard their voices. I can still close my eyes right now and immediately see the young man who pulled me aside at the end of class and told me he wanted to be a poet. He said he didn\u2019t know it was a job. Until this day. I see the angry girl who never handed a thing in, who never spoke to me, never looked me in the eye, who never showed up\u2026. I saw her hang back by the door and shove something in my hands. Her book of poetry. She placed her ideas and dreams in my hands with explicit directions to NOT SHOW ANYONE and give it back by noon.<\/p>\n

See? Stuff of dreams. My kids were connecting and building and dreaming over poetry. The poetry had brought them comfort and connection. I always tell the students that poetry finds you and calls out to you when you need it most. \u00a0Poetry has always fortuitously found me and it had found them too on that day. \u00a0As we were sharing in the love of words together, I finished the class with a\u00a0cherished line of poetry that has brought me great solace over the years. David Whyte\u2019s poem entitled \u201cSweet Darkness<\/a>\u201d has a line that resonates with me,<\/p>\n

anything or anyone
\nthat does not bring you alive<\/p>\n

is too small for you.<\/p>\n

Ever so often a moment becomes magical, transformative and reminds you why you were meant to be on the earth. This day reminds that poetry can bring you alive and can be so large and welcoming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was asked to share one of my favourite teaching days today. I carry four or five around in my heart but rarely have I been required to write out the details of such moments. \u00a0I can tell you it\u2019s much\u00a0easier to look back one those days\u00a0through\u00a0the lens of time. \u00a0It offers greater clarity and … Continue reading “Mama said there would be days like this…”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finding-a-balance-in-teaching","category-love-of-the-job"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/danielleganley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/danielleganley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/danielleganley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/danielleganley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/danielleganley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/danielleganley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/danielleganley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/danielleganley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/danielleganley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}