Empty Pep

I have pep rally baggage. Not a suitcase full, not even a tote bag. Just a casual, medium size hand bag. Think Vera Bradley's Betsy. In some faded old black pattern. Maybe the one with chicken eggs. Small bag, from years ago, often forgotten, but still in the back of my closet.

The baggage is empty. And that is my pep rally problem. I have no community spirit. Specifically, I have no school spirit. I skipped pep rallies in high school; college football games were about the food, not the score; and I never went to a college (or high school) basketball game. It is not that I hope my team/ school/ community loses. I just don't care enough to see them win.

And so, with this long drawn out written therapy session over, I will tell you my interpretation of yesterday's pep rally:

1. The 4th and 5th graders should have been dismissed the moment they started acting like hooligans.

2. Students need a greater understanding of why we have pep rallies. There is no sports game. We did not win some major competition. So why would the average student care about who the SCA reps are in the other classrooms?

3. If I am going to preach about "what should be done" - we should have some sort of school wide activity; we should have upper grade students act as "leaders" to the lower grades during the school song and the school cheer - I should be willing to initiate action. But I am not. I like my quilted chicken egg purse, and I am not ready to part with it yet.

Speaking Fourth Grader

Me: "Think in your head about which book club topic you would like to discuss."

What They Hear: "Turn to your neighbor and talk."

"Take out your notebook," "Turn to calendar math," "Glue in the WOW sheet," "Work on the problem of the day," and "Independent Read Time" also translate to "Turn to your neighbor and talk."

This I Believe

I believe that learning is...

• a social activity that requires interaction between individuals
• retained best when the learner has the chance to work with the information
• most interesting when constructed by the learner, at least to some extent
• an active process rather than a passive one

This might explain why I hate, hate, hate so many of the meetings I have to attend as a teacher.