Sixth Grade Teachers

Since the sixth graders began their journey into the Blogosphere, I have enjoyed reading their posts and getting a glimpse through their blogs of their world outside of school.� I have kept up with reading the students’ blogs, but did not realize how many teachers and faculty members are blogging on a regular basis as well.

Today in class when Ms. Howard suggested checking out a faculty or staff member’s blog, I realized that I had not done this yet, and quickly went to the Writer’s Exchange to check out some of the most recent posts.� As I scrolled through the posts, one of the titles caught my eye. Ms. Pile, our ELD coordinator, recently wrote a post called The Rose Bead. The title caught my eye because it was not about blogs or wikis or an academic subject, and seemingly was not really related to school at all. I clicked on this post and read it, and felt the need to share it with you.

I will not recount the story for you, since I would not be able to tell it nearly as well as the original post did, but I encourage you to take a moment to read it.� Ms. Pile writes with such eloquence and thoughtfulness.� She weaves her tale in such a way that in the beginning, I thought her post was just going to be about Halloween here at school, but in fact it is much deeper than that.
The connection Ms. Pile made between the rose-colored bead and children was so insightful.� It made me stop and think about times when I’ve been too intent on the “right way” or the “right answer” and may have been unable to see something from a student’s point of view.� Ms. Pile’s post caused me to reflect on how I interact with people, and reminded me that just because someone’s ideas are different does not mean that they are wrong. � Perhaps listening to these ideas and considering them makes us more open to new and different ways of thinking.

It also reminded me that all people are different, and that’s what makes this world such a special place.� Instead of looking at differences as deficiencies, we should celebrate them.� I will definitely visit Ms. Pile’s blog again to read about her insights and ideas.� Thanks, Ms. Pile, for making me think and reflect!

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 2:45 pm and is filed under Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.