Reblog: Every Day is a New Day
Last January, my blog was still in its nascent stages. As I reflected on my first blog of 2020, I remembered the tattoo behind my right ear. It is sankofa, an Adinkra symbol from Ghana meaning “it is not taboo to fetch what is at risk of being left behind.” In lay terms, it means that while we must continue to learn, we must never forget the knowledge we’ve gained from the past. Many African-Americans have embraced the symbol as a reminder to learn from our ancestors and hold onto the African roots that were stolen from them.
So as I looked back over my blog from last January, I decided that this lesson is one I want to remember, one I want to “fetch”. I’m reposting it in hopes that you’ll also benefit from not leaving this one in 2019.
“I think I try to give my 100% day in and day out. It is the hardest job in the world… But I say that to say that I feel very fulfilled doing it every day. There are some days I go home and I’m ready to quit… But I love teaching because it feels like…despite it being so challenging and…going home at night and wanting to quit, every day is a new day with teaching. And I love that, you know, you can greet kids every morning and pretend whatever happened yesterday is over and just start fresh and I love that about teaching.”
–Lilly Nichols (pseudonym), First Grade Teacher
As a new semester dawns on universities around the country, I can’t help but think about what a gift it is to be able to start fresh. The unique thing about teaching is that each year (or semester) we have the opportunity to start again. Not only do we get to start fresh, we get to be more knowledgeable each time we restart. If I were a gamer I’d make some analogy about starting at the beginning of a game with all of the extra lives and boosts and special weapons you earned on the harder levels…but I’m not a gamer so that probably made no sense.
What I mean to say is that as teachers, as the lifelong learners we should be, we grow in our craft each day. When we start a new year/semester/day/lesson we get to apply all we learned last year/semester/day/period and make the new day even better! How many professionals get that opportunity? I’ve been so lucky as to teach the same course for several semesters now and each semester I am excited to add, revise, and modify based on what I’ve learned from the previous group of students, from conference presentations, in scholarly articles, on Twitter, from friendly conversations over cups of tea, and from pop culture. The possibilities are endlessly exciting.
Keep the conversation going in the comments or in your own circles. Questions for Reflection: As you start this new semester (or new year or new day), take some time to pause and reflect on your practice. How can you make this next lesson a little better? How can you improve your next interaction with a student? What CAN you do differently to improve teaching and learning in your context?