Every morning while driving to school I take extra care. I absolutely adore the changing landscape of mid-spring, and while driving I attempt to monitor those changes. Every successive day, the landscape has grown, if only by bits and pieces. I look at these trees and plants, and think of my students. That beech, ---that's Ryan, suddenly 'getting' poetry. Those oaks, I think of Dylan. Strong, sturdy, resistant but growing just the same. I love looking at the tender green leaves, soft tented angles, still fuzzy. They remind me of the nascent state of so many of my students. The metallic tang of those opening copper beech leaves,---that's Kaylyn. She's vulnerable but pugnacious at the same time.Then there's the wild, bed-head intense forsythia....Andrea for sure. The delicate pink-white of the magnolia, there's Alanagh. The fuzzy reds of the maple buds,---Molly. The full spectrum of colors is there, and I swoon daily during my commute. There are yellow washes on green, and faint orange glows, reds and all of them over greens. The variations of the evergreens, --- blue spruce and white pine...these are my always attentive, always 'on' students. They still grow, but at a distinctly different pace than the others.
Here's the weird thing: I love them. I really love these kids. Some of them are not as easy to love, but they are all lovable. I wonder how to connect to them, how to keep them connected. It is SO much fun to be their teacher. I love to make THEM laugh, I love when they make ME laugh. So many people turn up their noses at middle school kids, too messy. I love them. I love their openness, their willingness to appear goofy, especially in 5th and 6th. Their energy is infectious...just like springtime.
