The school year is winding up here in South Carolina as it is in many parts of the country. As we dash to field days, end of school musical performances, plan our final author celebrations, and attend the last faculty meetings of the school year, it feels like we may not get everything done. Yet, we remind ourselves and one another that May often feels like our busiest month of the year and that indeed we will get everything done.
While there is a certain finality to May when we pack up our rooms and wish we had one more day to work with our students, I’m always struck by the anticipation of the next school year. For educators, May is our January, full of New Year’s resolutions. However, unlike the promises to slim down that we make each year, the May resolutions seem to carry us forward and energize us. They guide our summer reading and shape our professional conversations. For example, this year the teacher study group I belong to worked to better understand reading workshop as a curricular structure. The 2nd grade teachers that I collaborate with, Page Rogers, Nancy Boggs, and Loraine Lambert, implemented reading workshop, conducted writing conferences, and shared mini-lessons based on their observations of their students for the first time this year. The teachers also modeled mini-lessons for my USC preservice teachers and coached these students when they worked one on one with their second grade students. Throughout the school year, we planned, read, and shared our observations with one another. However, in the hurry of our daily teaching lives, we often felt rushed, had to cancel a meeting or two, or used email to rapidly plan.
Then comes May, and as we wind up our school year, we are already planning for next year. We want to know how to better prepare the undergraduate students to work effectively with their 2nd grade reading buddies. We want to build our knowledge base about assessing young readers in the moment and over time, and we want to slow down and catch up with one another as human beings. Because we know it is in the pauses that we breathe more deeply and gain new insights into our teaching and learning and life. We look forward to the Whole Language Umbrella’s Literacy for All Conference where we will pause with others, engage in thoughtful conversations, and plan for a new school year full of promise. We look forward to seeing you in July.
