Epiphany #1: I Have a Connection

I had an epiphany this week. Actually, I had several epiphanies. (I remember when I learned the word "epiphany." I was a Sophomore in high school and it was in my World History class. My teacher used to give us these "words of the week" that we could earn extra credit with by including them in our essays. Let's just say I came up with some rather ridiculous sentences in order to make the words fit into my essays. . . but I got the extra credit!) However, my epiphanies are going to be in different posts. That way, my sisters can't bug me for not blogging very often. You might say I'm hording blogging possibilities . . . but really, you love the suspense! I know you do!

First of all, I learned that as a teacher, it is really important to keep the perspective of your students in mind. No duh, right? Well, it took a couple of very confusing hours in order to remind me that unlike me, not everyone is born with amazing intelligence. So on Wednesday afternoon I was trying to teach my students about connections. You know, when you read a book and you are reminded of something else--either that you have read in another book, seen somewhere in the world, or done yourself. ( I remember learning about connections in college. We played this getting to know you game where one person would start talking about anything they had done that summer and they would keep going until someone else could say "I can connect with that." The new person would then talk until someone else could connect, and so on until the entire class was connected by some random yet similar event. Just don't ask me what we did the rest of that three hour class period!) Well, we were trying to focus on text to self connections--where the story reminds you of some experience you have had. I explained what it was and how all good readers do this--think of connections as they read--and I demonstrated the concept several times. I read to them from our book we are studying and connected to an event from a few weeks ago. Then, I read some more and connected to an event from my childhood. Then I read some more and . . . well, you get the point. By the end of the lesson, I swear I had half the class come and ask me what a connection was. I was, needless to say, a little distressed at the lack of comprehension!!!

Any way, I was volunteered to be the GEA rep for my school. It sounds great when it's in abbreviations like that. It can't be too hard, right? It's short, sweet, and to the point. Ummmm . . . no. I had my first meeting on Wednesday afternoon--shortly after the connection conundrum in reading class. This is how my first association meeting went. "Gibberish, gibberish, gibberish . . . . white paper . . . gibberish, gibberish, gibberish, gibberish, gibberish . . . . pink paper . . . gibberish, gibberish, gibberish, gibberish, gibberish . . . meeting adjourned. At least I knew that "meeting adjourned" meant I could go home! Otherwise I might STILL be sitting there!!! (Of course, I thought yesterday I'd still be standing on the street corner at the Gateway . . . but we'll get to that story in a minute.) I sat there with a glazed expression on my face, trying really hard to look like I knew what was going on. (I did get the part of the meeting where they demonstrated how to use a flash drive for the technologically challenged . . . ) As I was driving home feeling utterly perplexed and very shell-shocked, I realized that was probably how my students had felt earlier that day! Hey!! I just made a connection! After all, that is what good readers do!