The Rookery

This weekend during a very wobbly two-wheeled bike outing, my daughter Hazel was often right on the verge of giving up.  Then she would steel herself, stare at her handlebars and say to herself, "I've got this."

It seems an apt mantra for the Herons.  Fourth and fifth grade is not easy.  I think we often forget as adults what it's like to have to learn new things constantly – day in and day out.  Students are constantly being pushed into the unfamiliar.  They are always being asked to do things they've never done before.

We spend a lot of time at the beginning of the year (and throughout the year) creating a classroom culture in which it is safe to try new things.  We celebrate struggle and effort.  We teach that one cannot learn without failing.

Today we began the process of creating that classroom – except that so much of the work has already been done.  The fifth graders reached out again and again to support the new students, answer their questions, anticipate their needs and mostly to show them what the Herons are all about.  This is one of the most powerful benefits of multi-age instruction.  The classroom culture is not created solely by me as the teacher – it is a shared endeavor.  The classroom belongs to the students and this who were here before teach those who are arriving.  We even had two of my former students – Tom and Connor – volunteer to come in to help us.  Their enthusiasm and volunteerism showed the Herons that they are part of a continuum – and someday they may be the ones to come back and help out the day before they head out to their senior year in college!