And Then It’s November

The first week of school there were so many names and faces and facts floating around. But then it gets easier. You know their names. You make connections. You see their work, you give them feedback. You start to connect what they are interested in to the learning. You laugh, you loosen up, they’re personalities start to shine through.

And then it’s November.

By November, it feels different. One day in November you wake up and it feels like you know them. The names on the attendance list are 3-D people in your head now. You have stories to tell and know them as learners, at least more than before. You know who likes what music and who is a sneaker head and who likes nonfiction and who gets bored easily and who finishes early and needs an extension to their learning and who leaves for band lessons and who is missing their dad who passed away in September and who doesn’t want to stress out her mom because her dad moved out.

It feels good to get to November. But it also means a shift. It means settling in. You go from the buzz of new to the hum of harmony. It’s not always perfect. One day someone will make an insensitive comment and others will call him out and you’ll ask him to stop and he’ll say why and you’ll ask them to explain and when they do you’ll explain their reasons and you’ll hope he hears them and receives their feedback.

This is learning, this is being in a learning community. This is how we grow - them and you. This is what it looks like. It has to get messy. It has to get real. We, after all, are humans. A bunch of humans from all different lived experiences thrown into a room, and you have been given the responsibility to bring them all together — to see them, know them, inspire them. You are their teacher, but in knowing them, you learn so much.

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This is part of a piece called “There Are Some Milestones in Teaching.” I wrote this in 2020. The 2019-2020 school year was my first year in a classroom setting even though it was my 18th year in education. And then, I taught on Zoom for over half of the 2020-2021 school year.

Although I wasn’t teaching in person that second year, I still noticed a similar rhythm to the school year. There’s a subtle yet noticeable shift when November hits. It’s so slight that you might miss it, but it’s worth celebrating if you can spot it. This is your invitation to notice and honor your efforts that got you here.

This is November.

Like a slow chat, I thought I would release each part of this piece as the year goes on. For now, it’s November, and I’m grateful.

Speaking of celebrations, my book Living the Life of a Writer published last month. You can order it here and here. If you enjoy it, I’d love if you would leave a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads.

And if you want to know a little bit more of my story and why I’m so passionate about supporting writers, you can read an interview I did with Canvas Rebel.