It is the last day of school for the 2022-2023 school year and my room is empty. Chairs are stacked. Anchor charts and student work is off the walls. And I feel like the room looks. A little empty, a little sad, but ready for the possibility of a new journey.
I applied for and received a grant through Fund for Teachers to go to Mexico for a month, live with a host family and attend daily classes. There are also cultural and educational opportunities. I can't believe I am a Fund for Teachers Fellow!
I leave for my learning adventure in Cuernavaca early Sunday morning. It is an amazing opportunity to study and live and learn and immerse myself for a month in Mexico. But it is scary! I have not had this kind of immersion adventure since I was in my early 20's, before I had kids. So my affective filter is high. Allowing this level of vulnerability is not something I enjoy.
New city, different food, outside of my cultural comfort zone with emerging language skills is really frightening. I work with amazing students and families everyday who come to the USA, often not by choice, and they face this reality. I hope I have the bravery and grace they do when I embark on my journey in 2 days...
This is the first time since I had my own children that I am leaving them for this length of time. Yes, they have both been away at college for months on end. But this feels different. I am choosing to leave them to have my own adventure.
All these feelings and hopes and insecurities are swirling, in addition to saying goodbye to some of my students who are not returning to my school next year. The emptiness of my room coupled with the the loss of these students, many I have been teaching multiple years, makes my heart sad. But I am better for having been their teacher and my hope is that in some small way they are better for me being in their lives. So with that hope I sign off and start to look forward to my time in Cuernavaca.
No comments:
Post a Comment