Teaching Thoughts Week 33

It finally feels like spring up here in NW MN. In fact, it’s been so nice I’ve been able to where shorts to school twice this week.  That has happened since early October.

I write a lot about our core value of “Our work matters,” but there is another core value of ours that is equally as important: “It’s not about us.”

I had a huge reminder of this last week.

We had an officer come to LHS to talk about distracted driving. To illustrate his point, he played a video (“Life without Logan”) on the dangers of not wearing seat belts. It told the story of a young boy, Logan, – who was just about to graduate – who died in a car accident after intentionally taking his seat belt off.  The video featured Logan’s family as they recounted the accident and how easily it could have been avoided.  Toward the end it mentioned how Logan’s family decided to donate his organs. 

After the assembly was finished, I stood in the hall visiting with some colleagues talking about how the video reminded us of our Heidi, a senior who were lost here in TRF in a car accident, and whose family also decided to donate her organs.

Then I went back to my classroom.  As I sat at my desk, I noticed I had a text from . . . Heidi’s number.  I opened it and read: “This is Heidi’s mom. She truly enjoyed hanging out with you.” Come on. What are the odds of that? 

Heidi and I became close on the summer choir trip to San Francisco and spent a lot of time together.  Heidi’s mother must have gotten my number from Heidi’s phone, for we stayed in contact after the trip.

Before I could text a reply, I received an image of a letter Heidi’s mother had received from a woman who had been gifted Heidi’s pancreas and a kidney.  She mentioned how she would do her best to pay it forward and cherish every moment now that she would be around to watch her three-year-old son grow up! 

Then Heidi’s mom texted, “Here is a letter that I believe Heidi would be so proud about.” And she certainly would!

Then as I was about to head home later that day, I put on my coat, which was a coat I hadn’t worn in quite awhile but had to because my usual dress coat was in a different closet so I just grabbed this one heading out the door.  As I reached into the inside pocket, I realized something was there.  I pulled it out . . . It was Heidi’s funeral program!  There she was smiling at me from the cover!

Our work matters, but it isn’t about us.  It’s about the relationships we build with students and their families!

Inside this week’s teaching thoughts you’ll find –

From my blog – Describe yourself as a teacher. Who and what are you as a teacher? (Man, did I have a blast answering that one).

Teaching Thoughts – I explore an article from Will Richardson that tackles some of the more infamous elephants in the room when it comes to education (the one of how our curriculum is really just a guess is probably my favorite).

Video of the Week – Talk about our core value of “It’s not about us,” this little boy – despite losing both of his parents – still spends his days trying to make others in his community smile.