If you get it, then you got it

a lifetime of hope

will not ever be enough

A whisper of wind

Swept past my face like a kiss 

never sure and not caring

Separate and lost

What if we just found ourselves

Teardrops and raindrops

Indistinguishable things

The pain of losing

Ripped through my heart as a sword

So, I was supposed to be putting up things for an Open House at the school--an Open House that isn't until this coming Sunday, mind you. People came by my room, looking concerned. 

"Do you need help putting up your projects? Did you ask for a table for the hallway?" they asked, puzzled.

"No," I assured them. "I'm fine. I will have a video of statements from the kids cut between pictures of them working on things."

"Oh..." the other teachers said with the tone of wow, did she screw up.

I then began to seriously consider what I was doing. What was my idea of teaching? I have a class full of kids who learn better when they are moving around. None of them are particularly coordinated with scissors, and many of them do not have drawing skills beyond that of a kindergartener, even though they are in third grade. So, we act things out. We define force by pushing on walls; we show potential energy by standing still then beginning to move. We choose meaningful parts of stories to recreate as plays. We become American Indians, pioneers, French, and British soldiers to remember battles pertinent to the formation of our state. These do not have cute projects nor models built to show for them. The do have understanding of concepts and improvement of memory to show for them. 

My teaching partner in the 4th grade told me, "You have to let go of your idea that projects aren't any good because the parents will do them."

"No," I tried to explain, "How does wasting resources to use popsicle sticks to build a fort help them remember anything? Will their forts be specifically historically accurate? Does recreating a scene from a book on top of a box make them comprehend it more than acting it out?" 

She again reiterated that I needed to come up with some ideas for projects because, "You will be able to tell what the kids did." Yes, but when I grade the part the kids did, and not the work of the parents, the parents will call me on it.

So I worry...am I wrong? Is it wrong to want kids to do meaningful activities that make learning stick for their style of learning? Or, should I create projects that will stand as testaments to what someone else thinks is learning? Should I have models of the battles or act them out? Should they draw pictures of the book or recreate a scene with the emotions they decide the characters have?

In dreams you arrived

Ending with a shining light

Sanity crackles

Under the weight of these thoughts

We met with passion

That surely cannot hold on

The rest of this world

Cannot wait in the darkness