Two Lucy Calkins days

Thursday and Friday of last week were, without question, the two greatest days of my (young) teaching career. I see two classes for double periods of English Language Arts every day. Until last week, those two classes had NEVER had a good day on the same day. Then Thursday happened. I don’t know how or why. The world must have fallen off its axis, the stars must have realigned, the gods of education must have smiled upon me. BOTH classes had a great day. Really great. They read. They wrote. They participated. They were into the lessons. (warning- eduspeak buzz words ahead) I “differentiated” my instruction. I had insightful, helpful one-on-one reading and writing conferences. The kids were actively engaged. They were thinking, talking, writing.

For those two glorious days, my classroom was functioning a lot like those that I’ve read about in so many professional development books. (Well, other than that my kids were reading and writing 2-4 years behind their grade level… details details!) I was so blown away by their performance that I even made them cookies to celebrate our decently productive week, and more importantly, our amazing two days. They loved the cookies. All was well. I went into work happy and ready for another three days just like Thursday and Friday to launch me into spring break on Wednesday afternoon wearing a big ole smile. No such luck. My kids sure hate their Mondays and everyone and everything they encounter on Mondays. But I want to keep this as a positive post, so yeah Thursday and Friday. Here’s my belated hurrah for those two magnificent days of successful teaching.