I ran across old class videos while preparing to share at a new teacher training. It was fun to revisit the old project videos several years later. It made me reflective.
Watching our old videos was kind of like reading an old middle school diary. It gets tempting to rip all of the pages out for fear of the flaws. It is hard to put it all out there for the world to see because it leaves me feeling so exposed. The warts often stick out the most to me as I review past work, but there is also a lot of beauty. I eventually have to face the fact that if I get rid of the things I get self-concious about then I also have to get rid of all of the beautiful, magical things that are intertwined and not able to be separated.
It is what it is.
It is a record of where I have been on this journey. There were moments when revisiting the videos helped me appreciate how far I've come in my understanding of this work. It was like a glance back at the trail I've climbed as I continue to work my way to the summit. However, I was also surprised to find that these videos were full of reminders of important things that I want to get back to.
Dear readers, I bring your attention to the risk one feels when sharing their work so openly and I hope that you will read this blog with compassion rather than judgement. But then again I probably don't need to worry because I've just survived the harshest judgement-- my own.
I've always loved this collaborative piece. Both the photos and the poetry are from the children.
Andrea, this is just beautiful! I can assure you that whatever warts you saw in your own work, they aren't evident to me at all.
ReplyDeleteI love that our children have such thoughtful adults in their academic lives. The fact that this is a journey as much for you as it is for the kids is wonderful.