What do you do when the internet goes out, and there are two days before the students arrive at school? Make anchor charts, of course. Why not? The laminator is well stocked and hot. I got new markers with my supply order. I have a copy of Disrupting Teaching* on my table with a bookmark to the Book, Head, Heart format.
Influencer Faith Broussard Cade of Fleurdelisspeaks wrote, “You are not a fraud. You have put in the work. Do not waste precious energy doubting your worth or capabilities. You deserve to be here.”*
Even though the state insists on a new rubric for evaluation of teachers, even though the district has chosen a new platform for teaching English/ Language Arts, and even though my supervisor will be checking for annotated lessons and gifted strategies, I am an expert here. I know what I am doing.
It’s so easy for me to get stressed out over all the new, but I am keeping a mantra throughout beginning-of-the-year teacher meetings, “You know what you are doing!”
So anchor charts! To remind me that good teaching practice was not invented this year. I will implement good reading strategies without a manual that is hidden behind a code I don’t know yet. I will guide my students’ writing by sitting beside them as I have always done. I will encourage independent reading, personal narrative writing, and poetry not just in April. I deserve to be here.
*Kylene Beers & Robert E. Probst, Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters, Scholastic, 2017.
*Faith Broussard Cade, Shine Bright Anyway, Harper Collins, 2024
Reflections on the Teche 