Inspiration

Two of my dedicated team members

I came home tonight and my mother-in-law said, "They really work you in that place."  To really know the unpaid hours that educators put in, you would have to live with one.  In fact, I just fool myself into thinking I have summers off.  My husband knows the truth.  I often joke that I am moving so fast and have so much to do at work that I can't take time to document it all.  Literally I have to send in a spread sheet every two weeks so that the state of Florida knows how I spend my time.  Quantitative data only!

I could have gone home today at 2:30 after my contractual hour, but instead stayed until 8 o'clock tonight with several of  my dedicated colleagues.  The ones, who aside from my students, make my job joyful each day.  It was Family Literacy Night.  To coordinate one well, you need the right people, because there certainly isn't a budget for one of these events and there certainly isn't overtime.  Over thirty adults came out tonight to host Family Literacy Night.  People who are committed to working beyond their 7.5 hour shift to help create a space where we can cultivate lifelong readers.  Because that's what it takes.


Tonight it took a principal, an assistant principal, a dean, a math teacher, a reading coach, a guidance counselor, a media specialist and a community of reading and English teachers.  My colleagues know the value of nurturing readers in a world where cultivating test-takers dominates. Educators live with the value-added model on their backs, but the power of the story is preeminent.  I'm not sure how tonight will impact test scores, but I know tonight, family literacy night allowed students to be poets, readers, thinkers, and writers, maybe even dreamers. It was well worth our time.