celebrate & enjoy

I went to a fabulous dance party this morning. The 6th grade has finished their first piece of long writing in their Writing Workshop and they had a celebration, complete with dancing and hats. They also had to use alternatives to awesome and amazing to share their feelings of completing this six week long process. They included: accomplished, joyful, proud, relieved, excited, and happy, among others. I am so pleased their teacher invited me to join them for their dance party. 

(Party Hat aka Principal’s Unicorn)

This comes during our annual Homecoming Spirit Week where we break out of our starchy uniforms, relax, and act a little crazy in the spirit of community. Friday, we will have our first annual “Middle School Capture the Flag Game”, the pep rally & parade, grade level breakfasts, and general hype as we move towards our Homecoming game and Alumni weekend. I love times like this at school because it allows us to have fun as a community.

I’m a middle school leader-teacher because I love kids this age. I believe we have a unique opportunity to celebrate and enjoy life with our students on a regular basis. Yes, they make us crazy sometimes. Yes, we challenge them and sometimes they don’t love everything we do. Yes, this is hard work. Yes, it takes a special sort of human to enjoy early adolescents with passion, energy, and love. AND, this work is holy and important.

We may not be doing all the reading, writing, history, science, or math this week-but we are building community and celebrating time and life together. And this is just as important in building a well rounded life.

Have you celebrated time with your students and teachers, lately? If not, don that party hat and go have a dance party. I promise, you won’t regret it.