Education does not only take place in the classroom. I tell myself this all the time, as I venture out the door to go sit in my garden and do my correcting. I sit under the gracious afternoon sun and walk through my papers. We are in our third week of school and my students are all very challenged, some are good, most are not. I wince at some of the sentences, I think, what am I doing with this class?
The birds sing their songs of wooing, I watch as the cat from next door tries to bag one of these prolific singers for lunch. The cat is too slow, and our singer flees to the top of the trees. He sits and continues to proclaim his love for his ladybird at the top of his lungs. Ah, summer in the garden.
I always think about taking my students to the garden. It would be wonderful, I think. We could draw and label the plants in English. We could talk about the seasons, growing food, soil, worms, birds, plants, rocks, fences, roses, chicken poop, spades, sweet peas, tomatoes, god, it's endless! Then I think to myself, no, my students are too young to appreciate what I see here.....why it is important. They would just turn on their phones, peer into them like zombies and tune out....
I dismiss the idea and go back to my homework. Yet, part of my mind drifts back to the what if, what if they really did like the garden, what if they really learned something.? This is the curse of a teacher. Always wondering, always thinking about what you could do to get your student interested in the world around them. Forget writing, structure, nouns, peer editing....forget all that.....the world needs to be engaged. There is so much out there....I dig my heels into the cool grass below the bench. I breathe deeply....it's time to get my correcting done.
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