If Parnell Hall can have a strong desire to be the King of Kindle, then it's okay for me to want a regular column in one of the AMLE/NMSA magazines. I've thought about it all day today. I wonder if I could make a go of it. Would people be interested in what I have to say about whatever the theme of any given issue is? Is there an interest in what a rural Southwest Virginia teacher thinks or does? There is no tip of the iceberg or ride on the crest of an ocean wave. There is no smoke coming from the bowels of the earth to force magma from a volcano or make the earth tremor. There is no avalanche of ice and snow with which to create an analogy. I suppose I could liken my experiences to teetering in a tree stand that is too high up a tree trunk to be stable, but that sounds disastrous. Perhaps it's like "puttin' on the dawg" when company comes. It is just a thought. The next dream. I've been asked to write more. So I need an audience to sharpen my pencil on.
Yes, I know the title doesn't make sense to most of you. So, in your imagination, hear the unmistakable voice of Julie Andrews singing "Merlin's cave is alive with the voice of Rick Wormeli" to the tune of The Sound of Music. Still no luck? That's probably okay (if you don't mind losing about ten or eleven percent of this post's impact).
Winning the McGlothlin Award has given me an opportunity to seriously reflect on where I have come from--as a person and as a teacher, who has had the biggest influence on how I teach, and how my family and friends have supported me, even held me up at the best and worst of teacher times. Nobody gets where I am without the help of others. Nobody gets there alone. Alone. That takes me to Merlin's Cave. I was alone in that cave with cameras, sensitive audio equipment, pen and paper. In the near darkness. Alone. With other dimensions transfixed on what I was doing. What was I doing? I went into that cave on a mission--to capture a realistic sights and sounds collage of the cave's mystical essence so that I could use it as a springboard for a powerful writing lesson. I got more than I bargained for. I got creepy. I got scarey. I got true-to-life. I also got a reflection of myself in the face of danger. What danger? The danger of not pulling it off...not getting what I had imagined to become a reality. Never mind what seems to have been a ghostly shadow that kept me company as I worked. After not being able to attend my favorite Virginia conference for several years, I finally had the chance to attend the 21st Annual Virginia Middle School Conference on Friday, November 4th. And at this conference, I had three teachers from my school with me--Val Leonard, Lisa Kelly, and Maressa Monk. We don't have much time for each other at work because we all work so hard in our respective classrooms, so this trip to James Madison University was an important bonding time. We have become "The Slipper Sisters." (We now have matching slippers. Slippers we can wear when we get home from work. Slippers to remind us that we are friends and that we believe in each other and our kids.) When I got to the Festival & Student Center shortly after 7:00 Friday morning, it was an emotionally charged experience for me. There they were...Belinda Mullins, Kathy Laster, Virginia Jones, Betty Dore, Gwen Griffith, Sandy Dutemple, Virginia Jones, and some others who have encouraged me for years to do my best, people who don't see me on a regular basis and yet express interest in what goes on in the muggy bat cave that is my classroom when they do see me. I also saw Virginia Seale, a visitor to my classroom when I was a finalist for the McGlothlin Award; how humbling it was to speak with her and let her know how my trip to England went. And then there was Rick Wormeli, the conference keynote speaker, one of my education heroes. (Number three on my personal list of Top Ten Influential People I'd Like to Spend a Day With...) Mentioning Rick Wormeli requires my backtracking to the spring of 2004--the spring of my first year teaching at Wallace Middle School. Belinda Mullins was my principal back then...the person who gave me my first teaching job. (Have I thanked you lately, Belinda, for giving me the job that turned my life around and made it mean something? No? Well, I'm thanking you again!) Belinda took me to my first VMSA conference in Norfolk for two days of intense break-out sessions and inspiring speakers. I didn't know anybody back then. It was the first time I heard Rick Wormeli speak. Talk about giving me an energy boost for the rest of the school year! He inspired me to take action, to be the teacher I wanted to be...the teacher that was focused on the needs of my students. And later, when he gave me access to the first chapters of Fair Isn't Always Equal and convicted me to reach beyond what I perceived to me by personal and professional limits to do what he talked about in that book, I worked even harder. That ethic, raised eyebrows in my building, and it took me more than a few years to get specific aspects of Wormeli's ideas worked into my curriculum. Even when it was hard to ignore criticism of others, I surrounded myself with people who believed. The National Writing Project (with the Appalchian Writing Project as primary contact) gave me extra oomph, gave me more avenues to discover my teacher-self. You see, it's not enough to believe. I can hang the VMSA's I Believe statement in my classroom. I can recite it. But it's no good if I don't share it. I (you) have to share it with my (your) students, their parents, and those I (you) work with. It's not a one-man or a one-woman movement toward the stars of enlightenment or achievement. It's about moving a community with all its members, if you can. That means knowing the community, heart and soul, strengths and needs, warts and beauty marks, real and surreal. It means being human and becoming super-human at times to hold people up or to hold things together. It means trusting others to help you when you need strength or inspiration. Sitting in Merlin's Cave on July 3 was a moment in time when something within me was set free. I sat on a rock in the dark in a cave that, even in the recent past, I had only been able to imagine. It was a reality. I had to take the dream and make it a reality for students who did not yet know me as their teacher. I left the cave with hair standing on end, recording equipment on one arm, cameras on the other. I looked a fright, and it was then I heard about the lights coming out of the rocks behind me. Ghost? Merlin? Pirate? Monk? What did it say to me? Wasn't I afraid? I was handed some rather nice round pieces of granite so I could take artifacts to my classroom. Thinking on this, I realize I was so busy I didn't see what was obvious to those who evacuated the cave and respected my need for absolute silence while I did my work. I was so focused on that work, I didn't see a ghost or realize the sudden gust of wind in my face was from whatever it was that wanted my attention. I think about that a lot, perhaps too much. How often do we as educators get so caught up in our work that we do not see the obvious, do not see our students, do not recognize their wants and needs and dreams and fears? I've blogged, cataloged and annotated over 1,500 photographs, created giant photo collages of the major locations I visited, and spent hundreds of hours journaling in traditional scrapbooks in case somebody doesn't have access to the digital ones. I've served many English teas to students, teachers, and community members so that I can infuse the British culture into Southwest Virginia's strong heritage, if only for an hour or so. It is important that I devote time and attention to these matters and take people to the places I have been even though I am their primary source of information. The trip to England has changed my life. What I brought back to my classroom has impacted the way I teach. I have become a better teacher for all that I have experienced. And as I watched Rick Wormeli explain that the hills are alive with the sounds of learning, as I listened to his think-aloud and watched Julie Andrews charm the von Trapp children into singing harmoniously, I had an epiphany. One of the biggest professional influences in my teacher philosophy has been Rick Wormeli. It was important that I had met him in my first year of teaching. It was essential that he dared me to reach beyond what I thought I could be. It was his influence that made me brave enough to sit in a haunted cave for the sake of my students, who needed spectacular and realistic inspiration to become great writers. Merlin's Cave. My bat cave classroom is alive with the voice of Rick Wormeli. Challenging me to reach past my self limitations, past my dreams to help my students grow and reach for starry dreams of their own. |
About LizLiz Phillips teaches eighth-graders in a close-knit Southwest Virginia community, a stone's throw from the birthplace of country music and NASCAR's Bristol Raceway. Archives
October 2016
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