Messages from the Universe for the First Day of School

From GapingVoid.com

Seth Godin reminds us that we are in charge of creating culture:

"It's culture that pushes us to level up, to dig deeper, to do things that we might not otherwise do. It's culture that finds and encourages and pushes people to become better versions of themselves than anyone else expected to find.

What we need are caring human beings who will choose to change the culture for the better. 

Not all of it, of course. Merely the culture they can touch. The people they can engage with. The human beings they can look in the eye, offer to help, offer encouragement and offer a hand up. 

Once we reset the standard, it becomes the new normal..."

From Indexed

It's the First Day of Schol...FOREVER!

It's the First Day of School...Forever!
by R.L. Stine
Square Fish (MacMillan), 2012
review copy provided by the publisher

I haven't started having my "back to school" nightmares yet, but it's only a matter of time, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to find out what kind of nightmarish first day R.L. Stine would create.

It's a doozie. Fall out of bed, wardrobe problems, bad hair, crazy little brother, bullies (including the principal), scorpions, boiler rooms in the basement of the school...and then on page 79, it starts all over again -- same basic story with a few minor revisions because there are some things that Artie just doesn't want to repeat. And then on page 148 it starts all over again, and this is getting too weird. And THEN, on page 158 is starts all over AGAIN!!!

R.L. Stine saves the punchline explanation for the very last chapter of the book...and it's a good one.

I can't wait to book talk this book! Kids are going to love it!!

Poetry Friday -- First Day

In memory of my
fourth grade teacher
Faye Bryner
1916-2010

For the 32 First Days in your career,
and especially for the one we shared.











FIRST DAY 
author unknown

and what are the important questions anyway
on this first day of school after a night of no sleep
wondering even fearing how this day will go and all the rest
hoping it unfolds neatly as lesson plans promise
probably not and in that thought works a hint of unreadiness
and a quiet panic that hovers through the black coffee
yet later when we gather in first morning expectancy
we do manage to breathe though not deeply
my years are useless I am as new here
when the bell rings as all those now looking at me
but what is this day and all the rest about
not of course rules and study habits or even
a bag full of knowledge somehow packed
in all those books tidy on each desk
rather an urge to know that pushes us into wondering
about clouds becoming raindrops
from another side of the world or why the flower
outside the window blooms at this precise moment
where the songs in my heart come from
and where they are going all those questions
not in my curriculum guide
but that I now see in a new girl who can't stay
in her seat and dances an interruption around the room
negotiates attention midsentence and at the end of my wits
tells me a story during lunch that is dazzling and profound
and in one brief moment I see her soul in love with imagination
that must move and wave and try to fly
and this is what I must relearn on this first day
that in our remembered self is an urge to create
I can look for it or not but my choice had better
be made with love and reverence for what we all want is to express
our unique genius no matter what
because that is who we are
and after all the only question worth pursuing anyway
no wonder the night is full of sleeplessness
this is a question of life nothing else comes close
I remember now why I'm here and frightened
and so in awe of this moment
and these children



To all the teachers who already have or who will welcome a new class of students in the next days or weeks, and to the family members sending us their beloved ones to care for and nurture and teach, and to our students, "alive with imagination" -- LET'S MAKE IT A GREAT SCHOOL YEAR!

Laura has the Poetry Friday roundup today at Teach Poetry K-12.