Category: Uncategorized

Posted in English escapades, professional development, teaching, Uncategorized

Summer Reading Series: Sea Prayer

Posted on by @cwilsonspanish

Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini

One of my favorite authors, Khaled Hosseini ❤️

This is a short illustrated story (basically a picture book) that humanizes the struggles of refugees. In fact, I think it would be a GREAT book to pair with Refugee by Alan Gratz. A teacher might even use this as a read aloud and point students to Gratz if they want more.

I love how books can show us another world. The narrator begins by describing memories of how his country had been before the war. The narration shows both the common thread of carefree childhood and the distinct cultural beauty of a place and its people. The narrator mourns the loss of a country and culture his son will never know in he same way he did.

I’ve read that books can cure fascism. That is because reading helps us develop empathy and compassion. Reading helps us live their experiences and see it from their perspectives.

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies; the man who never reads lives only one.” -George R. R. Martin

-CL

Posted in English escapades, professional development, teaching, Uncategorized

Summer Reading Series: The House on Mango Street

Posted on by @cwilsonspanish

This summer, I’ve been reading lots of books both for leisure and professionally. After each one, I’ve been posting reviews/ thoughts on my instagram (follow me! Cwilsonspanish). I wanted to share those here, since they are basically blog posts!

Here’s today’s:

So, I finished The House on Mango Street last night. I started reading it because it was recommended multiple times by other English teachers. Looking back, I realize that I have read many excerpts from this novel in textbooks, and standardized tests, and just in the sharing of good literature. However, I realize that reading those excerpts gave me a false view of the book. What initially seemed to be a poignant and sometimes impressionistic view of childhood via excerpts is still that, but so much more. It is a look at being Latinx, at being poor, at being female, at having dreams in a dreamless place. The excerpts are beautiful, but cut from the context of the novel, they lose some of their complexity and power. The book is haunting. Genuine. Tragic. Real. It echoes in my life. It resounds in who I was and who I became and who I’m hoping to be.
Given the excerpts I’d previously read, I settled in for a beautiful but carefree read. I was way off base. The book is troubling. It should be. There are moments of such intensity in this book that left me gasping for air because I was breathless reliving the common experience of being a woman. I see now that this book has layers. A young reader will read it at face value and miss much. The mature reader, having background knowledge and experiences, will read between the lines. The mature reader will read a tragic but honest piece.

-CL

Posted in Uncategorized

Kids turn into adults.

Posted on by @cwilsonspanish

Well, as my mom would have put it: no shit, Sherlock. Kids turn into adults. Duh!

But these 8 years of public education have made me so much more aware of this seemingly obvious point. Gifted children turn in to gifted adults. Children with trauma turn into adults with trauma. Obvious, but disconcerting.

For two reasons, really:

(1) We are infinitely more compassionate toward children who are still learning to navigate the world given whatever conditions are present in their lives.

(2) Unfortunately, that compassion fades as said child reaches adulthood.

The second point is a no-brainer. But the problem is that many children don’t actually learn to navigate the world in their conditions.

I was a gifted kid that turned into a gifted adult. And what had been an advantage in my childhood has become a liability in my career. I see things others don’t. I say things others can’t wrap their minds around or don’t want to hear. People interpret my words with malicious intent if I point out a problem or suggest a solution because it threatens a balance of power. Self awareness. Self awareness. Self awareness. What was praised in my student-hood is undervalued in my work setting.

I didn’t really even know how to deal with myself until I began attending mandatory trainings for educators of gifted students. Because no one taught me about myself. Everyone else was taking notes on how to approach a child, and I was realizing that they knew more about me than I had ever been taught about myself. What an eerie feeling that was. But the self-awareness changed my life. I can mitigate what I know about.

The same was true when I learned about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE scores). I was learning about how trauma influences the behavior and health of a child and the resulting adult, and I was also learning about me.

Why do we keep the knowledge of self-awareness and understanding from children? I’m not advocating that every kid needs to know every thing, but I do think there is value in helping children understand who they are.

Because kids turn into adults.

Just a thought. -CL

Posted in Uncategorized

#whatimreading

Posted on by @cwilsonspanish

#whatimreading #180days

This book is rocking my world so far. I just finished my 8th year of teaching and my 3rd year as an ELAR teacher. Teaching English has changed my life in ways I couldn’t have imagined 3 years ago. It brought me back to the reader and writer inside; it has renewed my passion. The last three years have taught me a lot about all the ways I can engage my students in authentic reading and writing, but this book is all about the one question I haven’t found a good answer to: how am I supposed to fit all this in?

Luckily, it looks like the authors have the same answer I do: you don’t.

I’m looking forward to reading more about the “how” and “why” of their decisions. The wheels are already turning in my head as I think about everything I want to share with my students next year and all they can share with me. ❤️

#teacher #english #elar

Posted in English escapades, teaching, Uncategorized

The Speech I Didn’t Give

Posted on by @cwilsonspanish

Tonight was our school’s 8th grade graduation. I’ve known these particular kiddos for just this one year, but with a 75 minute daily ELAR block and most of them taking my Spanish 1 class as well, I’ve gotten to know these 10 students as well as I’ve known any. I didn’t speak at tonight’s graduation, but if I had, I know just what I’d’ve said.

To my 8th graders:

Tonight’s graduation is just one of many you’ll sit through in your academic career. All of you will go on to high school graduation, and then upward and onward to other graduations, formal and informal. College graduations, certificate program graduations; graduations and commencements and milestones like driver’s ed and marriage and parenthood and student loan debt await you all. But tonight, we are here.

Tonight we are here to celebrate your commencement, your forward motion, into the next chapter of your life: high school. Any time you get ready to move on, move forward, I encourage you to take stock of what you are bringing with you. You have your suitcases packed. But what’s inside? Your K-8 education has equipped you with the basics. You can all read and write and “math”. But this year, we’ve done much more than equip you with the basics. 

I feel honored to teach in a state that values critical thinking. Our English Language Arts and Reading standards here in Texas push our students to do more than “know”. Our kids are encouraged to evaluate, synthesize, question, discern and most importantly: decide. If I’ve done my job right, I’ve created moments for you this year to take what you know, what you’ve been taught, what you’ve been given, bring it to the table and examine it closely. 

The purpose of this examination is not so that you will cast aside these building blocks of who you are, rather it is so that you will build a deeper understanding of who you are and what you believe. 

All of us here come to this place knowing what we are told. Your families have instilled in you values since your first breath here on Earth. Many of you are religious, and most of you are already vocal about your political leanings. However, this leap from the safety of K-8 education into the world of high school is not only an exciting time; it is the beginning of your adolescence. Your “teenage-hood’ is many things: it is fun and excitement and emotion and hormone and independence all rolled up into the most awkward freshman yearbook photo you can imagine… but it is more than that. These coming years are also the beginning of the season in your life when everyone questions who you are. Others will be asking, and you’ll be a step ahead if you know more than the “what”. You need to know the “why”. 

As we’ve examined readings from all sides, and you’ve been asked to write and explain and defend and counter-argue every point this year, I’ve been trying to bring you to this one understanding: today, here and now: you need to know where you stand and why you’re there. 

You guys are lucky, though you may not always feel that way in the coming years. Although I know your middle school team, Mr. Day, Mr. Oliver, Mrs. Cranfill, and me, has given you a solid start on evaluating the information you come across in your daily life, we all know that this is a process. What we’ve started, in partnership with your families, will continue. In fact, this process never really ends. You are lucky because each of you sits here today getting to explore these ideas in the safety of family. I said that you may not always “feel” lucky, and that is because sometimes we disagree with our parents. I promise you though, every one of the people in this room tonight is on your team. Even when you disagree, I encourage you to remember that. 

Tonight I’m looking out at one of the most interesting, entertaining, talented, intelligent, resilient, genuine groups of students I have ever had the privilege of teaching. I’m honored that our school, your parents, and yes, even you, have allowed me the privilege of teaching you this year. Thank you for that. Thank you for belly laughs and inside jokes and reminders that sometimes you know more than me. Thank you for rising to every challenge we’ve set before you. Thank you for your enthusiasm for learning. Thank you for the deep friendships you have amongst yourselves. As an adult, it is truly a blessing to watch young people love each other so deeply and so thoroughly and so freely. Lastly, and most importantly, thank each of you for being uniquely YOU. There is only one “you”, and the world desperately needs what you have to offer. I say that to each of you, and I mean every word. 

As you prepare to leave this place in 7 short school days, know that the future is everything that you imagine it to be. Now, go take the world by storm. 

-CL

Posted in Uncategorized

New Year, New Semester

Posted on by @cwilsonspanish

The spring semester is the busiest time of year for me as a teacher. I don’t necessarily mean that I’m physically more busy, though sometimes I am. The spring is more demanding of all my cognitive and emotional resources. If you know a teacher, that person likely feels the same way. Pray for us ❤️

What I used to dread has now become my favorite part of what I do. This part of the year is like a marathon I’m running until May, and by February I’ll be enjoying a runner’s high. I’ve spent today knee deep in theory trying to put together the best of all I’ve ever done to offer it to my kids. And you know what? I’m going to have fun. If it isn’t fun, then my job is boring, and I can promise you no one can accuse me of having a boring job.

Here’s to Spring.

-CL

Posted in English escapades, Lesson plan component, teaching, Uncategorized

Mistakes vs. Choices

Posted on by @cwilsonspanish

During a free write, I wrote this on the board.

IMG_6299

After I call time, I always share my writing and encourage anyone who wants to to share all or part of their writing. This time, I asked them to correct my work. They had a LOT to say. 

After taking a few suggestions, I posed this question:

Did I make mistakes? Or did I make choices?

There was a short, but spirited debate before I changed the question:

What was my purpose, and was it effective?

Clearly, I was trying to sound frantic. I intended to entertain my middle school students. And believe me, if you’d heard the dramatic reading I did of this piece, you would have been entertained, too, for sure! (They thought I had lost my mind!)

Eventually, they determined that I had made choices. This is when I introduced the term “craft”.

Author’s craft is all the choices we make when we create something.

So, I asked them:

What is on your paper: author’s craft, or author’s accident?

Circle one thing you chose to write, one choice you made on purpose because you knew it was good.

It was one of my favorite lessons so far this year.

-CL

Posted in English escapades, Lesson plan component, teaching, Uncategorized

They Sing of Rain

Posted on by @cwilsonspanish

We are studying poetry right now in my ELAR classes. Usually, I have my students write whatever genre we are reading, that way, I can give them effective mentor texts and strategies. Today, I taught a strategy called “free association” to help my students generate topics and ideas for a new poem in their individual collections.

Anytime they write, I write. Today, I came up with this:

44157643_2177993032522134_920608798035410944_n.jpg

Posted in Uncategorized

Will you adopt me?

Posted on by @cwilsonspanish

This question has been haunting me all day. For some reason I had the occasion to tell (an edited version of) this story to my first period class at my previous school one morning. Then, I was again reminded of it as I talked with a student who sometimes calls me mom. Again, the question reared its head even while I watched TV with my husband this evening.

Will you adopt me?

She grew up in the islands off of the Bahamas. But what you don’t see on the cruise paths are the houses she grew up in and the men who paid her mom’s drug money so they could be with her, even as young as age seven–prostituted out for her mother’s drug money.

Their version of Child Protective Services eventually caught on. They sent her to the U.S. to live with her dad. He was a garbage man. Things were better. One day he didn’t come home from work; he’d been crushed in a work-related incident.

Her aunt lived in the U.S. as well. She was the only family left. But her aunt didn’t want her, and resented her, and they fought. They fought so much that her aunt turned her over to the state.

Enter foster care. Enter “high needs” placement. Enter a girl with such trauma that her problems and attitude were honestly understandable. Enter my classroom.

I’ve got a way with certain kids that other people have already given up on, or don’t understand, or don’t want to deal with. I’m not a kid whisperer, and not every kid “comes around”. But this young lady, she was one of the ones I was able to reach, even if for a short time.

I remember this moment so vividly. It happened in slow motion. I don’t remember what happened before it, or after it, but everything during this moment was so…. clear. I was teaching something. It was near the end of the school year. She looked at me and spoke up.

“Mrs. W., will you adopt me?”

The world stood still. I pictured a future where she was loved, and safe, and part of my family. I pictured us fighting. And driving to counseling. And hating each other with furious love. I shook myself back to reality, and I knew that I couldn’t. I wanted to, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t drag her back to my 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom house and give her an air mattress while we crammed a fifth person into our home with a mom, a dad, two kids, two dogs, and now her, too. God, I wanted to. I clearly still want to. I went home that night and begged my husband, even though I knew in my heart that it couldn’t happen.

I tell this story partly because I’ll never forget it and partly because she isn’t the only kid I’ve loved this deeply. I love them all this way. I don’t want to take them all home, of course. But some of them break my heart. Some of them make me want to take them home and give them all the things they tell me in their journals that they don’t have.

Sometimes I think about how I can’t save the world. I’m just one person. And other times, I realize that I can save the world one kid, one class, one word or note or listening ear at a time.

I had a chemistry teacher that said:

We are all either infinitely significant or infinitely insignificant. You decide.

I’m deciding. 

-CL

Posted in teaching, Uncategorized

Tag lines

Posted on by @cwilsonspanish

This made my day today. Our superintendent gave us each our salary statements in Manila envelopes. Each envelope had a label. Each label has a tag line. She thought of a tag line for each teacher/ employee.

We have a small district. I’d guess we sit right at 20 employees total in the entire school DISTRICT. It is small and sweet. We are each well known one to another.

I have worked in small schools and districts before. I have attended tiny schools as a student. This is different. Very different. I can’t emphasize that enough.

-CL