Things I'll Miss from Teaching: Making Connections

We finished out the year by reading Tuck Everlasting. The kids devoured it in a way I haven't seen all year, and I loved it too. Mystery, action, big themes, poetic descriptions, symbolism, all done in a way to which you can relate.

(This was the first year I taught reading, and I'm just glad it got me to read three novels I wouldn't have otherwise read. And don't get me started on the conversation of them being "kids' books.")

The central theme of the book is "the wheel" of life, talking about how death is a part of life and so on.

On Wednesday in chapel, the responsive reading consisted of familiar words from Ecclesiastes: a time for everything under the sun, a time be born, a time to die, and so on.

When we returned back to the classroom, I quickly searched on YouTube for the Byrds.

I loved the way "Turn, Turn, Turn" tied together Ecclesiastes with Tuck Everlasting. The kids did too.

And since we were in Ecclesiastes, I went ahead and made one more connection, talking about Carl teaching his college students from the first chapter of the book: "I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men!" Learning is hard work, so work hard. And that led me to talking about Carl's dad, Byron, who showed me when I was about their age that the more you know, the more you don't know.

For the first time this year, they seemed engaged in the conversation, probably because I was talking obnoxiously loud and proceeding at a manic pace. My hope was to make one last ditch effort in inspiring them to learn for the rest of their lives and love doing so. And make connections. There are always connections to be made.

And I'll miss sharing those connections with 11-year-olds every day.