Being a Pebble

#sol17- February 21, 2017

I often feel like my unofficial role is “pebble”. I am not one of those bold people out front at any activity, leading the charge. Instead, I see myself as a good background person, happy to lend a hand and take a supporting position. Creating tiny ripples of change is my goal.

Every year I publish a “Literacy Events” calendar, that shares links for activities we will participate in throughout the year and inviting others to join in too. I send it out in August and again in January. Bit by bit I am thrilled that others are participating more. Today I introduced March Book Madness to my class (we will do the picture book bracket), but last week I messaged a friend (Sally, that’s you) and she is having her class join in too! Our class community is enriched when we get to share these activities with other classes we “know”. After school today I shared MBM with my after school activity group and told them that they will be able to vote with me each Tuesday. A few students huddled by the book box reading away making their preliminary decisions. After school today a grade 5 teacher stopped me to talk about March Book Madness, as she had read my recent email. She says her class is in- yahoo!

Later this week I will host a lunch to get my students ready for the Classroom Slice of Life Challenge. I have talked about it many times already, but there we will look at a video or two (including one that a former student made) and start brainstorming ideas. This morning I wanted to get an idea of who was feeling like they might join. Of the 15 students who responded thus far eight plan to slice daily,  two are committing to most days, three will do many days, and two say they will not slice at all (little do they know that all will slice on March 1, the only day they will have in class time).

Today was a day where I could see small ripples of change- my quiet way to rock the boat. Who knows what is next!