V is for Vista

The foundation of virtual schooling has been conceived of and built on a distant view or outlook which allowed for an extensive range of possibilities. Not just extensive, but unlimited. That vista is what brings teachers and students together in this place at this time.

The possibilities are the focus. As educators, we look at children or learners as bundles of potential as opposed to missed opportunities or failed skills. It isn't what they haven't done, haven't achieved, but rather, those things which they are still capable of achieving. Even bad choices can be overcome through compassion, diligence, and the refusal to let even one student slip away.

How many times have we heard of the tainted histories of adolescents whose paths never seemed to intersect at the right time with the right person? Even when their choices are poor, it doesn't mean they aren't looking for someone to tell them so they can refocus! Are you that person?

Thank you to www.nps.gov

One of my favorite places to visit is Glen Arbor, Michigan. The writers' group to which I belonged for years took a week each June to sequester themselves at cabins on Glen Lake to focus on writing. The drive from the small resort into Glen Arbor was via a twisting road with several lookouts. I made excuses to take that drive often so I could pull off onto the forested dirt road and park.

Ten steps and the trees broke onto a view like no other - it stretched across Big Glen and Little Glen Lakes to the Sleeping Bear Dunes and on to Lake Michigan. That vista never ceased to leave me breathless, even though I knew what I would see. The lush green and grey-white birch trees gave way to shimmering, light-catching blues with splashes of colorful spinnaker sails and soaring gulls.

So too I ask you to always look for the expansive, the unexpected, within the commonplace as you approach your students each day. Each interaction, no matter how brief, whether online or on-the-ground, brings the promise of what you can do together given the chance. Don't waste the opportunity! Don't assume you know how a student will or won't respond, but instead, prepare to be surprised and amazed over and over again. Look for someone or something each day which takes your breath away and dismiss any predisposition that you know what you will see. Only then can you and your students be amazed anew each day.

Reflection: Using a professional journal or blog, keep track of those things which are the "aha" moments in your teaching day, in any day. You won't see them if you aren't looking and life moves so quickly, you won't remember them if you don't take time to save them in writing. It only takes a sentence or two, nothing more, but you will be grateful in years to come.