Dream a Dream

For this week, I hope to continue yet not exhaust my practice of getting to know more about who I am. My plan in doing so requires reminiscing on my childhood. This week's assignment: writing a poem titled, 'Where I'm From.' I thought I'd share.

Where I'm From
I come from hot summer days,
Coca Cola slurpees and six-lets.
I come from backyard pools and trampolines,
daddy-built swing sets and manicured lawns.
I come from make believe adventures,
wheel barrow rides and monkey bar races.
I'm made up of Barbie's clothes and makeup.

I come from Mr. Handyman and Mrs. Suzie homemaker.
I come from popsicles and sprinklers,
Culs-de-sac bike rides and side walk chalk.
I come from smiles and laughter,
dandelion weeds and skip-it.
I'm made up of hair scrunchies and salt water sandals.

I come from roller blade races,
tree houses and homemade forts.
I come from summer camp and soccer games,
soccer fields and tennis courts.
I come from summer parties on the beach,
sunburns and mosquito bites.
I'm made up princess crowns and a Girl Scout uniform.
I'm made up of badges, and dress up.

Now that you've read more about what I've associated with my own childhood, I encourage you to sit and ponder what your childhood days consisted of. I hope that my poem helped to pain a picture of who I was because by writing this poem I found it easy to escape my life today and remember where my life was at back then. When I found out we were to write about our childhood I knew writing something like this would bring a smile to my face. My childhood was grand, almost pure bliss. I know I am lucky because not all children have such an easy childhood and therefor I aim to open my mind for all possible scenarios. On a more happy note, If I was prompted to look back on where my mind was focused at an early age I just might be able to reach my students on a different level. I then began the process of wondering how I have changed if at all over the last fifteen years. Am I still just a kid at heart? I like to think so!

How can we work towards knowing our students without truely knowing ourselves? Have you ever asked yourself what it was in your childhood that helped mold you into the person you are today? I believe that most of our growing up was not only in inches but in our abilites to adapt into society with a wide range of unique individuals. I would like to strongly argue that imagination and make believe played an enormous role in creating who I am today. It was also because of people like Walt Disney who helped root imagination as a positive attribute. Unfortunately, the fire that fuled my imagination as a child has slowly been dying over the years. How can I relate to my students and children if my imagination is anything less than ignited? Finding myself again after what feels like I've being separated from my childhood it is sometimes difficult to remember who I was back then. I can't even count the times I've been told by society that growing up into maturity with a sense of realism and structure is what's most highly valued. I must say that by cutting off my childhood never did me any good because most of who I am is a result of who I was back then and what I believed.

I believe knowing one's self requires the ability to rewind the tape of childhood, really narrow in on what made us happy, who and what made us cry, and what inspired us to be imaginative and creative. Childhood to me screams make believe, fairytales, wonderland adventures. Soon we find out that much of what we once believed true is in all actuality only real in our minds. If we never fed our imaginations with the help of books and movies where would our imaginations be? I owe a lot of my upbringing to fairytales I read and the adventures I followed with make believe stories. If it wasn't for imagination, how do we create dreams for ourselves? Without imagination would we be less likely to set goals for ourselves especially when they seem far out of reach? With imagination, I can invision an unlikely even to happen. Without itI find myself aiming towards something already likely to happen. I ask myself "Where would I be without a dream or a goal?"

While the arguement remains on whether or not school should be fun, I would definately say that while it doesn't need to be fun always, it should be engaging. While reading Perlstein's chapter 12 last week I found myself inspired by Sheila McDermott's teaching tactics. She was not amused by nap time or play time but she did believe that school should never dismiss or ignore opportunites that promote learning, creativity and imagination. She found ways to fit a learning lesson into every crevice. She suggests that time is invaluable. What I gathered from her knowledge was if we let time pass us by that is exactly what will happen. If we can use our imaginations and be creative with teaching we can find a lesson to go with almost every activity.