It's the humanity not any Mumbo Jumbo of Teaching Best Practices

CCSU Literacy Center Teacher I missed you too 

I am blessed to work with new teachers, experienced teachers, parents, and children. There is not a single day that I don't see some act of kindness happening that inspires me. Helen Keller said: “Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all -- the apathy of human beings.”

I hear a great deal of "Best Practice" in teaching, but it's all twisted in rubrics of indifference. Tied to learning objectives, benchmarks, teaching as a science. The very things that no child will ever remember twenty years from now.

Just when I think all is lost, I turn around, and see what my friend Jamaal Bowman refers to as teaching as a pedagogy of love.

Teachers, Teachers, Teachers,

Every pat on the back,

Every sign of love,

Every message of hope,

Every good job,

Every Glad you came today,

Every I missed you,

Every hug for doing a good job,

Every I like what you are doing, can we work on it together,

Every kind word,

Every kind look,

Every Kind act,

Matters!

Your humanity matters more than the all the teaching scientific mumbo jumbo.

Your humanity matters more than the test scores,

Your humanity is what children will remember 20 years from now,

Your humanity is what keeps you fresh, hopeful, and it is what makes you beautiful.

Hear's to the beautiful moments.

Jesse The Walking Man Turner

This medal may be plastic, but reading your first chapter book is all GOLD 

Teachers inspire me to walk. Vicki Soto was one of the teachers on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, that Adam Lanza Murdered while she protected her first graders.  I can't change the past, but I can choose to honor the courage, humanity of those 20 children murdered, and the six adults who died defending them. Vicki Soto sacrifice reminds me that there is something inside us so strong. Consider running, or walking with me some year in the VickiSoto 5k (
http://vickisoto5k.com/ ).Newtown mother Nelba Marquez-Green mother of Six year-old Ana Grace murdered that day reminds us everyday "Love Wins".  Consider supporting the Ana Grace Project  
( http://anagraceproject.org/ )
On Saturday I choose to walk with love. Vicki represents the best example of teacher humanity I know. 
It the humanity that defines us, and it's our humanity that saves us.
If you like to listen to the song that is inspiring me to walk in the Vicki Soto 5k tomorrow it's  Lira performing "Something Inside So Strong""Something Inside So Strong"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZrIGQ_b9EY