It feels a little weird to be writing this right now…it is kinda like the feeling you get when you revisit a place that was once familiar and still is, but also feels different because so much time has passed. It has been a looong time since I have even considered sharing something in this way.

I am sitting in my room with a list of things a mile long that I could be doing right now, but the overwhelming feelings that come with change and transition have stopped me in my tracks tonight. It has been quite a summer. For a large part of the summer I could not escape the chaos of being “under construction”. There were some home renovation projects, and the first phase of some major upgrades at work, and at one point even my therapist’s office was having some work done to their building which felt like it was mocking me! Things at home have resumed a sense of normalcy, but unfortunately, I can’t say the same about work. Our new school year starts this coming Tuesday and we had hopes of starting it in our newly remodeled classrooms, but as is often the case with these things, there have been delays. If I am being completely honest, I have struggled to process this disappointment. Particularly on the drive home today I was just feeling bummed out about it. I don’t know that anyone handles disappointment well, but I am absolutely certain that I don’t. I have been anxiously awaiting the move into to the new classrooms and have been imagining all the things that I want to do with/in that space. This school year marks the start of a new teaching experience as a transitional kindergarten co-teacher and I am so excited about it! I get to share my love and passion for words and language with the tiny humans at the start of their relationship with words and early reading. So cool! But I envisioned the start of this new adventure in a new classroom…

As I was wallowing in discouragement and disappointment, I began to think about all of my hopes for the littles that I will spend this next school year with and the truth is that none of those hopes require a newly renovated classroom. While there are academic milestones we will work on together, one my core values as a teacher is to teach kids about their indescribable worth, their limitless potential and capacity to learn and do hard things, and how to be good humans that show kindness, compassion, and empathy. I also want to teach them about their ability to be flexible thinkers and how they can adapt to the changes that life [often] throws at us…irony much? In addition to all of this, I have decided that my theme for this year would be “TK Tribe” with the desire of fostering community and teaching them about what it looks like to care for your people. It has been my experience that chaos, while being stressful, also creates beautiful opportunities to have the kinds of experiences that bring people closer together. So, not having a permanent classroom for the first couple weeks of school could be part of a bigger plan for us to learn how to be flexible together. More than anything I strive to create an environment where my littles feel secure, wanted, valued, and loved and when I think about the “places” I have felt that way throughout my life, they were never the actual places…they were the people.  I pray that I can be that kind of person for these kiddos. So, we will adapt and kick off this school year differently than originally imagined and will appreciate the start of transitional kindergarten being filled with “transition” 😊 Adventure awaits and I am so grateful to adventure with the tiny humans in my TK Tribe this year.

If you think of us, would you pray for an awesome school year filled with lots of fun and lots of growth for all of us?

Thank you friends,

Leslie Danielle