Can I Take a Risk?

One thing I love about "my" third graders (in the Reading Group I lead) is that if they don't know the answer to a question I ask, sometimes they'll raise their hand anyway and say, "Can I take a risk?"  This is what they do if they want to go out on a limb and take a guess.  I always encourage this (so do all the teachers) because it creates a more safe, less loaded, learning environment and it's something I've incorporated into my college class.  Although, in there, I'll call it brainstorming or taking a guess or just "throwing something out."  A big part of learning is adding knowledge to your life, and the best way to do that is to venture out in search of an answer instead of waiting for it to miraculously somehow come to you.

I'm trying to practice what I preach.

Yes, please.

The past year has been such a risk, and it has paid off.  But every now and then, like this past week, I feel like I have hit a wall and can't possibly keep up this frantic pace and that my brain just doesn't have any more room in it for creativity or teaching styles or advice or new methods.  I think being sick (AGAIN!) really brought me down, mentally.

But!

I got a new tutoring client (we start tonight) and I'm making good grades, and I'm learning (learning learning learning) as much as I can about teaching.  It still amazes me that you can know alllllll about a subject, but teaching it is completely different.  It's a whole new world, and traveling to a new world is risky.  And that's OK.  It always pays off in one way or another.

Aaaaaaah!  What are these stools doing floating around in space with me?  Is that a door??

Because of student conferences, I'm off from the K-8 school today and tomorrow.  I had these grand visions of getting up early, doing lesson plans, researching a paper abstract, getting ahead on the last part of my teaching syllabus for the semester...instead I slept in until 9:00 (Hallelujah) and have been trolling around online and double fisting the coffee ever since.  Too. Mentally. Exhausted. To. Put. Forth. An. Effort. Right. Now.

What risks are you taking?