Eat. Love. Say. Ten years of Chalk Talk

This is the final Schools Page Chalk Talk for the year. It is hard for me to fathom that it has been 10 years of Chalk Talk columns.

For me, Chalk Talk was a voice for all the good that goes on in the classroom. It was a place to share with my community about my world that was first just a job that became a career, which became the fabric of my life.

What I didn’t count on was what Chalk Talk did for me professionally. Writing the column became the best professional development I ever had.

What was it that I believed in? What was worth saying about this strange job/life that was one part parent, two parts professor, a dash of coach, a pinch of counselor, and baked in 300 degrees of ‘public-education-is-the-bane-of-our-society-but-I-still-love-our-teachers’ political schizophrenia? And, could I write about it?

There is nothing like on-the-job training. Before the end of the first year, I understood all too well what revising meant.

Chalk Talks became a family affair. I would ruminate on ideas weeks in advance of a deadline. Try them out over dinner and then type on the couch for hours to try to pen out 500 words worth reading.

Then, over dinner again we would all read those 500 words a couple of times, changing and revising over and over again till my bedtime. I swear my daughters learned how to write from editing Chalk Talks.

Which is just one of my “Lessons from a Chalk Talk” that I learned: 1. Good writing is rewriting. 2. Writing takes a village, and 3. Get to the point already. It’s kind of like my own best-selling novel/movie combo, Eat. Love. Say.

My husband likes to tell me that life begins when you leave your comfort zone. Believe it or not, writing Chalk Talk has definitely been out of my comfort zone. The experience has caused me to consider not just what I want to say, but what I would like heard. And thus, I find myself now, 10 years later, writing my last Chalk Talk and my final word for teachers.

Eat. Leave the comfort zone and remember the lessons of writing: 1. Good teaching takes re-teaching. It takes reflection and refining because excellence is never an accident.

Love. Teaching takes a village. All of us are smarter than any of us. Do not tackle this job in isolation.

Say. The point is about students learning, not about us teaching.

For now, summer break is but a few long days away in a short amount of time. Our rooms are divided into three piles, one marked “Summer Work,” one marked “Next Year,” and my personal favorite file marked “Later,” to be filed away within the abyss of books, folders, stickies, broken staplers and lost pencils.

Until next year, many blessings. Take a risk, bring a friend along, and keep learning.