I haven’t done any explicit teaching the last two days. Yesterday, we had an awards ceremony for our graduating and upcoming seniors. Today, the whole student body presented yearlong passion projects that they had been working on for a program we have called Flex Friday. My only job was to show up.

So I showed up. And these students blew me away with their homemade ukuleles, 10 minute beautifully edited videos about bilingualism in Spain, personally coded and animated video games, an explanation of the evolution of video game reviewing as a lead in to framing personal video game reviews, expertly produced hip hop beats and lyrics, the list goes on…

It can be easy to lose sight of the whole child when we know them in the specific contexts of our classrooms. When we have the opportunities to know them as fuller humans, whether that be through advisory structures, after school programs, presentations of learning, we benefit so much from being able to stand back and be in awe of them.

What amazing human beings I get to show up for every day, who may need a wider platform, a different context area, to fully shine out.

PS: Here’s an awesome hip hop piece written and produced by one of my students.