6. New Growth

New orchids on my lanai inspired this piece

 #66Challenge

Each human is a complex, contradictory story. 

Some stories within us have been unfolding for years, others are trembling with fresh life as they peek above 

the horizon. Each is a zigzag of emotional design and ancestral architecture. All the stories in the earth's 

mind are connected.

--Joy Harjo from her collection Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings

 It comes in subtle ways.

If I'm not paying attention, I could miss it.

The two girls reading the same book together who are suddenly finished with it. When I question how they could be done, the response is precious: "Miss, we've been reading together on FaceTime."

The two boys who finished Game Changer and raced to the library to get the new James Patterson Middle School book. Their excitement was palatable.

The ones working on the program during the weekend because they are determined to change their reading story.

The support they are naturally giving each other in the classroom.

The boy who hates to read who voluntarily explains to me something that is happening in his ebook.

These readers of mine, these scholars, these wildflowers, are complex and contradictory.

They are unfolding their reading stories in positive directions.

My job is simple--DON'T GET IN THE WAY. I believe they've had enough of that zigzag in their reading experiences or they wouldn't be sitting in my intensive reading class.

My job is structural.

The right support at the right time.

Listening.

Studying the data to see what story it tells. (And I'd better get that right!)

Remembering it's a learning PROCESS, not an event.

Set the right conditions, then get out of the way.

New growth for a flower comes with the right amount of sun, rain, and nutrients.

It also happens because no one stomped on the bud.