On Storytelling.

As an English teacher, it is my job to teach students about nouns and verbs, adjectives and adverbs, definitions and context. I must teach them how to be good writers and better readers. I have to inform them of what they do well and what they need to work on. Every single day.

If I gave them all a test on all of these things, some of them would do just fine. Others would struggle. But if I were to test them on what they've really learned this year, I would hope that they'd be able to tell me some important life lesson. I'd hope that they would have learned the importance of their own voice, their story.

I use anecdotes often. They're usually about me or someone I know. Every time I tell a story, their eyes grow wide with wonder. I see them really listening. They want to know what happens. They want to know how it ends.

What is most important? Teaching kids the difference between a noun and a verb or teaching them life skills? Teaching them algebraic functions that they may never use again or explaining to them that the kindness of strangers has saved lives?

I suppose we all see our jobs as educators differently. Perhaps this is where my dislike of the idea of becoming an administrator really sets in. To me, teaching kids has much more to do with what's on paper. It has to do with the fabric of life.