Our school gave all the sixth graders and staff t-shirts for our end-of-the-year celebration. They are a nice, buttery yellow, emblazoned with the IB MYP Logo on the front and "6th Grade Best of the Best" on the back. Even so, there was a level of unappreciation among the students along the lines of probably never wear this again-- we're only going to be in sixth grade for a few more days.
I get it. There is no stopping time, although sometimes it feels that there might be. When colleagues compliment me on my understanding of the sixth-grade mind and personality, I shrug. "Well, I have been in sixth grade for over thirty years," I might demure. It took me a while to realize that my perception of the passage of time is skewed by the fact that the kids never really get older; we just switch them out for another group of 11- and 12-year-olds, and so sometimes it feels like we don't get any older either.
Essentially, I've had 31 do-overs of sixth grade, starting with my first time through when I was that age. I've had 31 tries to figure out what makes kids that age laugh, what makes them happy, what is hard, and how to help. I'd be a pretty poor student myself if I wasn't good at what I do.
But today, like the kids, I looked skeptically at my own t-shirt, because I'm only going to be in sixth grade a few more days, too.
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