Today I am grateful for  parents.  Not mine (although I am, but that’s not who I’m writing about tonight).  Students’ parents.  That’s right–a teacher just said she was grateful for her students’ parents.  Today I conducted parent learning walks at my school, which means that, across the morning, I took almost fifteen parents into and out of classrooms to observe what students were doing and to reflect on how parents and teachers can collaborate–parents from home and teachers from school–to help their kids gain the needed skills to be ready for college and career.

These mommas were great.  Despite the slowdown that translation causes, these mommas were game participants.  They enjoyed being in classrooms and seeing what really goes on there; they found examples of the 4 Cs (collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and communication–all 21st century learning skills); and they left feeling empowered because now they had some ideas (generated by them, not dictated by me or anyone else) about how to talk with their kids and how not to take “I can’t” or “It’s boring” or “I don’t get it” as final answers.

It was an exhausting, last-minute mad dash to put it all together this week, but it was gratifying, and thus I am grateful…wiped out, but grateful.

“Learning Walk,” by Jacek Yerka