Nesting Before the New School Year
Before a parent welcomes a new child, they do something called “nesting”. It’s the burst of energy and productivity near the end of the pregnancy when parents begin tackling projects they would otherwise put on the back burner. They’re preparing their “nest” for the arrival of their baby. When folks are welcoming their first child, it can also include those last time events — things that will be more difficult to do with a baby in the picture.
Did you know that educators do that too? When August rolls around and the new school year approaches, we anticipate the end of our relaxing summers. We anxiously await the arrival of our new students. We become a bundle of nervous energy — starting all those house projects we meant to do all summer. We wake up in the night with new ideas for our classrooms.
My nesting period has begun. After a strange and busy summer which has included celebrations of life and death and more youth baseball than the average human can watch in a lifetime, I did my first school-related task. My first summer like this. Ever. In 21 years. Like, you can take a break from work for a while and come back to it later and it’s okay! And once that first task was completed, there was no going back! It’s rearranging the tupperware drawer, going through my closet, and school, school, school.
Luckily this summer (like last) my nesting was/has been more purposeful and directed thanks to my What We Can Become peers. While it’s incredibly intimidating to begin to think about next year, because of the minds I’ve had the privilege to think with in WWCB, I’m more ready than I realized. Let’s not confuse “ready” for “having all the answers” of course, but prepared to roll with the challenges ahead? Definitely more likely.
As I sit here writing this, the school board is meeting to vote on a mask mandate. At the very same time, a group of “concerned citizens” are meeting to put an end to Critical Race Theory and forced masking. These things are all outside of my control. I imagine it feels a lot like when a student walks into a classroom and has little to no say in what they get to learn and how they learn it, who they sit by and whom they work with. To put myself in their shoes is to find my focus and what little plan I have to start the year.
The environment I create has to be one in which my students feel safe and less panicky about the unknown. I want my classroom to be a safe and calming space for students who often have little to no control over what happens once they leave my room. I want to encourage them to learn and care about the world around them, with an understanding that not every day will be a good or easy day. I want it to be a space where we can respectfully challenge each other’s ideas. I’m not sure I can create an island of sanity just yet, as I have a lot more to learn about this philosophy, but if my students come to my classroom next year and feel safe and ready to take risks with me, then I will have made a difference and together we will plan for what comes next.
