Engaging Literacy by RE-ENGAGING with the World Around Me

Re-Engagement with the NOW!By Kathryn E. Jennings, M.S. Ed.

At one time in my teaching career, seven years ago to be exact, I felt pretty darn confident in my ability to lead youth into expressing themselves using English Literature and Composition.

Reflecting back on this blogpost from 2015, I now have 2,000 followers on Twitter, have a blog in the works, share via Google+ and have many connections through LinkedIn.The world is not going to stop getting more techy and more connected, so we have 2 choices:

• Let the world go on without us, or

• Engage with the world!

However, here I am five years out, and I am starting over! Yes, I have taught the last five years, but I haven’t taught English–HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH! This subject is one of the most beautiful on the planet…it brings in every subject, every interest, every opinion… WOW! I am pretty passionate on this topic, I must say.

However, at this very moment, this very second, I feel absolutely and utterly terrified. Terrified of what?

Terrified of the unknown,

terrified of failure,

terrified of passion for what I am teaching

–terrified…plain terrified!

Yep, that pretty much covers it!

You see, at one point in my teaching career, I could catch every escaped comma, every misplaced modifier, every disagreed verb or antecedent or subject, every disconnected thought–everything!

I was the Queen of Grammar, with no fear in the world! My alumni students will tell you…they had nicknames for me! Yep, I was proud of the titles I was given–especially now when I hear the thank you’s that have been passed along my way.

Now…I feel like a freshman in college! I feel like I am starting over!

Well…

I AM!

Could I go on and gather all of the stuff I taught when I was a rockstar high school English teacher? Could I just teach my old stuff?

Yep, I could!

But would it be right?

Would it be easier?

Would it be effective?

Well, here is  a confession

–since I am so well-known for these–

I have never taught exactly the same stuff more than a year in a row!

Why? Isn’t that a lot of work?

Yep!

But…

It is fun!

It is what you need.

It is what I need.

I  change what I am teaching based on what is going on RIGHT NOW!

When I teach a story I have taught before, I refer to a different literary connection–it is never the same…maybe a movie I just saw, a song I just heard, a tweet I heard about…I change based on what you need to hear, what you can understand.

It sure sounds like I love what I do.

Yep.      I    DO!

But, man, it is hard.

It is terrifying.

It is a brand-new adventure…EVERY

STINKING

DAY!

So,

here is to spending the rest of my summer

pinning,

blogging,

tweeting,

reading,

writing,

listening,

watching,

vine-ing (is that the term for searching through Vines…I mean, we say YOU-TUBING and GOOGLING, right?!?!),

and whatever else I need to do to get caught up.

Caught up on what is interesting, what is happening RIGHT NOW!

So, best of luck to you, MY new 155 students…may this year be as much of a year of learning for you as I KNOW it will be for me…SCHOOL IS IN SESSION for the ol’ short red-headed vivacious teacher…Jennings (yep, I said that too–I left off the Mrs. part…why? Well, you do anyway…and times are a changin’/ Oh, times, they are a changin’).

Happy Networking! @engagedliteracy