Then I started getting compliments from some teachers about how they like the tree so much and how I should decorate it for the holidays. They didn't even bother reading the leaves, and they thought it was simply for decoration. This angered me, and I considered taking the tree down, since I don't want to be perceived as that teacher who just does things for show rather than also for substance. I was three seconds away from going Johnny Anti-Appleseed on that baby until a lovely coworker of mine convinced me to keep the tree up.
You see, we are building our writing program, and we have an upcoming poetry celebration that, in its inaugural year, involved a "Poet-tree" where students could submit reflections on poetry or even some writing of their own. Why not save the tree for this purpose?
Until April, though, I needed a way to make the tree less decor, more rig-or. Solution: celebrate writing and make it pretty at the same time. Show and substance married and living happily outside my door, where I can quickly bark at students who even think about leaning against it or carving their graffiti initials into the trunk. I began with students in my Creative Writing class. I had them go back through their journals and find six lines of which they were proud. They then wrote them on strips of paper (their color choice), and when they were finished...
A display that is both pretty and supportive of a writing curriculum. What's better than having students reflect on their own writing and celebrate their successes?
Another few teachers are going to add their own students' submissions to the tree to make it blossom with even more writing beauty, but this alone makes me feel better about our hall's aesthetics (which was already great to begin with).
