On why a teacher should blog after having done it a couple of years and wondering about why every single day...

My Ode , Teacher to Ether,
on writing of Teaching on a lonely blog

I wrote heartfelt to be blasted for heartfeeling.
I wrote as I am to be blasted for how I am,
I wrote from vulnerability -the position of the student, then to be told I made mistakes,
I wrote hoping to be seen and was judged,
I wrote to share about kids, and can't show them or use a name.
I wrote about my student that was murdered Larry King.
Four people sent responses, the invisibility of the invisible.
Who I wanted to say to me, I know, some, said nothing.
Who spoke held my heart awhile.
The grief of silences. This is my work teaching in poverty the immigrant and dispossessed.
The child of tomorrows stuck in the mud of todays.

In poverty, I tried to be this.
Heard. Writing to seek help.
I was derided for the way it was written. Long, wrong.
But I really wrote because it seemed a way, a possible way, to counter so many mis-perceptions,
To bring forward an actual person in all their inadequacy.

In the end what I think is the compelling reason for teachers to be here writing is to show who they are in all their variation to speak one to one another,

Speak to the ether,
Speak to parents and other folks about the work.
To make comprehensible the limits, the frustrations but far more important to try to show the actual child, even if one must disguise them for "safety."
This especially ironic, teaching in a place drive-bys and killings, molestations and physical abuse is only the real daily reality. Where school is safer, and a few pictures on a blog a liability.
As they picture real kids, learning, enjoying, evolving and show that which is always unseen.


It is through seeing the activities, lessons, the student interactions, as well as learning all the technical stuff to do a better job that I gain.

I look through my work seeing so much. To learn, I wrote
And then I saw, I am not much more than a thread....holding on.
For dear life in a current in white water rushing on.

To be heard.
This is why a teacher must be writing, might consider this avenue on-line because you speak of those with out a voice. Here we are.
And your work for them is to gain it. Voice.

Speak your truth to the ether. Maybe it will hear your cry.