My Thing

So today, along with 215 other educators, I sat and learned from Cris Tovani.  We sat and learned together for an entire day.  While I was sitting there, I wondered what non-teachers would think of watching over 200 adults geeking out over literacy and thinking about how we can best help our students to learn.

There is a saying for people who drive Jeeps, "It's a Jeep thing, you wouldn't understand."

Today, I would have to adopt this saying and say, "It's a teacher thing, you wouldn't understand."

I am guessing all walks of life and vocations have their  ________ thing.  When thinking about it, I know beer drinkers, beer brewers, beer memorabilia collectors, and antique beer item collectors have their conference.  As do people that geek over Star War, Star Trek, and other Outer Space shows and movies.  There are comic geeks, music geeks, and even people who geek out over collecting live amphibians.

I guess what I am saying is, if it is "Your Thing", it doesn't matter what others might think about it.  The world is a wonderful place when we can dive into our interests, have our own celebrities (yes, in education we have celebrities like Cris Tovani, Carol Jago, Kelly Gallagher, Penny Kittle, and the list goes on and on), and spend countless dollars on what means so much to us in our world, and our lives.

There is also room for us to be proud of our "Thing" and any accomplishments that we have had as we practiced our "Thing."

For me, today, it was seeing my name on a board listing the past presidents of the educational council that I belong to...the Secondary Reading League.

Yes, that is my name on that board.  Pretty cool...to me.

Be Mindful.

Peace.

Mark Levine

#Mindfulliteracy
@LevineWrites