Community

One thing that I do in my classroom is build community.  It's a non-negotiable.  This post isn't about that.

I live in Minneapolis.  It's important for me to be teaching in Minneapolis.  Specifically, I live in north Minneapolis.  For the past 10 years, I worked in a school in my neighborhood.  I was part of a specific community within Minneapolis.

In the thee days I've had the following experiences:

• I saw a student riding his bike as I walked from my car to church.  He waved and yelled, "Hey, Mr. Knaus."
• I saw one of the associate educators when I went to vote today.
• I got a hug from a former student, all grown up, while shopping at Target.
• I saw another teacher friend from the neighborhood on the same Target shopping trip.

All of that in 3 days.

I'm going to miss this.  I'm not moving to a school that far away.  It's still in Minneapolis but it's not in my community.  I'm not going to see my students at Target or church.  I'm not going to have those experiences.  Those mean so much to me.  I truly love it.