Awesome. To be or not to be.

My 6th graders are work quite diligently right now, which I'm very impressed with, on research papers on a possible future career they've so willingly chosen. The career research paper idea was generated from a conversation I had at the gym one morning with a former principal. That meeting in and of itself would produce quite a lengthy report.

There's a lot on my mind right now as I watch them write quietly. They're good writers. They're deep thinkers, many of them. They're overflowing with revolutionary ideas. They have so much potential and I sit here in silence dreaming of what they will do one day that will make the world a super place. It's already week 9 of my student teaching. Sometimes, it seems like these 9 weeks have felt more like the slow defrosting of a wintery wonderland, but on bright days like today I don't mind the wintery wonderland and I'm not ready for the next season.

This morning I felt inspired to show my kids this video. Again. Maybe today was the 3rd time, or maybe it was the 6th. I don't really remember. But I needed it. My senior project has been clouding the blue skies for a while now, and it was time to think about a bigger deal. A bigger picture. Not the seasons, but the eons.

What will YOU create that will make the world AWESOME? 

It's been a long journey. I've taken a few familiar looking paths and some not so familiar. I'm not sure I'm ready to recognize all the paths, yet. But I do want to do something to make the world awesome. I want my students to do something to make the world awesome. It makes me wonder what I'm doing right now. What am I creating, now, that is making the world awesome? Are my actions influencing my students to be awesome? I'm afraid, at this moment, to answer these questions.