In a sense...

Being a teacher can provide more learnable moments than teachable moments.

Take keeping up with preteen pop culture, for instance. Imagine where adults would be if they didn't have kids' conversations to overhear.  Thank God I have my kids' conversations to keep me up to date with the latest on Justin Bieber, "twerking" (don't look it up), and any new Disney Channel music videos like this one. 

A few months ago, I felt so honored to come to know a slang word via my children.  It was the day I began a  new organizational system in my classroom where the students were required to keep a more organized binder.  One of my kids referred to another kid's binder as ippy.  I immediately questioned the term, from which I received the 10-year-old definition of "something that looks cool."  Not quite done feeding my curiosity, I later came to view the entry at Urban Dictionary per the suggestion of a friend and found this definition:

       1. ippy: 

          Slang from Camden, NJ which means to look fly or well-dressed.

          He had on a fresh fitted, white tee, Roc-A-Wear jeans, and air forces lookin'
          ippy as hell.

Not only had I learned a new slang word, but it was also a new slang word from CAMDEN! Needless to say, I drop the word ippy in class from time to time (of course, with the disclaimer that if I see it in a paper it will amount to a zero).

What is even better than finding out about pop culture and even local slang is seeing the world through the eyes of your students.  Innocence has always been something I have appreciated, both in myself growing up and in the world around me.  What always amazes me is the innocence a child can have.  No matter what they've seen, no matter where they live, no matter how old they want to seem or be, children have an innocence about them that is contagious.  

I'll never forget one September afternoon when I happened to be the only teacher, for whatever reason, who took the kids outside for recess.  I remember sitting at a picnic table watching all seven (at the time) of my kids playing a cooperative, friendly game of tag.  I remember tearing up thinking about how adorable and innocent it was.  I didn't know then, but later came to find that the year would be full of cooperative moments such as that moment at recess.  As the year went on, I witnessed the classroom "troublemaker" graciously accepting help from the classroom "help seeker."  I see my students jump up at any opportunity to help someone out.  I watch kids look past their current situations and directly into their futures.  I entertain kids simply by having a car and a first name that they can identify as mine.  I have kids who hang on to every word anybody says to them, because to them, YOU are the hero. YOU are the celebrity. YOU are the one who can bring the world to them, and them to the world.

And, in a sense, I think that a little bit of innocence is needed for each and every one of these things.  Couldn't we all use some of that?