When was the last time you felt joy, love, & aesthetic fulfillment?

In one of my classes, we’re reading Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy by Gholdy Muhammad. The book is great and Muhammad is brilliant. A definite must-read for my class as we plan for our future classrooms.

In Chapter One, Gholdy talks about ten central lessons related to literacy instruction learned from African American literacy societies. In the fifth lesson, she indicates that “Literacy was tied to joy, love, and aesthetic fulfillment.

We spent much of our class talking about whether it is the job of the classroom teacher to focus on building joy, love, and fulfillment in classes. We talked about how they might achieve this as they plan units and lessons for their students.

I finally asked the students when was the last time they felt joy, love, & aesthetic fulfillment in a learning environment. This stumped them all for a bit as they thought back. Several indicated that the last time may have been in elementary school.

We reflected a bit about the challenges of learning without identifying opportunities to excite students and recharge their batteries.

When was the last time you honestly felt pure joy? When was the last time you felt fulfilled?

What fills your heart?

This post is Day 10 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Want to get involved? Find out more at 100daystooffload.com.

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash