A Room of Their Own

5th period comes fast. Creatively organized, at my school fifth period is broken up into four segments - a rotating arrangement of lunches, reading periods, and classes. It's also the time when RISE floods with alumni, friends, and current RISE students. They bring lunches on trays, backpacks, and winter coats. They plop down on bean bag chairs and they talk. It is tempting to work through it - the students are engaged and happy - but recently I've been throwing myself down on a bean bag, as well. I listen mostly, encourage positivity, provoke. I say again and again, "this is your space." Way back in graduate school, Virginia Woolf told me that we all need room to grow. Recently, I've seen proof.