Learning Detours in Class

The board is still full of scribbles, my latest flowchart has an arrow that leads to the question about why we use semicolons, and my notebook filled with gadgets I never actually test is now on the desk, waiting for a future experiment. I kept reminding the ficus next to the window that its growth is a lesson in patience, and it leaves me smiling whenever I see its new leaves unfurl. I noticed a sign outside the classroom with a misplaced apostrophe and, with a red pen in hand, I fixed it, quietly, because even the smallest correction can be a gentle reminder that learning can happen anywhere. In the midst of the lesson I got distracted by a book on the history of punctuation, and I found myself explaining the difference between a colon and a dash to my notebook, talking to it as if it could hear, because sometimes the best explanations come from talking out loud to the quiet things around us. I’m grateful for every tiny mistake that turns into a detour toward a clearer understanding, and I hope the same detour idea helps my students and my houseplant grow a little stronger each day. #LearningDetours 🌱📚