With a desire to find other ways to understand how the teachers in my three generations of teachers understand teaching, I asked each one to write a poem. The three poems are displayed here. Please read them and see if there are any common threads.

Poems: Teaching : Taking Risks Teaching : Loves Rainbow

Taking Risks Teaching
Shirley Freed
Risk-taking
Wondering if connections can be made
Wondering if they'll get it!
Sometimes it feels like a major leap -
Niagara falls would be easier to go over
Than to assume I could help make the
connections between
What is known and what needs to be known

I must be a fool - to take such risks
Why??
It's the unpredictableness of it all
We come together
my students and me  
both anticipating - something  
It might be a drag
We might be bored  
Or together we might go over the falls  
Dive into the unknown
go places we  
haven't gone before  
to find once again
that learning and  life are about the same thing -  
Growing - changing - wondering -  
Never accepting the status quo

  It's worth the risk
Time and time again to believe that what I do
What I say, how I organize our time together
Could make a difference
Could make sparks fly -
Could cause the connections to take place    
Could result in learning!
It's addicting -
This teaching and learning phenomenon
When I believe in the innate desire to learn
I search to find ways to make it work
I can't, I won't, I don't give up

The magic is there -    
I know it is -
The fall may be gentle or tumultuous
But the landing always feels good
We've learned together    
I - as much as them