This was our last week at Wellington Middle-High School. And I am really happy with the outcome of our lesson. We had to change the daily and overall expectations a few times relative to the schedule changes and large number of absences, but the students made some incredible work. I couldn’t be prouder of them.

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Since developing the lesson and seeing it play out, I have reflected a lot on what home means. How we, in the West, use house and home interchangeably, and what the elements of your imaginary home say about you. One student I talked to this week had a house that looked like it had been taken from real life as opposed to the more imaginary houses other students designed. When I asked him about it he talked about building this house with members of his nuclear and extended family. He went into detail about which family member did what and how long it took and how all the lumber was gathered from the local forests. He was so animated while talking about it. It clearly meant a lot to him that his older family trusted him enough to let him help. It made him feel grown up. I don’t know if that is the house he lives in or if other family members live there but that doesn’t matter as much as the memories and lessons that came from building it.

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That conversation made me think of the things I learned and did at home that made me feel like a grown-up. Like the first time I successfully cooked a yummy meal for my family, or when my grandma trusted me to paint her patio table and chairs any way I wanted, when I got my own room, my own tv to put in that room, decorations to make the room feel like mine. When I used my own money for my first job to buy something, every time I take my siblings out to a movie or for ice cream. Home is a million other things besides the structure you reside in.

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If I had to tie this thought process to a teaching theory, it would probably be social-emotional learning or trauma-informed teaching. Home is not always a source of happiness and growth. Sometimes home is a place students need an escape from, they need a safe place where they can be authentic to themselves and surround themselves with people who will give them the love and support they don’t get from their families. As someone who needed that as a student – especially in high school. I was and still am eternally grateful to the teachers who made their classrooms safe places for me and my peers. They made school feel a little bit like home and it was important and comforting to know that some adults knew me and supported me no matter what I chose to do or who I was. They truly wanted to see me happy and successful in my own way.