Loop De Loop

       As I entered the building this morning I saw the mother of one of my students from last year sitting in the lobby, intensely texting on her phone. She acknowledged my entrance with a raised eyebrow, but did not look up. I put on a big smile, gave an enthusiastic greeting and sat down to ask about her summer and her son. She continued to text and answered a flat "Fine," to all inquiries. I wanted to tell her how I had been thinking about her son a lot and had some ideas about how we could get him moving more during the school day so his excess energy wouldn't impact his behavior in the classroom. But I held back. She did not seem interested in anything I had to say.
      I am about to start the second year of a "loop." I taught 24 second graders last year, and I will teach most of those 24 students, now third graders, this year. I have never experienced a "loop" (indeed, I have never taught the same grade level in the same school twice, not to mention the same kids), but I am very excited about it. I am starting out the year knowing my students, knowing my families. The kids know my expectations and our routines. I feel ready to hit the ground running with most of them. Today it took us less than a day to set up our classroom; we already had a sense of what would and wouldn't work in the space. The potential of the loop is profound.
     But there are drawbacks to a loop. On that rare to common occasion when a student does not like the teacher, or worse yet that the parents do not like the teacher, heading into the second year of a loop can bring a lot of anxiety. With a fresh new class there is generally optimism and excitement. You may not know what it's going to be like, but you can hope for the best. But with a loop, when you are faced with the same teacher, room and classmates as the year before, there can be trepidation. It may be that the teacher does not meet the needs of a student. And there they are, for another year.
      In the moments that I waited for this mother to look up from her cell phone and engage with me, I realized that she must be feeling this trepidation, or at the very least disappointment. I never quite figured out how to best support her high active child last year. And there are others. There is the kid who continued to test low in reading, the one who struggles with attention and handwriting, the girl on the autism spectrum. There are others, too, who grew and excelled last year and whose parents are tickled pink. The majority of the class, I would guess, are excited to return to our "loop." But when I sit down to family conferences next week, I imagined I will have to do some pretty fast talking about how this year is going to be different than last. It has to be. It's my job.