JumpStart National Haiku Day (4/17/23)

Main Idea:  Where I work through the concept of "You are enough."

To be completely honest, I’ve always had a bit of a “hmmm” + *scrunchy face* reaction when it comes to the phrase, “You are enough.”

I mean, doesn’t ‘enough’ imply you’re not quite there yet?  According to Mirriam-Webster, the second definition is ‘fully, quite”. The third definition, “in a tolerable degree” was more what I had in my mind when I scrunch my face. Without going down a semantics rabbit hole, let’s agree to use “fully, quite” as the definition behind this phrase’s intention.
Then I read an interesting blog post by Makeda Pennycooke on ‘What Being Enough Means’. She writes that it means: 

1. Imperfections are celebrated
2. ​Mistakes are allowed
3. Growth is welcomed
4. Support is given and received
5. Permission is granted

As I leaned into Ms. Pennycooke’s writing and contemplated Mr. Blake’s quote, I remembered when I first learned about using non-examples as a way of defining something. I was in a first grade classroom as a tech coach helping them make books on iPads about amphibians. One of the pages the teacher required was a non-example. #mindblown! I was not taught about using non-examples as a junior high teacher, but what a useful tool!

This week, try this: I think that remembering you’re enough is partly a stand against perfectionism (see JumpStart on this topic). The next time a student asks you, “have a written/run/done/whatever enough?” ask them what more than enough might look like.  OR, think about this: “Am I more than enough?” / “When am I more than enough?”

Quote:  "You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough."  ~William Blake

Educator Resource:  Lose the Very - OK, so this isn’t necessarily SEL-related, and it’s most likely the ELA teacher/writer/tech coach in me that geeked out, but it’s a simple, handy tool when you’re looking for a better word than ‘very something’. For example, very + pretty = statuesque.

Dad Joke:  I found stir fry all over my bed this morning.  I must've been sleep wokking again.