I love learning.  I am pretty sure that I always have.  There is something really exciting to me about digging in deep to a new topic and learning something new.  Besides being able to chew on new things (and talk about them with other nerds like me!), I love being able to apply that knowledge to things in my classroom the next day.  And the next and the next.  I don’t learn something new and just use it for the next five minutes and then forget it.  I take that learning with me to new places and challenges.

So that takes me to the title of this post.  We’ve been talking a lot (focused in writing for right now) about suitcases.  Yep, you heard me: suitcases.  A couple of weeks ago, during our informational writing unit, we made this chart:

Look at all the things we’ve learned that we CAN TAKE WITH US to new learning situations in the future!

I’m pretty sure I have even shared this picture before, but it’s so great because it keeps coming up.  Over and over and over again.  Which is kind of the point, right?  You should continually be filling your suitcase so you can take all that fabulous learning with you wherever you go.  Today we talked, too, about how your suitcase can look like whatever you want it to–whether that be Harry Potter’s trunk, Mary Poppins’ carpetbag or Hermione Granger’s magic bag (that she can pull a huge tent out of!  WOW!).  That last visual was really powerful to my friends.

The thing I’m really aiming for, though, is when my friends start using this language for themselves.  That’s really when the evidence is there that they’ve internalized it, right?  When you’ve learned something really well, and understand it deeply, you start to use it in your conversations, applying it and then teaching it to others.  And so that’s what we’re working towards.  Helping our friends both learn to pick up their own suitcases and take them along their journey, as well as encourage their friends (wizards and muggles alike!) to do the same.

Have you talked about filling suitcases with your students?  What about your own kiddos?  Parents–have your kiddos told you about our conversations about taking learning along the journey?  What kind of suitcase would you choose for yourself? 🙂