There's an energy in the room that these kids have when Mrs. Teacher 2 isn't around, and that energy transmits right into me as well. At first I thought it might have been that they think I'm softer than she is so they were more talkative and rambunctious, but I've come to believe more that it's because she bores them to death. So when they see the possibility of not sitting through English class with her, they're so excited that they can't help themselves.

Energy is going to manifest itself in the form of heat, light, sound, or motion. Kids are amazing containers of energy and can transmit it in all of these forms. As teachers, we need to be able to help them change their energy from one form to another in a way that makes our classrooms energizing places for all of us. We need to be able to reflect their light back to them and make them see their lightness themselves. We need to direct their sound in ways that it can be received. We need to turn their motion into work.

And we need to help them find energy that they can take with them after they leave our classrooms.