Tomorrow is my last day. I looked for the poem I thought would speak most eloquently to the role teachers can play. Bettye T. Spinner wrote this lovely poem. What if our classrooms were poetry meant to be lived and learned? It would speak to the wonder and awe of each day we spend with children.
In the ideal
it is harvesting
the work we do–
a reaping of crops grown
from ancestral seeds,
a gathering of first fruit,
from vines that traces their sources
beyond geography,
beyond gender,
beyond the bleach
and blush
and black of skin
and root themselves in watery grace,
in knowledge that nurtures us all.
In the ideal
our classrooms fill, like cornucopia,
overflowing with the bounty of our grange.
Life stories, heaped among the texts,
spill into hallways of our schools,
crowd the sidewalks or the subways
or ride yellow buses home,
altering the form of knowing,
changing heads,
changing hearts,
changing history,
bringing harvest
home.
About ivonprefontaine
In keeping with bell hooks and Noam Chomsky, I consider myself a public and dissident intellectual. Part of my work is to move beyond (transcend) institutional dogmas that bind me to defend freedom, raising my voice to be heard on behalf of those who seek equity and justice in all their forms.
I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. My dissertation and research was how teachers experience becoming teachers and their role as leaders.
I focus on leading, communicating, and innovating in organizations. This includes mindfuful servant-leadership, World Cafe events, Appreciative Inquiry, and expressing one's self through creativity. I offer retreats, workshops, and presentations that can be tailored to your organzations specific needs.
I published peer reviewed articles about schools as learning organizations, currere as an ethical pursuit, and hope as an essential element of adult eductaion. I published three poems and am currently preparing my poetry to publish as an anthology of poetry.
I present on mindful leadership, servant leadership, schools as learning organizations, how teachers experience becoming teachers, assessement, and critical thinking. I facilitate mindfulness, hospitality retreats. and World Cafe Events using Appreciative Inquiry.
I am writing and researching about various forms of leadership, how teachers inform and form their identity as a particular teacher, schools as learning organizations, hope, nonviolence and its anticipatory relationship with the future, as essential elements to teaching and learning.
Academic publications can be found at Ivon Gile Prefontaine on ResearchGate
Teacher as Transformer 
Perhaps it is a whole cycle of sowing, growing then harvesting in young minds?
Good luck on your new chapter in life. May your last day be rewarding and memorable.
It is I think Alex. We need that process in human life to provide the common sense of the community.
Thank you for your kinds words.
I understand..I have had lots of last days, but without the goodbyes , there would be no hellos.
Blessings, my friend.. . . . .namaste. . .. . Anne
True enough; first and last impressions leave lasting impressions. Thank you Anne.
you practice a noble profession
Thank you Paul.
Last day… and you indeed found this eloquent poem, that says so much. Wishing you well. Paulette
Thank you Paulette.
Enjoy your last day at school. Your new adventure awaits!
Thank you RoSy.
A last day is a very important opportunity. I hope you teach them something that they will never forget.
Thank you Shimon. First and last impressions leave lasting impressions.
I love how seriously you’ve taken your role of teacher. It is a highly valuable role in the world.
I hope whatever you do from now, you value also, and enjoy.
I am on the next leg of the journey as I began a PhD several years ago and it is calling my name. I am also considering publishing some poetry and other writing.
What a beautiful completion… bringing harvest home… good wishes for the next chapter of life…
Thank you Valerie.
Whatever will you do with all your ‘free’ time 🙂 Good luck in this new leg of your journey!
There is PhD calling my name and it wants to be finished. And, I have poetry and other things to write. Thank you so much.
Best to you as you begin a new chapter in your life. Enjoy
Thank you.
The opening of a new door…congratulations!!!
Thank you Mimi.
Have a wonderful day today. May the light shine on your path going forward!
It certainly has been, literally and figuratively.
…bringing harvest home. Congratulations!
Thank you Amy.
Ivon, have you heard the song: To Sir With Love? Brings me to tears every time I hear it. I heard it for the first time in many years yesterday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG49glGm2Xs There’s a wonderful message at the end of this video you shouldn’t miss. 🙂
By Lulu who also appeared in the movie with Sidney Poitier. I am showing my age. Thank you for the link Elizabeth.
Beautiful!
Thank you Naomi.
What a beautiful poem, and sentiment. I know you will continue “teaching” in many ways.
Blessings
teri
Once a teacher always a teacher is real. Thank you Teri.