What do you think about in the shower?
I used to think about how to explain essays.
Most students didn’t want to hear it.
One morning, I thought of a star.
Stars have points. Essays have points.
The stars we learn in kindergarten have five.
Five-paragraph essays.
As I toweled off, it kept unfolding.
Each point a paragraph. Each line leading to the next.
When you draw a star, the last line brings you back to where you started. It closes the shape.
Closure.
I walked into class with it.
They watched, skeptical, as I drew a star on the board.
They filled in the points.
A main idea in the center. Support in each leg.
“Does it actually attach to the middle?”
A few days later, a student told me:
“I used that for my psychology paper. It really helped.”
In that moment, I knew it had.
And I was a teacher.