It is summer and I am vowing to play. Play with my colored pencils and play with my words. It is easy for me to play with words and share them. I've been doing that since I was four-years-old. It is warm and comfortable. It is more difficulty for me to play with drawing because I'm still at the beginner stage. Being a beginner takes boldness. Being a beginner one must cast away the trepidation and dive deep into play with abandon. Like the hummingbird it all starts with a flash of color, like the spring frogs - I've come out of hibernation and am ready to sing!
Category: Art
Summer Mindset: Unwind to Rewind
After this spring of remote learning, I’ve found that I need summer even more. I need that time to unwind to rewind.Â
Getting Wild in the Wonder Lab
I don’t think I have a very wild life, but I do have a wild mind. A few years ago, I was fortunate enough to be allowed to create a hands-on maker space in my school called the Wonder Lab. It is a place where elementary students come to work on independent projects and … Continue reading Getting Wild in the Wonder Lab
Invitations to Wonder…
Last week, Ruth Ayers invited her online writing group (SOS: Sharing Our Stories) to write about 7 small things. Instead, I chose to write about anger. Anger is not a small thing. Anger is a big thing, an explosive thing. It starts small and then grows. As I read some members' blog posts this week, … Continue reading Invitations to Wonder…
Something Beautiful
I've been thinking a lot about beauty lately. This spring and summer I was tasked with finding an assisted living facility for my mother-in-law. It has proved to be an arduous journey fraught with near-hysteria, even with expert advice from A Place for Mom, which I cannot recommend more highly! But I digress. I want … Continue reading Something Beautiful
Poet Found: Ross Gay
Back in February, I bought a slim volume of poetry because I loved the cover - a bright floral abstract and the title, Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay. I flipped to the first page - a poem about figs. Figs - my Grandpa Charlie's favorite and my favorite too. I often splurge and buy … Continue reading Poet Found: Ross Gay
Write the Poem
I used to take long walks in the woods and a poem would pop into my head effortlessly. The flow of my steps would jog something in my brain and images and ideas would come to me almost like magic. Lately, my life has been filled up with mundane things: weddings, newborn babies, elderly relatives … Continue reading Write the Poem
Write What You Notice
I recently attended a teacher's workshop presented by Penny Kittle at Rutgers University sponsored by Rutgers Center for Literacy Development. I've seen Penny many times. Usually, she talks to teachers about creating reading and writing workshop spaces in high school classes. Penny was a high school English teacher in New Hampshire and her mentor was … Continue reading Write What You Notice
Being Present to Joy
My colleagues worry about not having time enough to teach. They have so much content they need and want to cover. As a curriculum coordinator, I create tons of documents - benchmarks, scope & sequences, lists of standards by grade level to make sure we don't miss teaching one single skill or strategy. This is … Continue reading Being Present to Joy
A New Way of Seeing
I am an educator, writer, and artist-photographer. All those disciplines hold at their core visualization. For the educator and student, it is the ability to visualize the possibilities and set a course to invent and re-invent oneself. For the writer, it is to find a way to communicate ones’ visions to others. And for the … Continue reading A New Way of Seeing
Word Dancer: Literature, the Arts, & Education 