According to some recent research, 66% of teachers want to leave education and 41.3% of new teachers leave teaching within the first five years on the job. Given those numbers, I feel quite successful. I must have a secret, some ancient wisdom I can bestow on my fellow teachers.Â
Category: Photography
Belonging
BELONGING - Oxford defines belonging as an affinity for a place or situation. Webster says it means a possession or a close or intimate relationship. I’ve been reflecting on what it means to belong this week. I am getting older. I could and have said this at any age, but now approaching sixty-five, now it is a very true statement. I feel it, especially with the holidays upon us and my family members quarantined and scattered across the country. Actually, I have yearned to belong since I was quite young. It’s a human thing. We all need connection.
Magic & Imagination in a Box
Magic & Imagination in a Box - A few weeks ago, one of my colleagues showed me the great gallery of objects her 4th grade students had created. I decided the 4th graders each needed a box of objects with which to create - fidgetneering boxes.
Signs of Fall – Listen, Look
I turn to nature for solace, observing the season’s steady change: her flamboyant turn from green to scarlet to amber to tangerine, and the final turn to gray and rusted brown. I seek beauty in the decay.
Song of the Sky: Some Thoughts on Clouds
Songs of the Sky: Looking out towards the horizon, the sky and sea seemed infinite. Maybe that’s what intrigued Alfred Stieglitz about clouds: their ever-changing shape above Lake George and reflected on its surface. For over a decade Stieglitz photographed clouds. He first called his cloud work, Songs of the Sky, after the music he could surely hear as they drifted.
Finding Paris
I’ve been missing that sense of adventure this summer, and so I’ve found that I have been traveling in my mind through reading books. For the past several weeks, I’ve been in Paris by way of Hemingway.
How Does Your Zen Garden Grow?
As I look towards the end of August, cognizant that my new school year is on the horizon whether it is virtual or in-person, I am committed to keep cultivating my own garden. By this I mean I want to keep in the forefront of my mind, my health, my writing, my artistic expression, and my connection to friends and family. It has not always been easy for me to have clear boundaries between work and my personal life. For decades, I put my work before everything else. Oh sure, I talked about balance, but I really didn’t know how to achieve it. How do I juggle a great jumble of responsibilities? How do I prioritize? What do I need to do to be successful? I struggled and struggled with these questions.
Experience of Place
For the past thirty-six summers, my husband and I have been fortunate to be able to wander and travel around the country – our beautiful diverse country: mountains, plains, deserts, and coastlines. Most summers are now spent in the Green Mountains of Vermont or the White Mountains of New Hampshire, or the rocky coastline of Maine. This year is different. Very different. This year is a summer of home and schoolwork. As I look towards the fall, I yearn for those wondrous summer places. I look back at photographs and remember.
Someday Soon
I definitely need more happy anticipation in my life right now, so I created my own Someday Soon Jar and will start to write my ideas down. Of course, my jar is an empty tissue box instead of a beautiful glass jar, but I don’t think that matters. What matters is hope and the joy of happy expectation.
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
Word Dancer: Literature, the Arts, & Education 