The girls learn about sewing, making mistakes, and perseverance. I learn about how these students approach a task: how they plan, how they organize, and how they problem solve. I also learn how to help them when they are stuck and what motivates them. I have come to understand how important this half-hour is for them as students and for me as a teacher.
Category: Photography
Seaworthy Summer
These few days by the sea are important part of my school life. I need these days, I long for these days, I use these days to ready myself for a summer filled with travel, reading, art, and self-reflection.
Walking Towards Summer
The third week of May is approaching. For school that means spring testing is done, spring conferences are coming, children are restless, and teachers are restless. We see the end, but it isn’t quite here. It’s not that we don’t enjoy learning and teaching. It’s purely that we are tired. We need a rest. We need to rest our bodies and our minds. We need that warm summer sunshine, not this rainy spring.
You’re Invited to a Poetry Party!
his year, I will be published in three anthologies, so I thought, "It's time to read in front of an audience." I chose well. I chose our 2nd through 5th grade students. Deb, our school librarian, was encouraging, and we set a series of times in the library when I can be the guest poet.
Cozy Comfort on Blustery Days
Weekend winter days allow me to have time to paint, read, write, cook, and nap. All the things I enjoy and need to nourish my spirit. This weekend I spent most of my time reading, writing, and napping. I was slow to rise and allowed myself a late start. When I emerged from the layers of comforters, I went right to the stove to put on a kettle for tea and a pot of water for making oatmeal.
First Snow
How can we hold on to the wonderment snow brings? How can we see snow with the eyes of child again?
The Light Still Shines
When December comes, the light in the sky dwindles; days are shorter and night is longer. We walk in the dark now with the cold settling deep in our bones. It is dark by 4 o’clock, and we still feel like we have the whole day ahead of us, but the light is gone and with it our energy.
Autumn Affinity
Autumn is a season of loss. The leaves change color, dry, and fall from their branches. The trees become temporary skeletons and the sky turns smoky gray. There is a quietness that settles in like the cold. It is a time to go inward, to remember and to be grateful.
Pumpkin Time Celebrations
I love October in the Northeast. Green turns to gold and orange, and deep plum. The outside world is burnished a tawny brown. The smell of pumpkins and apples is in the air. Fall is a time to celebrate the harvest and the bounty it brings. The leaves blow off the trees heralding the coming of winter and the anticipation of snow.
Small in Your Presence
Recently, I've been reading Rilke, specifically Books of Hours: Love Poems to God, and as I was reading, this poem came into my mind. The small things, the things that sometimes seem inconsequential, often turn out to be essential to lifelong contentment.
Word Dancer: Literature, the Arts, & Education 