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: Play
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.
January Watercolor
of spring, I love the crisp, clean colors of winter. The cold air seems to freeze every form in place: the red berries on the evergreens, the sleek black of the crows, and the silver icicles hanging from rooftops. I want to capture these images in watercolor, but I haven’t painted in a long time.
First Snow
How can we hold on to the wonderment snow brings? How can we see snow with the eyes of child again?
Working in the Wonder Studio: The Play’s the Thing!
In the Wonder Studio this month, the 5th graders have been busy creating models of tree houses, ornaments, carts, and a sundry of child-generated crafts. The thing that all the students like best about Wonder Studio is that no adult is telling them what to make or how to make it.
Working in the Wonder Studio: Self-Reliance
I know people sometimes look at the things the Wonder Studio makers have created and see just a mess of paint and glue and cardboard. But I see treasure, pure childlike imaginative treasure. And in that treasure, I see creativity, determination, and resourcefulness, which will stay with them a lifetime. And that makes all the difference!
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.
Maine Meditation
As I wind down my summer travels and wind up for the school year, I am taking this time to return to Maine in photos and poetry. I hope these images inspire you to breathe, relax, and rejuvenate.
Recharging
My energy is swiftly dwindling, and I’m trying to hold on to the little bit of reserve that I’ve been hiding inside myself. I find I need that reserve to be able to wrap up the year, and to get ready for summer re-energizing. I saw this butterfly mural in the town where I work, and I asked my friend, Molly, to take a picture of me with wings. I thought this image would help to remind myself of the importance of self-care.
Word Dancer: Literature, the Arts, & Education 