handwritten on December 20, 2019
It has been exactly one year since the anniversary of a pretty awful car accident that occurred before my winter break last year and a pretty remarkable event happened today to mark that one year anniversary. Quite a journey it has been. So many lessons have been learned. Nothing held back. All dreams gone after without hesitation. A renewed sense of urgency but also realization of time's fleeting nature.
I found it only appropriate that today I write a letter to myself.
Dear Self,
It has been a journey to say the least. I’m proud of you for waking up each and every day since December 20th last year with a feeling that little things matter. That every day as long as we are here has the...
handwritten on December 19, 2019
Every year my students are generally given something special from me. I do write them a pretty long note because I find that words of affirmation are incredibly important (especially for a child.) I give them a little hot cocoa mix (which I believe I stole from my mother's large bag of classroom ideas) and I also purchase a desk light for every student.
And the purpose of the light is to be able to do work with the lights off and the colored holiday lights strung above us but the purpose is also to remember that while we are all covered in a whimsical blanket of colored lights, the individual lights that shine in our own hearts are equally as important. "Let your light shine" is the motto...
handwritten on December 17, 2019
I received such an exceptionally beautiful present from a student today. She decided to type up one of the poems she had written a few weeks ago, cut it out herself and place in a frame for me to keep. And with a season of hope on the horizon and a new year about to begin…I wanted to share it with you. If there is anything I have learned in my five years in the classroom it is this: there is a poet inside of each and every individual’s heart. But only those who really see the world around them are able to hear the words- and I believe as children, we are, most easily, able to see around us.
Based off of Emily Dickinson’s poem, here is one of my student’s study and analysis of “hope”
Hope...
handwritten on December 16, 2019
I walked into the class this morning and was amazed by how many students had absolutely no clue how to make a paper snowflake. In fact, I believe it may have been about 50 percent or less who truly knew where to start. I relished in this because we talked symmetry and design and shape as well as what various cuts will do when you open the snowflake up before you very eyes. But I suppose I got to thinking about the importance of paper snowflakes. I asked myself this question: What has happened to a world where we don’t know how to make a paper snowflake? Because snowflakes represent the people of the world and every snowflake as we know is nothing like the snowflake next to us. If we cannot...
handwritten on December 15, 2019
This morning we went to a small little cafe where we live for breakfast and as we pondered the people and drank the coffee and smiled while breathing in the aroma of a holiday spirits of sorts, it was all of a suddent time to go. As we were about to leave, the waiter looked at my rather full second cup of coffee and said, "You can't let that go to waste. I can put that in a to go cup for you." I smiled and nodded agreeingly and so I was able to carry that little cup of love along with me. And I carried it into Aldi and while lesson planning and even contemplating life later on in the evening. Only the simplest acts of kindness are able to be carried the farthest because they are unexpected...
