handwritten on September 8, 2019
It's been a while since I've run down to watch the University of Pittsburgh warm-up before a game. But yesterday was almost the beginning of fall with crisp air and runners everywhere smiling and listening to the beats of life pass us by. And so I was more motivated to run that four plus miles beside the river. As I was running past the railroad tracks towards the stadium, I stopped and realized that as I was running to the left of the tracks, the cement barrier marked with graffiti and art held my silhouette which happened to run beside me, and I was reminded of Shel Silverstein's book poem about a little silhouette.
But as I tend to do when I'm running, I literally just let my thoughts...
handwritten on September 7, 2019
For those of you who teach elementary, you know the importance of placing the word in a sentence and then repeating the word during a spelling test. And for those of us who have little friends who have a difficult time focusing, sometimes those sentences are repeated three times over with a few variations just to ensure that the student has heard the word and the context.
This Friday, one of our words was "life" I believe. My sentence was, "I have the most beautiful life" One of my students-who tends to have a difficult time focusing in the moment responded seconds after with "We all do." Well if that doesn't move your heart, I simply do not know what to tell you...
And then, on the...
handwritten on September 6, 2019
There are little moments in life that just hit you and bring tears to your eyes. It's quite possible I have become more and more emotional as time has rolled by this year. But I think emotion arrives like a friendly breeze when you are focusing your life on becoming intentional.
I was driving home from work today-smiling a bit because I realized that it was almost Friday, and I certainly felt the need for a bit of a break. I was making a left after the 40th street bridge like I always do. As I was driving slowly down the lane, I spotted a tiny boy of about two years-old holding his mother's hand and looking very intently at me. As I came closer to them on the sidewalk near the stop sign,...
handwritten on September 5, 2019
I was looking through my old cards from student in the past, and I stumbled across a card from last year that I think may drive my spirit through the rest of my career. It read: "Dear Mrs. Amoscato, thank you for being such a great teacher. But also thank you for being my very best friend."
I always have to smile because I received a lot of teaching training through internships and The University, and I heard advice from countless people who would usually say the same thing: You don't want to come across as being their friend. You want to come across as being their teacher."
But truly, how can you possible create a global citizen of this world or a strong mentoring relationships without...
handwritten on September 4, 2019
I picked up my students a bit early from gym today, and I was able to get a glimpse into the gymnasium life as I watched my students work together on a pretty unique relay. There were four separate groups each trying to make their way across the ocean as they had to stay together, walk across a balance beam and then move the beam to the front so the next person could walk across. The person who fell would unfortunately require all members of the team to move their boat back to the beginning and begin again.
I'm unsure if this game had a name. I don't recall the gym teacher giving it one. So in my head as I was watching the teamwork happening in front of my eyes, I decided to call it "...
