handwritten on April 6, 2019
This morning I scurried around the kitchen at around 4:44 AM. I was making casseroles and more casseroles and cutting potatoes and making more casseroles. And in this beautiful casserole frenzy I was reminded of two things: how fun it is to prepare food for others in the comfort of a home in the spirit of hospitality. And how just encountering the mere act of the sun rising really allows you to acknowledge and understand and appreciate the simplicity and yet complexity of the blessings of a new day. Watching that sun rise through the window just lifted my very being. Sometimes we need that reminder that days are individual entities with a rising and the falling of that same sun-no blurred...
handwritten on April 5, 2019
There are some days in which the pulse of one's heart and the heart of the world can be felt a million miles away. And the beat is loud and purposeful.
This afternoon around 2:00 PM, we stopped all class to conduct a "read-aloud" performed by our new student who had arrived from Mexico only four months ago. Since then, the beat of his voice has slowly become louder, more energetic, more confident and vibrant.
He chanted the class chant this morning with a beat of power: "I know I can. Be what I want to be. If I work hard at it. I'll be where I want to be." A smile on his face.
There was a bit of trembling in his voice when he began his reading. "The Big Hungry Caterpillar." He was ready...
handwritten on April 4, 2019
I was at Urban Impact tonight sitting on the third floor and one of the students experienced a nosebleed in the middle of a song. We went down to the first floor together to grab a drink of water, a wet paper towel and clean up his chin and the rest of his face. He seemed pretty unphased by the whole dilemma.
And sometimes when you are forced to take just a little break, you have the most wonderful conversations. We were sitting across from one another at the table and we were talking about school and the fact that he was in third grade and I am a third grade teacher. We talked about his friends and his favorite subject. I complimented him on his stellar improv drum skills to which he...
handwritten on April 2, 2019
I walked through the doors this morning expecting the usual. People passing by at the copy machine. Me rushing around trying to figure out plans for the day. Smiling children. Bells ringing. Shuffling feet. All of those things occurred this fine Tuesday but there were some some unexpected surprises.
Only five minutes walking to the copier, I realized one of my colleagues was crying. And she never cries. Apparently, her cat was incredibly sick and she was going to have to put it down today. With tears running down her face she apologized multiple times for crying. I always find it interesting that we as humans feel the need to apologize for our uncontrollable tears. With no cat of my own, I...
handwritten on April 1, 2019
One of my former students is currently the only poet to be participating in our Hartwood Elementary Public Seaking Event. She has been writing dilligently for weeks crafting her poem about the symbolic colors of the rainbow. And as I was reading her piece, I realized that she may have gone a bit too far because as we were talking about the colors of the rainbow, I found myself reading a stanza completely devoted to the color brown.
Now this student is filled with gumption. I'm glad she is because as I verbally questioned her piece, she looked at me with this surprised look on her face and said, "You don't get my rainbow? How could you not get my rainbow?" I said, "I get your rainbow,...
