The word “anxiety” has been thrown around a lot over the last few months. Anxiety is a state of fear or apprehension about what is to come. It is the body’s response to stressful situations. For many, anxiety is high because of the pandemic alone. Not withstanding the changes in normalcy it has brought. One …
Hello Friends, Over the past days, which now total near weeks (a week and a half, plus one weekend, to be exact), we have not been together. This has been hard. Really hard. And over these days and weeks, your teachers, and educational assistants, and custodial staff, and bus drivers, and resource teachers and support, …
He is laying face-down on the floor, sprawled: his little arms crossed over top, one on top of the other. I am sitting about ten feet away, leaning forward, all the while trying to see the scene unfolding from my somewhat distant vantage point, at a bit of an angle. I pause, then plead, making …
I received an interesting comment this week on my blog, with regards to my viral post on what students remember most about teachers: “This is sweet talk about how important it is to relate to students’ lives. A certain amount of that is important or you can’t reach the students. It is also critical to …
Come look at me, they cry out. Little voices calling, tiny hands reaching for my own much larger one. Watch me on the money bars, the slide, the firepole. Watch me! Notice Me! See me! A little one comes up to me, (I know not who she is), but she has a sweet innocent …
I happened to come across the now-viral video clip of a little boy being asked if he would miss his mom on the first day of school. A question to which he promptly exhibits visibly with quick tears that ‘yes,’ indeed—he will. The shot shows him running into the safe arms of his mother, with …
Teachers have powerful stories to share. There are stories of triumphs and stories of failures—stories of everyday authenticity lived out within the trenches. There are stories of heroism, stories of realism. Stories of hope and inspiration. Stories that have been shared with many and stories that have been shared with one. These stories might not …
“The real heroes anyway aren’t the people doing things; the real heroes are the people NOTICING things, paying attention. The guy who invented the smallpox vaccine didn’t actually invent anything. He just noticed that people with cowpox didn’t get smallpox.” — Augustus Waters, in John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars We are almost there. …
It is disheartening, to say the very least, to realize yet again that the public’s perception of your work as a professional is characterized as being whiny, over-paid, indulged, lazy, self-centered and existent so as to be servile. I have spent the past number of years in deep contemplation of my teaching practice- writing, thinking, …
It is becoming very difficult for teachers across North America to convince the public of the need to fight for education, to support the deeply felt emotions and beliefs directed toward ideals and professional standards that we teachers have come to espouse. Why is this? When the issue at hand for everyone in the ‘real …
I wonder—what the world would be like if we were only able to see the best in the people around us. If we could just see through to the good that lies within. Wonder what it would be like if we were truly able to forgive. Truly able to let go. Able to release and …
“Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world; for indeed, that’s all who ever have.”- Margaret Mead The writing I do is largely about my vision of how attentive care impacts within the school system. Yet in my awareness of care that I ascribe to, I truly believe care is fundamental to …
