It is Valentine’s Day evening and I am just finishing up washing dishes- having made four cups of chocolate and two bags of popcorn as a bedtime snack for four kiddos. They sit now on the living room floor with that stash of goodies, plus various bowls of candy and chocolates besides. And that is …
To teach with heart- formidable task as that might be with the outcomes and core curricular goals driving our attention. But teaching with heart is the one, sure way through; it is the one way forward and the only way out for some of our students. Halted as they might be by circumstances, events, issues …
Parents, you are your children’s most important, most influential teachers. May you never forget this truth. I was sitting watching my own daughters at an athletic event recently. I had a text book in my lap, so you might say, I was killing two birds with one stone. It was one of those rare, lazy …
I was asked recently whether having children with learning disabilities as wholly included members of a regular classroom environment, detracts in any way from the learning of other mainstream children in the room. That is, whether or not it detracts from the education of those without disabilities. Normally these kinds of questions make me bristle …
I write through tears. Words fail me tonight. Thoughts of empty arms fill the mind and tug at the heartstrings. That empty void. That numbness. That overwhelming sadness. That loss. That blond, shaggy mop of baby-fine hair. Just sends me reeling, over the edge. A need for answers, for understanding. For wisdom, acceptance and hope. …
I preach caring as the underlying, fundamental reason for why I teach. It is what drew me into teaching. It is why I stay. It’s always interesting to know why a person feels strongly for or against something they believe. And the reason I am FOR caring- FOR seeing people as potential, FOR believing that …
Callie was her name. I remember her auburn hair. Her scrawny frame. Her risqué vocabulary- peppered with colorful words I wasn’t allowed to say at my house. Perhaps I was a little bit scared of her- perhaps I was even a little in awe. She was the community bully, came from the wrong side of …
It’s who we are when the world’s not watching that really matters. I have been blessed to know a teacher who unbeknownst to him has inspired me to keep on teaching. Even when I don’t always like school. Even when I don’t always feel good enough to be a teacher. Even when I fail and …
I saw you there today- so happy. Having fun with your friends. Being yourself. I admit, I was busy going over all of my kids’ routines- so I didn’t get to watch every single part about your practice. I didn’t get to see all your moves and tumbles. Cartwheels and handstands. Didn’t get to watch …
Dear Young Teacher Down the Hall, I saw you as you rushed past me in the lunch room. Urgent. In a hurry to catch a bite before the final bell would ring calling all the students back inside. I noticed that your eyes showed tension. There were faint creases in your forehead. And I asked …
I just had a moment. Until I turn 40, I will not refer to such as a senior’s moment. No, this was merely a parenting moment. A realization. As in one of those moments when you as a parent get to experience one extreme and then immediately go on to the next. Culminating in a …
I seem to find myself getting in the most trouble- the most predicaments, the most dilemmas and/or the most royal mess-ups/quandries when I am frantically racing. Racing, and not thinking. Which is to say ‘oops, I did it again’- there I go again, doing and saying things I wish I hadn’t. Omitting and forgetting that …
