I have been reflecting the past few days on recovery. Recovery means different things to different people, as we are all aware. It means different things depending on the extent of the recovery period. A weekend bender requires less recovery than a broken leg. Of course, this goes without saying. A person recovering from painful, …
You know those kinds of days. Another long day in a stream of long days. More issues to deal with, more meetings to be had. More testing to be done, more papers to be sent home. Just more of everything. And coming on the end of the school day, sometimes all you want to do …
Dear Counselor Down the Hall: In December, before the busy rush of Christmas, before the calm of early January (after the seasonal chaos), before the press of semester changes and reporting periods and term-end assessments and all that entails: I wrote a letter. My letter was written to a young teacher and it was …
I watch my daughters spin, spiral, turn, jump, leap. Gliding by on silver blades. One has just now mastered a move that requires her to make her skate boots form a 180 degree angle. Called an inside edge. Why there isn’t a more elegant name for something so beautiful completely baffles me. I find myself …
It was one of those nights. Home late from an after-school appointment, I grabbed a box of cardboard-thin mini-pizzas and a bag of fries out of the freezer in the hopes that no one would notice my lackluster performance as tonight’s leading chef. As I threw the un-nutritional meal of the day into the oven, …
Authenticity. It is a remarkable characteristic. And when that authenticity is combined with humility and grace, the possibility for greatness is within reach. And what of greatness? Is it defined by how high the reach or how far the circle of influence? How much one is lauded? And how often? Often, the student becomes the …
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 …
