Over the years, I have had moments as a teacher so memorable they have left a significant, lasting impression. Imprinting forever in my long-term memory the emotions that were felt when that experience occurred. I remember a particularly difficult teaching assignment in which I took over a short-term social studies position at the high school …
It matters how you treat people. It matters how you live your life, how you do your job, treat your friends, speak to your kids, care for your animals. It matters. And it matters that you infuse love into what you do, through each and every seemingly small moment of the day. Even if those …
Eleven ways in which I realize the Family has spent a bit too much time together lately… 11. I suggest that the Fam go snowshoeing at Trout River and Oldest Daughter states, “Sounds like death.” 10. I suggest that we all go snowshoeing at Trout River and youngest says, “But I would only have …
I have never before attempted making donuts. They are too big a project- all those tricky steps, complicated instructions. Added to this, I have to admit: the real reason has always been that donut-making is too messy- the grease and flying fat. Yuck. And aren’t they too time consuming, don’t they have to be rolled …
Lately, I have been living my life either five minutes ahead or five minutes behind where I ought to be. It’s like I am either rushing too fast or moving too slow. In all, I am not thinking/living in the moment like I feel I should be if I was to be living up to …
I have written a lot about teaching and what’s important, but I would be remiss to not emphasize the reason I feel so strongly about creating a caring ethic within the classroom and school. And for me, that reason is very personal. And I certainly do not apply this reason as a blanket explanation for …
I am seeking to make my own journey in education one that is characterized by love. By empathy and kindness. By an overriding influence of Care. In order to have a Curriculum of Love as the guiding light within our classrooms, we must acknowledge that we are part of a vast connection of interconnections- even …
Minus 37 with the wind chill factor. That one hour school delay affording the buses an extra hour off for idling- it should have been the ticket, really. There I was. Bleary-eyed from a night of restless sleep- worried over deadlines to come, papers to write, classes to teach and examinations to prepare for, jarred …
There is a pink Littlest Pet Shop kitten cuddled up in the Virgin Mary’s lap. It is sharing a spot with baby Jesus, vying for the most coveted spot in the nativity scene. And I found presumptuous Her when I was picking up the umpteenth dozen leftover toy there in the fireplace room tonight, toys …
Me (on my way up to the bathroom with the phone in my hand): “Guys, I am going to make an important phone call to someone VERY IMPORTANT. I am going upstairs to make that call. Please do not fight or scream while I am on the phone.” Oldest Daughter: “Well, that’s offensive….” Two minutes …
I might just be the world’s worst hospital advocate for my sickish children. Not to say I always was: just saying that with age and experience also comes both insanity and exhaustion. And deterioration. Mental breakdown. Brain cell reduction. Which is to say that I think my brain has (obviously) lost a little of its …
This was me last night at supper. Or rather. This was me SANE last night at supper (politely asking for a pat of the yellow stuff, since I had been so kind to make the meal): “Could someone pass the butter, please?” Din of voices. Outright, blatant ignoring of the Mother Lode. General mayhem. And …
