Let’s Do Lunch!
I know, I haven’t been as faithful to the whole #reverb11 challenge this year, but I try to responsed to those prompts that inspire an immediate blog post. Today’s was such a one: Lets do lunch! - If you could have lunch with anybody, who would it be and what would you like to discuss? As much as I’d love to lunch with @aplayfulday, @caithnesscraft, and even @hoxtonhandmade if she’d have me, I know if I only had one chance to choose a lunch companion, it would have to be an author. The prompt didn’t say living so for about 30 seconds I flipped through my list of favorite authors over the centuries, but as much as I loved the novels of every author I thought of, I didn’t think any of them would be much fun at lunch....
Business as Usual
What with the hectic holiday season and the time dedicated to the last podcast episode, I haven’t kept up with #reverb11. However, when I received today’s prompt in my email, I realized that ever there was a prompt I should respond to, it’s this one: Teaching Moment - Sometimes we find teachers in the most unexpected places. Who surprised you as a teacher this year, and what did you learn? I came to teaching from industry in January 2003 and started in my present position on my birthday that year. When I tendered my resignation, so many people told me I was making a mistake. I’d made it to middle management before the age of 40 after a 5 year hiatus as a full time mother, held a high stress yet highly rewarding job at a logistics...
Laughter
In order to survive the last decade, I resorted to humor more often than not. I’m sure I’d be serving a long sentence for at least one felony conviction without it! Adult bullies, TPS reports, an ever changing curriculum, a 10.5% reduction in take home pay, the list is long yet it’s just another day as a teacher in New Jersey. I think most of my peers would agree what gets us out of bed in the morning, sits us down at our computers on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, and out to a school event on a Friday evening is the students. They make us laugh, cry, scream, and cheer 180 days throughout the year! I’ve shared photos taken by Caiti Borruso on this blog before, and last week she took one of another student that makes me laugh every time I...
A Moment Captured
Relish11 Day 5: Even in this innovative age we live in where we all seem to have our camera phones with us at all times, there are going to be moments that simply don’t get caught on film or pixel. What was one such moment, that you know lasts in your memory right now, but that will fade as time goes on? Describe it here, as if you have the photo right in front of you. I see my parents 3 times a year: spring break, a week in the summer, and a long weekend this time of year. Not a lot of time when they are entering their eighth decade. As a child, my parents documented every moment with their camera and filled many an album with posed pictures of my sister and I at various milestones. When I read this prompt, I immediately thought of an image from our visit...
Life as Art
Relish11 prompt (day 2): Our lives can be as much about consuming as they are about creating, it seems. But what is most interesting in hindsight is what we have given life to as we went through the course of our days. It doesn’t have to be literal art, like a painting or a poem (though those are beautiful and essential too). Consider what was a creation of your own mind this year. What art did you make? Since I started #reverb11 with a response to Gwen Bell’s abrupt departure rather than the first prompt “One Word”, I’ve decided to combine that prompt with the one above from #relish11. On the one hand, I love all the options and variations that have sprung up to fill the void left through the absence a unified #reverb11 community,...
My Children Will Do It Differently
Reverb Day 2: If you could choose one thing that your children will do or experience in a different way than you have, what would it be and why? I have two children, a senior in high school and a sophomore in college. As I write this, I’m thinking of everything I should be doing like lesson plans, laundry, holiday shopping, paying bills, and all the other routine tasks that take so much time away from those we love and the things we most enjoy doing. I feel guilty devoting time to this blog post when my lawn is covered in leaves and I have no clue what I’m doing next week in my classroom. This is no way to live. If there is one thing I want my kids to experience differently it’s the joy of doing what you want to do without the insistent...
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