22 in Intentions for '22

I began this tradition of writing intentions instead of resolutions about a decade ago after reading a blog post rationalizing the word change...gives one more grace when one initially fails at a resolution.  Grace...a beautiful thing.

Wow!  22.  Twenty-two.  Better get started on that list!

1. Read Gone with the Wind.  I never have.  I am choosing this one as my Independent Read for Quarter 3.  Pressure...and assignment...is on!
2. Watch Gone with the Wind...only after having completed #1.
3. Lose 52 pounds...one pound a week.
4. More water...less sodas.  
5. Read an average of one book a week.  Hummm...see #1!
6. Read the Bible through...again.
7. Read The Christmas Carol and complete a Bible study connected to this book.  (AND I received another book regarding this same book.  Must be meant to be!)
8. Attempt to complete this book challenge:  52 Book Club's Reading Challenge.  Why this challenge?  To push myself to read books out of my comfort zone!
9. Read one professional read every two months.  I need to read one a month...but...  I have not grown professionally during this pandemic...as surviving became the goal and little energy or want-to was left to read books, other than ones of personal choice.
10. Re-read the Harry Potter books!  
11. Find good deals on books and buy/stock them up for 2022 Christmas gifts.  I gave books this year...and I have enjoyed doing so.
12. Give books as gifts for birthdays.  This one will take some planning, as birthdays tend to slip up on me!
13. Send birthday and thank you cards much more diligently!
14. Blog...more.  Write, reflect...just write.
15. Finish all the quilts I currently have started or promised to others AND make more quilts for others...and for me.
16. Paint.  
17. Put away and pick up...especially in my car and house!  Family gatherings will more often be hosted within our home; much less work to be more diligent about keeping it consistently presentable.
18. Focus on my One Word:  knowledge.  Maybe refer to all the above intentions that deal with books?!
19. Continue making time for my friend groups:  Meeting of the Minds and the Wildcats.
20. Be even more involved in ALA and WRLC...two literacy groups.
21. Spend quality time with the fam, especially The Man and The Daughter.
22. Create and grow even more beautiful flowers than I did last year.

Did you notice that many focus on books?  I just really like books!  2022...going to be a good year!

How about you?  Resolutions?  Intentions?  One?  22?!

A Model I Am?

Again, this year, I am asking/requiring my students to post to their blogs.

Again, this year, I continue to implement components from Penny Kittle's Write Beside Them.  Or am I?

For nearly all assignments, I do the assignment with my students, providing models for them, sometimes, to use word for word or, more often, as a guide on the side.  I have, too, have a class blog where I post here.  Yet. (Such a powerful little word.)  Yet...I seldom blog on my own personal blogs, often using time as my rationale.  Truth is that after teaching...still all day during pandemic guidelines...I often want to leave school at school.  Anyone get that?  Understand that?

Yet...writing here is a catharsis of sorts, one that has often been a healing time for me, a place where my thinking is tapped onto this blank canvas, and, while a work of art does not always develop, a result does occur that remains therapeutic for me.

Additionally, just have to say, hypocrites get on my last nerve...just bless them.  Yet...is that not what I am if I do not blog and post my thoughts?  Hummm...I see that thinking and tapping bringing thoughts and conviction to life.

Here's hoping that weeks, if not months, go by without my checking in here!

Sidenote:  Google removed blogger from student accounts.   Ugh.  I have yet to read a reason.  Thus, I implemented Plan B, which has resulted in a small delay of creating student blogs and in my decision to use Edublogs with my students this year.

2021-2022: Top Eight...so far

Eight days in...and having a great year, as we continue teaching in a pandemic.  Good to be back face-to-face!

For those eight days, a list of my favorite thoughts so far on this year and this group of students:

1. Great kids.  This group as a whole seems on track more and ready for the learning to begin.  Nice.
2. Books...all had a book checked out by day eight...and off we go on our independent read journeys.  My book?  One a student recommended as her most favorite book ever.  How could I resist?!
3. Ordered more books...always this is part of check out week as I do not ever have the exact titles or need more titles of certain books.  Speaking of that...need to order two more right now (I need to re-read Divergent series...and somewhere along the way the first in another series walked way.
4. Book Clubs...one boy, when I mentioned we would be reading The Crucible, asked for another book about the same subject.  I just happened to mention my paired text.  Before the conversation finished, two more wanted a copy of A Break with Charity.
5. Evenly numbered classes...meaning all my classes have about the same number of students.  Love this, as last year I had one with 29...and then one with five.  
6. Educators Rising...new name for the Teacher Cadets...and...wait for it...17 students signed up for the class!  These students either are future teachers or have some interest in learning about education (or the class was chosen for them!)...they total up to an amazng group of young leaders.  Yes.
7. All year-long projects are set up...except for creating their blogs...which will happen on Monday and Tuesday.  At that point, we are ready to dive into our first nine-week units.
8. New Schedule:  a modified block on Mon-Thurs and Fast Friday, where we meet with all classes.  I like it.  Days are a blur, which means, of course, that this year will again fly by!

I hope you have had an amazing beginning to a 21-22!  What have been your highlights?

Thirty Years Complete

That number...30...seems surreal.  As I left campus today, I completed 30 years of teaching in the classroom.  Amazing.  Blessed.  Chosen.  

Besides 30 years, 4000 students.

Besides 30 years, 5,700 paid days spent aspiring.

Besides 30 years, more days added to that number above, unpaid.

Besides 30 years, four school districts, four classrooms.

Besides 30 years, numerous teacher friends.

Besides 30 years, friendships in abundance.

Besides 30 years, adminstrative leadership guiding us. 

Besides 30 years, multiple preps each year.

Besides 30 years, lessons planned and presented.

Besides 30 years, hundreds of books read.

Besides 30 years, mistakes, too many, made.

Besides 30 years, goals achieved...and not.

Besides 30 years, never one paid vacation.

Besides 30 years, sick and personal days covered all needs.

Besides 30 years, in one pandemic taught.  Thank goodness.

Besides 30 years, living what I was born to do.

Besides 30 years, after June, ready to plan for another.

This list could go on, yet, if you have taught, you know:  there is no tired like that end-of-year tired.  For this reason, I pause here to rest and recline, for on this evening of day 5,700, my math has reached it max capabilites!

Amazing.  Blessed. Chosen.

The Return to Reading

Meeting and surpassing my 2021 reading goal I am!  Just click on the above 2021 Reading List to check out my titles thus far.

I question myself:  why so many books in such a short time span?  My love of reading has returned after having lived in a dessert entitled "Pandemic and Busyness."  After the atrocious first semester during which time was not my own, I decided...and since have affirmed...that I needed a diagnosis of normalcy.  Therefore, I committed again to reading one book a week, reading books I owned (still have bought plenty...for that is very normal!), and reading books I enjoy...yes, even fluff...and young adult...and suspense...with a few witches thrown in!

Then, that love of reading began to return...not because I needed to meet a deadline (book clubs often place that pressure on me!  Yikes!)...but because I absolutely love to immerse myself in a good book.  Now, I feel more like me than I have in a long time.  Yes!

One of my more recent reads The Distance Between Lost and Found (bought based on a student's recommendation) reminds me so much of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, both about a girl bullied who lost...and then found...her voice.  Books on this topic remind...oh, why do I need to be reminded?!...of the power of the bully and to evermore take a stand against such violence.

Also, I have read three books by authors from my home state of Arkansas...have bought another...and reserved a copy for another.  Such talent we have!  Here are the titles of the ones I have read thus far...all very good:

1. Vilonia Beebe Takes Charge by Kristin Gray - middle grade
2. Eventide by Sarah Goodman - young adult
3. Letters on the Table by Pattie Howse-Duncan - adult

I certainly hope your love of reading has continued...and should you have taken a break (of whatever kind or length), I encourage you to dive back in with a book that speaks to you!

Happy reading!

Going Virtual for Weather Days

 The last two days have reminded me of the hazards of going virtual...but first may I digress?

Snow days...don't you just miss the fun of a snow day?!  Our students certainly do as we have not had "a real good snow" since their elementary years.  They need one!  Last night we got ice and sleet...enough to cover streets and provide a fun outlet to make memories!  Memories they should be making...instead of Google Meeting with me!

But...may I digress again...my work is not so much they could not do both...have fun...and work...just a bit. 

But...should they have to do so?

Thus, hazard one.

Now, for hazard two...as I began checking my email...then, adding all contacts to a spreadsheet...I had such a powerful flashback to last year when we dismissed for what we thought would be a few days, weeks...which turned into the rest of the year.  A mini-PTSD moment.  No!  Not the same...but some commonalities.  I do not want to return there.

We have been hybrid all year, which has been both the hardest year of my 30 and, at the same time, the best, for we have quickly witnessed students rise to the occasion.  Kids are amazing.

Which leads me to hazard three:  I need to be ever bragging on these student heroes.  Not sure that I do that enough in the daily, weekly struggle to keep all things literacy going...so here goes!

Brag Board

• To Aidan, Kaleb, and Mitchell...you rock!  Working and guaranteeing their As.
• To Mersaides...catching up, working ahead.  Learning from the past and conquering the future.
• To Sarah...thinking how much can I put off until tomorrow...then deciding to finish today.
• To Bryson, Curtis, and Eli...pushing, encouraging, working on a snow day!  Powerful!

These hazards are minor.  For sure.  Just need to be ever working to turn them into Rewards One, Two, and Three.

Now, back to checking the emails and lending support on this very cold day in Arkansas!

Time to Sing

 At some point this week, I realized how little I sing at school.

Now, just to clarify, I am not the world's best singer...at all.  I just enjoy making up lines and changing lyrics to other songs, thereby personalizing them.

Therefore, I made the change, lifting up my voice, singing greetings, creating jingles.

When did I stop stop singing?  Here are my conclusions:

1. For the first time, this year, a student responded very negatively to my voice.  At the time, I did not reflect to realize that I may have let this affect me more than I should have. (I am sure this was NOT the first time for someone to not enjoy my lilting, Southern twang!)  Soooo...why this time?
2. Teaching in a pandemic is harsh!  Have you noticed?  Last semester was the worst of the worst in my teaching career (will not have another...but that is another post...or is it?).  I allowed this pandemic to take away some of my joy.  Stop.  Stop it.  Right now...or last week...as I began to sing.  Again.  Loud.  Proud. Just singing.

What has this pandemic taken from you that you need to return?  Do it!  We win!