The Sunrise Story

I'm spending a long weekend with family. It started Friday night with dinner at my favorite restaurant, Red Rose.     Wait, back up...it started with time spent with my niece and nephew, playing games and having fun!   I'm here for a baptism. My sweet cousin Danielle and her husband, Henry, asked me to be Godmother to their beautiful daughter, Josephine. Time spent with my family is filled with laughter and giggles. It fills me up the way nothing else can. I'm savoring every moment of these days as I remember the words of Maya Angelou, "I sustain myself with the love of family."      Thank you to Ruth Ayres for providing this space for sharing our celebrations. Please join us and share your own!

Acting out as a panel of ballet experts on a morning show "Why are we still here? What else do we have to learn?" That question plagues me. It's difficult because students get mixed messages. The end of the year excitement and energy is hard to battle. I refuse to show movies. We make our time meaningful until the #lastbell. In communications, we are learning using improvisation. A brilliant teacher, Whitney Field  shared a presentation on using improv with middle school students this summer in the Northern Virginia Writing Project's ISI. I was skeptical as improv is very much outside of my comfort zone.  Working together as groups of three-headed experts As this year progressed, I kept my eyes and ears open for new and interesting things to teach and practice and learn in communications. A couple of weeks ago, I was reminded of improv and it fit perfectly. I've seen the silent students raise their hands to perform. I notice everyone participating and ...

Fourteen days left with the students. The school year is coming to an end. It's a time of wrapping up and closing and with that comes reflection. Thinking about where we started and how far we've come. The end of this year is different for me as I am packing up and leaving this school. This school where I discovered my true love...working with the middle school student. It's time. It's the right time. I've been offered an opportunity to open a brand new middle school, which is a new opportunity for me. I have all of the feelings that go along with transitioning...anticipation, excitement, worry, sadness, loss, and wonder. My challenge right now is to stay present in the moment with the students. I find when I'm able to do that, I am able to grasp the most joy.  Practically speaking, arrangements must be made to clean out years of memories and teaching, before I move. I've dreaded this, until last night when I heard a comment that stopped me in my tracks...

Time is at a premium as the school year draws to a close. Celebrations are easily missed, so I tried to collect  celebrations this week in pictures... Recess. Extra recess this week. What's better than recess? Bubbles at recess! We played and chased and giggled with the bubbles! Sick day this week. No voice. Sore throat. Exhaustion. What's the cure? Popsicles of course, the purple ones are the best!  National Notebook Day was this week!  We celebrated with some  extra writing time in our notebooks.   Time to write in the middle of the chaos of testing and wrapping up the school year. The moments of notebook time bring us peace and give us time to breathe!     Storytime in communications. We completed our debates and as a transition into our next unit, I asked students to grab pictures books. The room transformed. Students begging to read aloud their favorite from my collection (some brought in their own)...

I'm concerned. Worried. Technology is taking over. Technology, in and of itself, is not a bad thing! It's a valuable tool to acquire information and make connections that otherwise couldn't be made but it's taking over an imperative part of our lives. We are allowing it to take over our communication. I see it being used to separate instead of connecting. What do I mean?  Face to face conversations. Difficult and uncomfortable conversations. We opt for email or to share that news digitally. I'm getting frustrated with important information being shared digitally followed by frustration that everyone didn't "get the news". Important information needs to be shared face to face! Difficult conversations need to happen face to face. If everything happens over the lines of the internet, do we even need to be here anymore?  These are lessons I'm sharing in my communications class. We are practicing having conversations and negotiating and listening...

Tomorrow my sixth-grade readers take their state test in reading. In Virginia, the state tests are called SOLs. (Yes, I know. It stands for Standards of Learning.) We have been preparing for tomorrow. The day before is always a tough day. The tension is palpable. I answered questions...and there were a lot of questions! I gave them a pep talk...another one and then class began. They had choices today. 1. Make positive and motivational signs for test takers. 2. Complete practice SOL questions. 3. Read. 4. Write in your notebook.  Students were invited to do what they needed. I conferenced and checked in on their work and eavesdropped. I heard them whispering and planning their signs. I saw students reading silently and a few practicing for tomorrow with released test questions.  Class was relaxed and students were productive.   Part of my pep talk asked them, What story are you telling yourself? I wondered aloud if they are telling themselves that the...

This past Saturday afternoon, I traveled to a local middle school and settled in to listen to eighteen TED talks about difficult conversations. I left four and a half hours later inspired and motivated and educated. There's not enough time to share everything with you, so I'll share some highlights for me. Whitney Parnell spoke about creating allies and building bridges. Her talk started with this song she wrote. I was sobbing. Kwame Alexander was one of the speakers.  He always inspires when he speaks. His message was to be a SAY YES person. I laughed and listened and teared up as he shared his journey and experiences. After Kwame came the legendary, Nikki Giovanni! I have been reading her poetry since college. She's bigger than life. In person, she's sassy and irreverent and brilliant! My favorite thing is she walked on stage and gave her TED talk holding her notebook. I felt a connection with her as soon as I saw that! She spoke to write...