The Adventure Led Me Here

You only need to spend five minutes with a group of five-year-olds to realize that they are natural explorers, questioners (look up the statistics for how many questions a day a child that age asks!), and storytellers with an innate sense of wonder.  The world is big, and they are eager to find out more and make sense of it. In an article I recently read about asking beautiful questions (link at the end), it quotes Neil Postman as saying, “ Children enter school as question marks and leave schools as periods .” This is perhaps one of the saddest statements I’ve read about education in awhile. There have been countless studies conducted about the role of play, wonder, and questions in education. In spite of the research support, however, so much of education falls into the “one size” fits all trap of standardization. Although there is a shift towards critical, creative thinking, it is not complete or fully embraced yet within the structure of education as a whole or reflect

 If there was an award for packing skills, I wouldn’t place. In fact, I wouldn’t even be invited to the competition. It was a comical sight to watch me attempt to pack up my classroom at the end of this school year in preparation for moving to a different room in the building. My packing methods ranged from dumping out the contents of my desk onto the floor and sorting through it to dancing to musical theater soundtracks on a table while removing staples from the wall to wearing a tiara while scrubbing my whiteboards.                 It’s slightly sobering to see the entire year packed up, the memories, challenges, and joy tucked inside the tiny confines of cardboard boxes. My second year of teaching came to a close as I waved to the yellow school buses chugging kids home for the summer.               In many ways, switching grade levels felt like being a first year teacher all over again. Although I had more strategies than when I first started, there was lots to learn (inclu

                January first has always felt like a day to approach with vigor, enthusiasm, and unbridled expectations. For many years, I would carefully select a new notebook with colorful designs on the color. Pen in hand (because pens signify a true level of commitment), I would scribble lists of resolutions, goals, hopes, and dreams for the coming year. This was going to be the year anything could happen, so some of my goals may have been more realistic than others.                 I’ve shifted away from the two page lists of expectations and towards choosing a word to embrace and focus on for the year. However, I am still in love with the beauty of possibilities that the feeling of a new year brings, the hopes to cling to freely for both myself and for you. Here are some wishes and dreams I have for you for 2017:                 An Ocean of Possibilities I hope you grow. Growth can be painful, messy, and unpleasant. These past few years have been some of the hardest I ha