The Adventure Led Me Here

When I was in high school and had plans to become a high school English teacher (if you know me personally, you’ll realize how laughable the idea of me teaching high school is), I used to lay awake at night and lesson plan, like most eighteen-year-old do. I didn’t know much about education or teaching, but I was convinced that I would make my classes read Jane Austen novels and have them all dress up in period garb and hold a tea. My plans weren’t expanded much further than that, but I was convinced that would material enough to carry us through several months of the school year. Fast forward a few years when, during senior year of my undergrad, I had the opportunity to intern in a kindergarten classroom (I’d since given up my dreams of high school teaching and decided to go get my master’s in elementary education instead) and teach a lesson. I wouldn’t say my lesson was a failure of epic proportions, but I will note that it included having kindergartners sit on the carpet ...

At the beginning of the school year, I try to set a few areas that I want to focus on throughout the year. Some of the goals never quite come to fruition (let’s be honest, my desk is still a hot mess, despite my lofty ambition to organize it weekly) while others are slightly more successful. One of my goals was to create a culture and love of reading in my classroom. I had the opportunity to attend the Reading Summit hosted by Scholastic last summer and hear Donalyn Miller speak (she’s the QUEEN of the reading world), and I was left to reflect on my own practice. If I teach phonics and the elements of a story but the kids despise reading, what have I really taught? Reading should be transformative. Empathy, perspective, compassion, imagination, and creativity are all nestled between the pages of a book. If we never allow kids to experience this, then we’re truly doing them a dangerous disservice. This is not to diminish or ignore the critical role of phonics, phonemic awareness, st...

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 ref...

 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 leve...

                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:               ...

When I was in middle school, a librarian jokingly referred to me as the one who was “clogging up the library system” because of the massive amounts of books I checked out at once. I quickly became adept in figuring out the delicate balancing act of opening doors and walking across a parking while gripping a teetering pile of books. Many of my journals from elementary school are simply filled with lists of books that I enjoyed/letters I had written to fictional characters. Not only do I drink as much coffee as the Gilmore Girls, I also read like Rory. To this day, I still feel a shiver of anticipation when I glide through the library’s revolving doors and receive a new Scholastic book order. In my classroom, we read frequently. We adore soaking in beautiful words, talking about the characters or concepts, and making connections (kindergarteners LOVE making text-to-self connections!). One of my favorite things about reading aloud is that we not only develop a love for stories an...

I was at the Dollar Tree on a Sunday afternoon buying the random assortment of items that can only be found in a teacher’s cart. These items included plastic salad tongs, stickers, cupcake liners, muffin tins, and clothespins. The line inched towards the back of the store, and there was a general grumble of impatience. The interactions customers had with the cashier were varied. Some people shoved their money at her, obviously in a hurry. Others responded with pleasantries and conversation. Exhaustion crept across the cashier’s face as she rapidly rang up purchases for a few customers who berated her for the length of the line. When it was the next customer’s turn, she greeted her with the automatic question, “How are you doing?” The customer smiled and responded with the expected answer of, “I’m doing well, thanks.” She stopped and returned the smile, telling her that her reply and smile were just what she needed on this chaotic afternoon. That simple exchange stu...

The moments leading up the arrival of the campers is similar to the anticipation of waiting for Christmas morning. Excited chatter echoes as the yellow bus is spotted chugging along the dusty road. Welcome signs, each with the campers’ individual names, are waved in the air. As the bus doors open, the campers are called, one by one, each one receiving a cheer before running to his or her counselor.  Each counselor is responsible for one or two campers, allowing for attention that so many of these kiddos desperately crave. Royal Family Kids’ Camp is a week long experience nationwide for kids who are or have been a part of the foster care system. Activities abound from crawfish catching, fishing, swimming, boating, the gym (where I stealthily caught a Frisbee with my face), chapel, horseback riding, crafts, and more. My camper and I spent a lot of time the dress up area, putting on fashion shows and dressing up in princess gowns and tiaras for hours. One of the things ...

As I watched the yellow buses scuttle away for this last time this school year, I tried to pinpoint exactly what emotions I was feeling as my thoughts clouded together, gently blurring. While packing up my classroom, I sorted through piles of math games, books, and writing materials. So much growth and learning had occurred throughout the school year from multiplication and division to writing a full length essay. I had covered all of the standards and all assessments had been completed. These packed boxes, brimming with papers and books, however, did not present a whole, complete picture of what had been gained. Although I (hopefully!) taught my students many things, nothing in these boxes reflected what I, the teacher, had learned from a group of 24 third-graders. 1). Kindness I entered my classroom with the expectation to focus on cultivating a culture of kindness within the classroom. However, little did I realize that I myself would be learning so much about being kind from...

                Silence and I have never been the best of friends.                 In the hypothetical event that the ability to incessantly ramble was an Olympic sport, I would win all of the gold medals in one unnecessarily long speech.                 I process information verbally, and I usually speak two volume levels above what is probably needed. If you’ve ever had the *privilege* of grocery shopping with me, you know that I provide an enthusiastic running commentary about each and every food item. In an effort to prove to someone that I could be quiet for an extended period of time, I tried to go as long as possible without talking.                 It was an agonizing ten minutes.     ...

                2015 was like eating a bag of mystery flavored Skittles: I never quite knew what was going to happen next.                 An enigma, a paradox, 2015 was full of many moments both wonderful and challenging.                 It was a year of connection, a year of growth.                 The first few months passed in a flurry as I finished up grad school and my student teaching. I had the opportunity to complete one of the most meaningful projects of my educational experience that examined equity in the education system for CLD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) students. During my student teaching, I had the chance to learn from some amazing teachers not just about education, but also about life. ...

When the PTO informed me that I had over $200 dollars to spend at the book fair, I was ecstatic. I combed through the shelves and piles of books, thumbing through pages. The stack in my arms teetered as I collected American Girl, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Magic Treehouse, and non-fiction books bursting with glossy photographs and a plethora of facts about everything from rocks to women in history to outer space.                 As I was finishing up, I paused in front of an unassuming picture book titled ‘Each Kindness.’ The cover wasn’t flashy. I had probably walked past it at least two times without even noticing it. However, after flipping through the story, I knew it was going to be a read aloud that very day.                 I want my kids to learn their multiplication facts and how to write a paragraph with a well-crafted topic sent...

Over 11 million people are displaced right now because of the conflict in Syria. 11 million.  It’s hard for me to fathom the enormity of that number. For perspective, that is more than the population of Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Montana, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine combined. 11 million people who do not currently have what the UN have declared as basic human rights. Lives are literally at stake in places torn apart by war and chaos. We cannot turn our faces or our backs . Talking about the situation can be difficult because it makes us acknowledge that inequality and injustice actually exist. This is what author and advocate for equality Gary Howard refers to as the Luxury of Ignorance (Howard, 2006). For so long, it has been easier for me to glide right on by these issues because, as soon as I admit injustice exists, I am forced to then either become part of the problem or part of the solution. Becoming pa...