I’m joining
up with Ruth Ayres for her weekly link-up, Celebrate This Week. Check out all
of the posts linked up at her blog HERE.
Thanks for starting this, Ruth!
Celebrating Snow Days
This week is simple to
celebrate – we began with two snow days! I love snow days, but not for the
reason some may believe. I love my job, I love teaching, I love my students.
What I love about a snow day is the unexpectedness.
I love the gift of waking up
and realizing that I don’t have to go to work.
I love the quiet outside when
the world is blanketed in snow.
I love going outside,
shoveling, feeling the cold to the tips of your toes, heading back in, and
having hot chocolate.
I love holding that hot
chocolate in my hands as I stand at a window and watch my boys play.
Starting the week with two
snow days was to start the week with two unexpected gifts, and the week was all
uphill from there.
Celebrating Paulsen
In reading class I shared the
first four chapters of Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet. I read this book for the
first time over break.
I know, I know.
Reading the first chapters I
knew that there were so many lessons I could embed in the teaching of it. I
wanted my students to discuss Brian. I wanted them to predict what would
happen. I wanted to have them realize the clues Paulsen layers into the story
to help us with those predictions. More than that, I wanted them to be with
Brian, in that plane, trying desperately to find a way to survive.
And then? I wanted to stop after only four chapters. To look
at them, smile, and ask what they thought happened next and then close the book.
And when they begged for more? Point them in the direction of the library. That
is just what I did and it was awesome.
Celebrating Balance
My One Little Word for this
year is balance. I picked it because I knew I was desperately out of
balance. Way too much time was devoted to social media and items revolving
around teaching. My family, my health, my life outside of my MacBook Pro all
took a back seat. My goal is to change that.
This week I have exercised
each day –walking or yoga and sometimes both. I can already tell I feel better
than I have in some time. Right now I don’t have a set schedule, but I’d like
to move to one where I know that I do yoga on a certain day and walking on
others, but this works for the time being.
I also have been on the
computer less. This is tough. I love social media and can’t cut it completely
out of my life. To begin with, I am responsible for tweeting for Choice
Literacy each day. Even without it, I get a lot personally and professionally
from both Twitter and Facebook, not to mention reading blogs. I have tried hard
to limit that time this week and I absolutely did. I've been online less, haven't answered emails as promptly as usual, haven't commented back compulsively, I just stepped away. You know what? It has been fine.
I want to be present. To put
down my phone and my laptop. To not worry about capturing everything, but to
really experience the moments I am missing in my everyday life. To realize I will miss stuff on Facebook, on
Twitter, and that is ok.
By no means am I giving up
anything, just cutting back, looking for that balance. It hasn’t been perfect,
but I’m getting there and that is reason to celebrate.
