The silence between the notes

 Trigger warning: Hot button topic ahead. I’m looking for insights and solutions, not complaints. Goodness knows our world has plenty of criticisms right now, so let’s focus on insights and solutions here! 🤍 ——————————————————— I have worked in education for over 20 years. Clarification— I have OVERWORKED myself in education for 20 years. For the first decade, I really thought that’s what I needed to do. I thought that’s what my students needed me to do. Then after years of hard work, constant self-evaluation, additional degrees, and endless professional development goals… my family experienced several traumatic situations, and I realized I couldn’t actually do it all. I couldn’t be there for my students 60 hours a week while caring for my family 60 hours a week too. (And I certainly hadn’t even considered if I should be taking care of myself at any point.)  When I began mentoring incoming teachers at the university, I made it a priority to teach my candidates that they shoul...

Like many teachers who have moved to an online format in the last few weeks, I’ve found myself in days of back-to-back Zoom meetings , and I’ve lost track of how many hours I’ve had to squint through my aching eyes at all my multitasking screens . On the bright side, I’ve found inspiration and creativity in imagining my classes and student interactions in new ways. But on the painfully bright side, these screens really do hurt after a while! So I’m going to keep this list of tips short and simple…because I want to go close my eyes and I’m betting you do too! To combat your increased time with online teaching and conferencing: 1)       Schedule breaks between your meetings. Over the course of a day, a few 15 minute breaks can make a big difference in your physical and mental endurance! As teachers, we’re not used to taking short breaks but this is a necessary shift now that you’re homebound! Stand and walk around your house, open your posture, stretch yo...

  I'm an incredibly private person when it comes to my inner questions and fears and ideals. I've only ever shared those with a short list of individual confidants. Although I doubt that most people in my world really realize that there's so much they don't know about me...because I'm also an unusually philosophical and reflective person, and I DO SHARE those reflections sincerely and authentically with my friends/coworkers/etc. when I feel it's important to our purpose or our working relationship. But it's also likely that there are more sensitive, even controversial topics hidden deep below the surface of what I'm comfortable sharing...Until someone manages to open the floodgates and establish themselves as trustworthy enough to handle the rest...then since all of my ideas somehow relate to one another, I can't seem to stop until I explain all of them at once to the poor unsuspecting soul who offered to listen for the first few minutes. ...

Finally! Six days into “vacation”, and I finally accomplished a “morning off!” I  slept in, stayed in my pjs, and curled up with my coffee, kitty, puppy, and book just because I wanted to! In fact I just noticed that it’s almost 1PM and wondered if I should feel bad that I wasted my morning... On the other hand, my sisters would be proud that I'm finally sitting down with a book! They often made fun of me as being the English teacher who doesn't read. In my 13 years as an English teacher, I read PLENTY though! It's just that instead of the publications most of you were reading, I usually read journals, essays, and graphic organizers from 17 year olds. I don’t turn off my work mode easily; I usually keep working or at least thinking about work for days after the calendar says I’m off work. Truth be told, I still sent a handful of emails this morning before I started my book, because I knew those work-related conversations needed to move forward before next week. But I se...

WARNING: A moment of transparency, and a rather long post ahead.  Yesterday, I had my 3rd teaching evaluation of the year and the administrator asked my students a variety of questions, one of which was "Does your teacher demonstrate enthusiasm in her job?" One dancer laughed and said, "She has more energy than the rest of us every morning." Since this was a student I've known years, I later confessed that I'm usually faking my 6AM energy, but that by pretending I'm excited in beginning of each day, I usually make the energy become a reality. (With the help of my 9AM dose of caffeine and B vitamins, at least until it wears off.) She was surprised that she didn't know how I'd really felt all this time.  And I realized several of my mostly-on-line friends have mentioned similar ideas recently, with kind words about how fun or funny or happy my life seems to be.  (Although those who know me best can attest to what you're about to learn......

It was an honor being asked to present at the 2016 Celebration of Talent conference , and I spent weeks figuring how to teach teachers about supporting highly capable students in high school.  Then I realized that the best thing I could do is share the stories of students--straight from their own mouths (or word documents)! I reached out to a handful of young adults from throughout Washington State, asked them 4 important questions, then compiled some of their most poignant answers. The following presentation includes insights from 14 respondents with a WIDE variety of high school experiences. I hope you'll review these answers with an open mind. And I invite you to share them with teachers, students, and even parents who could benefit by a more thorough understanding of how to support today's gifted students. Hi-Cap in High School:  https://youtu.be/0Kq9_ftAguo Since the slides have been converted to a video, you'll probably want to pause to give yourself...

Have you ever been so desperate to reach your destination that you cut through neighborhoods are back alleys just so that you don't have to stop and "wait for the traffic"? Of course, I'd never make a mistake like that, but I hear that other people do it all the time…  I've begun to realize that our society is making the same type of mistake with our communication.  In this world of endless technology, it would seem that we're surrounded by communication all the time.  However,  I'm afraid that our  important words are rarely written  on paper or spoken into the air for an audience who actually wants to think about them, but rather they're displayed on cell phone screens and computer monitors for audiences who can turn them off and on as the mood fits. And it's making us take our words for granted.  The social media platforms where we display our words for the world convince us that we don't need to communicate personally with anyone because we...