It's a lot of hard work

I really do have just about the best job imaginable.  There is NOTHING that could compare with seeing the magic of learning in a young child's face.  Those smiles that seem to go from ear to ear and the excitement that always comes from a big discovery, "Delta (airlines) starts with a "D" - I can find their sign at the airport!
The downside of my job is that there really is no way to "work" from home as teaching is still a highly interactive activity; however as anyone who lives with a teachers already knows, teachers work a LOT from home!  It's also a lot of hard work to be a really good teacher.
I left school after 5 tonight as I prepared for a four day weekend - and I was not done.  I am not sure I could ever be totally "done"....because it really is a lot of hard work to be a teacher...so I will be working on this 4 day weekend to catch up with paperwork and I will likely stay late on Monday......but it is SO very worth it.....cause I am SURE that there was a child at the airport who connected the Delta sign with the "D dog d" letter work I have been "selling" for a few weeks. 

My Mo

I just ordered ANOTHER Elephant and Piggy (Mo Willems) book.  I have to have my own copy of HAPPY PIG DAY even though it will probably walk as soon as it comes into school.  NO KIDDING, I read it at the doctor's office - out loud laughing!  The OTHER adults in the room must have been wondering what I was thinking!  Mo is the best and really knows how to capture kids' thinking!
PS MO DOES NOT PAY ME TO TELL  YOU HIS BOOKS ARE THE BEST!

spots

Not too long ago, a child who spent a lot of time at my house mentioned her "spot" - a spot where she spent a few moments reflecting and thinking during her growing up years.  At first I thought it was kind of funny that she even remembered her "spot" but this morning as I sat on my "spot" reflecting on the sunlight breaking through the thick clouds, I decided spots really were more important that I even thought they were!  Let me try to explain.
When my own children were growing up, I used spots as a way of disciplining without yelling or spanking.  "Go to your spot," I would say and off they (and even their friends) would head for time to reflect on the transgression and time to prepare for better choices. 
As I sat on my spot this morning, I felt the sunlight breaking through the thick cloud cover was a message from a higher power saying that even though there will be lots of dark days ahead and lots of confusion and murkey times, there will indeed bright spots today and indeed there will be a future with many more bright moments and happiness.  I was reminded of the bibical verse where God promises us that he has plans for us all, plans not to harm us but rather for us to prosper.  I left my spot to continue on my morning walk / run with a smile on my face ready to face the day, but not without thoughts of the Sabbath on my mind.  Let me try to explain.
Late last night, when I should have gone to bed, I was up captivated by a rerun of Fiddler on the Roof.  Even as their world was crashing around them, they kept the Sabbath - a spot of sorts - and a time to stop and reflect and think.  It was the time when God did speak to them and offered them guidance and direction along with the promise of a future - even if it was not the future they had planned.
I guess all this was most poignant to me this morning because all this thinking happened to me before I headed to church, another of my spots where I go for reflection and direction. 
I was actually thinking how important spots are for all of us.  While formal church attendance waxes and wanes for many of us through the years, we do all need spots and time to reflect.  Time spent on our spots is time when we are reminded that we are not alone as we travel this road.  There will indeed be cloudy days and days when we need to sit on our spots a lot, but there will also be times when the sunlight will fill us with the promise of better days. 
Even if you do not personally keep the Sabbath, I hope you have spots where you can reflect and take the time to be reminded of the promise that we are not alone on this journey. 

Time to write

It's been too long of a break from my blog - and not because I have had nothing to say - that is for sure!  I have SEVERAL posts that I drafted in my head during the past weeksand WANTED to write about.  I guess they can go onto my <^^> list to write about later - note to self - write about what I have been reading and about reading during Irene and about my CSA and about my sundried tomatoes and about being on the homeside of open house and about the kids' perspecitve of Open Hosue and about the battle we've been fighting and about growing older and about family feuds and about holding on during hard times and about the truck driver who was a prophet in his time .........
ANYWAY, during this incredibly busy end to my summer, as I have literally run to keep up with the balls that have been dropping out of everywhere, I have been thinking about the "GIFT" of "REGULAR PREDICTABLE TIME TO WRITE" that we CAN give to children in our classrooms when we create regular times to write.  I know that IF I had given up my treadmill OR my email OR my making of sun dried tomatoes, I COULD have made time to record my thinking and reflecting but I did not have the structure in my end of summer days. 
I guess we all need TIME to write, as Donald Graves so eloquently put it.  Regular, predictable time to write may be a the core of how we begin to think of ourselves as writers.  Like in my life, it is VERY easy to just "skip it for the day" in classrooms where it is likely few students will complain and there is always SO much to do and TOO little time. 
I guess our classroom life really does reflect our lives outside of them: we have to MAKE time for what we deem MOST important.  SO, I will for the next few weeks try to return to my semi-public writerly life.