Teaching
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Be Conscious of Your Treasures
“We can only be said to be alive when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” Thornton Wilder One of the things I love best about being around children is that they are almost always happy. They wake every day with the intention of happiness and the excitement of a new day. They see the world in a different light than adults. Where adults see responsibilities children see opportunities. Where adults want to try to control their entire universe–a child’s existence is mostly controlled by others yet they still have a sense of freedom. Perhaps children are so alive with life because they are conscious of their treasures. Whether that…
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Map of MYSTIC
One of the many wonderful things about being an Indie Author is that I get to work directly with illustrators. Currently, I’m collaborating with three illustrators. Mina Sanwald has designed my map of MYSTIC. CreateSpace has one of their illustrators designing MYSTIC’s cover. And Muza and I are working together on a picture book. My life has been a bit crazy this past month. I’ve spent my weekdays helping to teach second and third graders. Their energy and enthusiasm for learning brings me joy. They also spit out phrases like one spunky second grader… “I don’t want to be a nerdgrader!” To which I replied “Thank you for the title of my next picture book.” Every day…
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Is Homework Helping or Hurting Our Children?
Is Homework Helping or Hurting Our Children? What does homework teach? There was a phrase I was taught to use as a new teacher when speaking with students. Every day I asked, “Did you do your personal best?” It was our way of trying to teach the kids to put effort into their work and not just slop something down to get it done. I’ve been thinking a lot about this phrase and my early years of parenting. When my children started school, it was extremely important to me that they were enrolled in a gifted program. I suppose it was partly due to my own insecurities about my school performance as a…
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Lost in Transition
This morning I walked out my front door. It was pitch black. Imagine my surprise when I went to climb in my car and it was gone! I stood there in the dark. My mind not fully functioning on only one cup of coffee. Where was my car? I laughed when I realized the night before I had met Eric at work so we could drive to our dance lesson together. After dancing we hopped in his car, picked up dinner and drove home. Neither of us remembering that my car was still at his office. The caffeine kicked in and I saw Arielle’s truck sitting in the same spot…
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Easter Cookie Nests
Of course I had to try making my pots of gold into Easter baskets. When I couldn’t get any kind of candy basket handle to stay up for more than five seconds I dubbed them nests. Let me know if you try these and find something that works. Possibly if the nests/baskets were dipped in chocolate then the chocolate would hold the handle in place… once it dries. That would mean having a lot of patience which I tend to have for writing novels but not cooking. They’re a fun dessert for a party or an economical treat for a classroom of students. Teachers, two books that would go along with the theme of…
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Tug-of-War Politics
When I look back at my teaching years one of my favorite days was field day. We had three fourth grade classes and each class would choose a color. One year our class was blue, everyone dressed in blue and we competed against the other classes clothed in green and red. Tug-of-war was my favorite. My entire class would tug and pull – all working together, trying their hardest towards one goal. We were a team. Whether we won or lost we were united… sweaty and thirsty – but united. I enjoyed field day for two reasons. First, it brought us all together outside of the classroom and second because often the…
