One Wild and Precious Life

We have made it (almost) to the end of term 1 at school.  Students finished exams last week and after exams instruction stops.  So for the last week and a half of the term, its a bit more of a free-for-all than usual at school as teachers are trying to do their grading and the kids are left mostly to their own devices.  I was hoping to use this time to make some big leaps forward on my library projects, but there's been another bump in the road--and that's a whole story that I'm not going to get into right now.  What I am going to get into is saying goodbye for a few weeks.  I'll be back here sometime early in the new year.  I'm going to be traveling to WI for most of break (as many leave days as I could spare).  My plan is to relax, sleep with a blanket (!), run in the cold, cook, bake, eat, and drink.  I need this trip to be a chill one, so I'm just hanging with family.  To all my WI friends--I miss you and will visit you when I return to t...

I was sitting in the library a couple days ago trying to figure out how I could make shelf dividers for the non-fiction books (which I FINALLY got sorted--but more on that in a minute).  As I strolled around looking at what I had available to me, I was suddenly flooded with memories of my grandma Hettenhaus.  It took me a minute, but I realized that what was coming back to me was all the time that I spent with her during my summer breaks and the work that I would do with her.  Grandma watched us during summers when mom and dad were at work and being grandma, there was no way I was going to spend those days doing nothing.  She'd take me to work with her at our grade school where she did things like strip and refinish the floors.  She made me work with her in her garden or do chores around the house.  She'd send me off to farms to help pick stones or bale hay.  I helped her fix things--and learned how to make do with what was at hand.   It was ...

 In this second year of service, I think I'm not alone in thinking about what I'm going to leave behind--what impact will my time here have?  I hope that one of the biggest impacts I have is showing the kids that I work with that they are valuable, loved, and that there are adults who will listen to them and who will not beat them.  I also hope that my students will be better readers and that they will want to continue to engage with books and learning after I leave.  I also hope to leave the teachers with a literacy resource center with teaching materials and equipment that support them.  So what has been happening in the last few weeks to help in laying these tracks? Recently, I was working with one of my small groups and had so many "proud teacher" moments.  We had spent the lesson working through a text that was challenging for them--I knew it was going to be a hard task.  But we did a group reading together and they worked hard to sound out all of...

 Thanks again to everyone who submitted questions.  A couple notes about this video: 1) my voice is a bit scratchy and crackly because there was burning happening when I recorded and the smoke messes with my voice 2) In some of the slides, it sounds like a teapot is whistling--my apologies that was the fan getting picked up by my headphones (its not too loud, I promise) 3) In the slide following my intro, I state that the "ministry of health" was involved when I meant to say "ministry of education" (the error is actually quite obvious, lol)

 In a couple of weeks, I will participate in our mid-service training for the Peace Corps. As is the custom, we have a load of homework to complete ahead of time. I find most of it problematic for one reason or another, but I will say that it has gotten me into a particularly reflective place.  "Mid-service" is a bit misleading because really I have about 9 months left in my service, but things are being framed in the "year one vs year two" context for this training.  In the last couple months I've been thinking a lot about what I want my 2nd year to look like and what I need to do in order to make that happen.  Which brings me to some updates on what is happening at school... The biggest change is that I moved myself out of a classroom and into the library.  Three weeks in, I can tell you that this has been a game changer in terms of my mental health.  I no longer spend my days witnessing beatings while immersed in the frenetic energy of an environment whe...

 I've decided that I'm not quite ready to talk about the start of the new school year, so I'm returning to the blog with a short video with some of what I did this summer.  I soaked in the beauty of a PNW beach, spent time with people who fill my heart and my soul.  I ate, drank, and was merry.  My soul and spirit flew.  It was bliss.  💓💓💓