One Wild and Precious Life

This week I feel like I made some progress in moving forward at school.  I think I have finally made peace with most of the things that are beyond my control and I'm feeling better about how to deal with these things.  I also had some forward motion on two projects--"lunchtime literacy" and a reading incentive program.  Based on the literacy assessments that I did with our grade 2 students, I've identified a cohort of students who are far below grade level.  So starting this coming week, I'm going to have intensive lunchtime interventions to try to close that gap a little.  The students will still get 30 minutes for lunch, which is more than enough time for them to eat and have a little play break.  The reading program is all planned out, but not quite ready to launch (things beyond my control).    Creole month is coming to a close, and it does so with big celebration.  We had Creole snacks on Wednesday and a full day celebration on Friday at school.  Today (Sunda

 The opening quote this week is almost always attributed to Theodore Roosevelt (I've done it myself in the past).  But in his autobiography, Roosevelt attributes the quote to Bill Widener.  The words encapsulate perfectly where my head has been for the past couple of weeks.  I've been focusing on trying to figure out how I can work toward the goals I've started setting for my service and what I need to do in order to feel like I am being of service.  I continue to struggle with the lack of autonomy, but shifting my mind to focus on what I can do  rather than what I cannot has been very helpful.  An example from this week to illustrate... A couple weeks ago, I ended the week exhausted with myself and how I was responding to the children's behaviors.  I was particularly tired of how often I was yelling at the students--I hate it, I really do.  It's exhausting to do and frankly, it doesn't make any difference.  So why the hell did I keep yelling at them?  Part of i

  Thank you to everyone who submitted questions for me!  I've mixed it up in terms of content delivery this week and made a slide show with the answers to your questions.  In honor of Creole Month, I've set it to some traditional Creole folk music (you can see the name of artist and song on 1st slide).   NOTE: Make sure to view in full screen mode.  The timing is set at about 20 seconds/slide, so if you need more time to read, hit pause!  😆

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!!  In terms of schedule, this was an unusual week.  We started with Thanksgiving on Monday, which meant no school.  We had 1/2 days of school on Tuesday and Friday for Teacher Appreciation Week, and on Thursday my principal, counterpart teacher, and I had an all-day workshop with the Peace Corps.  In terms of work it was good--the workshop helped us all to articulate some work goals together and I think it was useful to have conversations with all the volunteers and their faculty about what reasonable expectations are for all involved.  I'm starting to feel a little more settled at work--it's coming slowly, but it is coming.   This week had me thinking a lot about the teachers who have influenced me throughout my own educational journey.  One in particular has really been on my mind because there is a teacher at my school who reminds me of her in so many ways.  Many of you will remember Mrs. Birschbach (Mrs. B) who was my eighth grade teacher at

Sitting under the calabash tree at school  These words have been part of my office decor for the past few years, and many of you know that I study student belonging in an effort to increase student success.  This past week, it was my own belonging that was on my mind.  I would say that for all the time I have been here, I have definitely been doing the 1st two things--I've been present and I've been my true self.  But the belonging piece hasn't been there.  A volunteer friend captured it perfectly when she commented that everyone has been very welcoming, but there haven't been overtures of friendship.  That was a big "aha" moment for me.  I've met a lot of people and everyone has been very friendly and has made me feel most welcome and safe in my community.  And a few people have said things like "we should do _____", but then that never really materializes.  At school there are things that also contributed to the lack of belonging-- without my o