Category: community

Early Morning

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I seem to reference early morning often in my posts. Though dragging myself out of bed is often the last thing I want to do, once I am up, I am up.

And ready to work.

I get my best stuff done between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m.

Today, I’m putting together last minute details for edcamp, a professional learning opportunity for teachers from around the state. We are hosting it here on Saturday–at Fredericksburg Academy. A full day of sessions, conversations, and connections. Can’t wait.

My world seems to flip between teachers who love to learn and friends who love to write. It’s a happy place.

Grit

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I am compiling rejections from my poetry submissions. But, don’t feel sorry for me. Each one comes back, looking for a second, third,  or twentieth massage.

That’s what good writing takes–effort. And, holy cow, is this fun. Revising feels like a word game for introverts–the only competition is with myself.

When I’m not revising, I’m surfing/reading. I had no idea there were so many literary sites. Everyone wants to write these days, it seems. This is my newest find where I just read (and will share with my writing peeps) — this.

It’s like my own little MFA.

So Far Away

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It’s 5 a.m. Not an unusual time for me to get up since I try to get in my exercise before breakfast. If I don’t, the workout doesn’t happen.

But first, I pull out my laptop and check email, twitter, and my RSS feed- my morning routine. Yesterday, I decided to visit Tania Sheko, a friend from PLP days and someone I’ve kept up with for her great resources and teaching activities. I remembered some literacy activities I wanted to read again, and, wow, did I find them. Then today, Jenny Luca popped up on twitter with a link to some PBL reflections. Just what I needed for some work I’m doing with Collegiate School in Richmond.

A couple of days ago, Melanie Hutchinson texted me a reminder to post my photo in Flickr, a re-do of a project we participated in a few years ago. Hello New York :)

In Tania’s and Jenny’s case, I love being able to watch their work from Australia in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep. Hooray for time differences!

It’s funny. I’m picturing us all as 90-year-olds, drinking our tea, and skyping (or whatever it happens to be) about our day, still sharing those important moments in our lives.

A visit to Flickr, or a quick tweet to Canada— for me, a meaninful way to start the day.

 

Finding the Beat

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The room began to darken, lit only by candles. Pounding, tapping, and shaking sounds filled the circle. My mind, which only moments before had been spinning with thoughts of this and that, focused only on the pulsing beat.

Though I had taken one drumming class last fall (and loved it), this was the first for me–an unstructured hour of making music. A form of engaged meditation, the drum circle provides a place for community, creativity, and, in a way, storytelling. Without speaking, we played our instruments together, allowing the sounds to build and diminish naturally–and together.

I have trouble meditating, and I worried I wouldn’t be able to drum for an hour without some kind of instruction or direction. And yet, the time passed quickly, the heartbeat patterns centering and grounding me.

I wonder if any schools offer African drumming for students or teachers? Can you imagine starting or ending each day with this transformative act?

“The knower of the mystery of sound knows the mystery of the whole universe” – Hazrat Inayat Khan

Working together

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Snacks, water bottles, white boards, and time to chat–all this made a difference in the success of our week-long writing camp, which ended today. What a gift to work in such a small group, sharing ideas, reading our writing, and talking about ways to improve. The boys, good sports both, worked hard on two different pieces of writing. And I wasn’t surprised to find that the conversations we had helped the most. This is, of course, the way to work with writers. You can’t be at the front of the room. You must sit with the student, talking about the strengths, asking questions…..nodding and encouraging.

One of the boys had brought a MacAir, so before I could say “sure,” he had set up his iphone as a hotspot, pulled out and set up his iPad for another boy, and opened Google Docs to start typing. So much the notebooks I’d purchased:)

He also texted me this, which I hadn’t seen but seemed so appropriate for the week:

I sure love middle-schoolers.