Monthly Archives: October 2024

Only in My Dreams

Reflections on coaching, Reflections on teaching, Slice of Life
This slice is part of the Slice of Life on  Two Writing Teachers! #sol24. I’m slicing on as many Tuesdays as I can. I hope you’ll join me.

My friend Mardi died four and a half years ago or so, but she was in my dream last night. She doesn’t show up in my dreams a lot anymore, but it’s always so nice to see her.

She was late to a picnic full of teachers I worked with long ago.

That should have been my first indicator that this was a trick of the mind. She would have never been late in real life.

“It’s raining.” She said when she arrived

“Really?” I asked and she showed me how her dress had sprinkles of water, and the back of it was wet from accidentally sitting in a puddle.

Another indication that this was not a real event. Mardi wouldn’t sit in a puddle. This was a woman who had a white winter coat that she always kept clean.

We sat and chatted and I told her I how I changed my desk configuration to try to help my class focus.

This is actually true in real life. Just yesterday after school I rearranged my desks. We’ll see if it makes an impact.

“I mean, I had everyone facing each other, and then I kept reminding them to stop talking. That’s on me.” I said.

She laughed in agreement.

Then I told her how I have to have another lunch bunch for kids to finish their missing work.

I must have been teaching sixth-grade in this dream.

“They really can’t get work done in the loud cafeteria,” I explained. “But if they come here I feel bad that they don’t get a lunch.”

She gave me one of her classic looks.

For this, I am so grateful for my dream. I miss that Mardi look.

“Just have them eat their lunch and then come back to do their missing work,” she said. She reminded me that it’s okay to keep my expectations high.

How she did this with a look and a sentence might sound like it is only in a dream. But, real-life Mardi could say a lot with a look and a sentence.

I wish that dream picnic could have lasted longer, but my alarm was loud, and the picnic and support session was over in a flash.

I don’t need a dream interpretation website for this one. It was lovely for Mardi to visit me in my dream to give me some teaching advice and encouragement.

It’s not her fault that it makes me cry to remember her dream visit.

Knowing her, she knows my tears are mostly because I miss her. And just a teensy bit because I only get an instructional coach in my dreams.

Time

Reflections on teaching, Slice of Life
This slice is part of the Slice of Life on  Two Writing Teachers! #sol24. I’m slicing on as many Tuesdays as I can. I hope you’ll join me.

Finally out to our second recess, the air chilly and the sun warm, I take a deep breath.

There’s no time to do all the things, and I find myself rushing through so much all day long.

Even though I know rushing doesn’t help.
Even though I know that slowing down is the only way to get more done.
Even though I know it doesn’t serve any of the students I serve.

We don’t need more binders of must dos or more scripts, I think. We need more pauses. The line between a perky pace and a frantic one is too small to measure already. The less we do each day, the better the day. And somehow, the more we learn. I know there is research about this, but I also see it every day.

Usually we live a few “If you give a mouse a cookie” books each day. They start with “If your teacher takes attendance one minute later than usual…” or maybe “If morning meeting starts 3 minutes late and you have to practice coming to the circle quietly a few times …”

Today we had an “If you are ready to start math 2 minutes late, you will have to talk about it. If you have to talk about it, you will start math 5 minutes late but your teacher will still want to have all the math, so you will be getting ready for recess 5 minutes late. If you are getting ready for recess 5 minutes late, some of your friends will hurry but others will not and you will be 10 minutes late to recess. If you are 10 minutes late to recess, you won’t have time to have all 15 minutes of recess.”

I’m not saying it is as fun of a story as the Mouse and the cookie.

I watch the kids outside, running and chasing and smiling in that chilly warm sun and turn around to one of my kids who is fixing her sweatshirt.

“I love recess because…” she says as she pulls her sweatshirt over her short sleeves, “because you can meet more of the kids and also because you can have fun!”

I like recess too.

We stay out for the whole 15 minutes.

Can I Write?

Reflections on teaching, Slice of Life
This slice is part of the Slice of Life on  Two Writing Teachers! #sol24. I’m slicing on as many Tuesdays as I can. I hope you’ll join me.

I put the water on to boil.
I wonder.
Can I write a slice of life
before the water boils?

There’s a lot of typing and deleting.

I check the water, and the answer is no.

No, I cannot write
before the water boils.

I pour what’s left of a box of rotini in,
set the timer for 10 minutes.

How about now? Can I write?

I mean, what else would you need to know?

It’s after 7:00, and I’ve walked the dog.

I’ve put a handful of rotini into a small pot. One kid is at their father’s, the other is at work, and the oldest is away at college.

This morning around 6:00, I took the dog out and I thought, “maybe I’ll write quickly while I have my coffee.”

“Six words,” I thought. “I could do a six word slice.”

I brainstormed a sad six word story: “But when would she write, though?”

The answer is, 13 hours later.

In November, I will be co-presenting at NCTE, all about The Sometimes Secret Writing Lives of Teachers.

Currently my writing life is so secret, I can’t even find it.