Category Archives: Slice of Life

Be Still

March 26, 2024poetry, Reflections on coaching, Reflections on teaching, Slice of Lifeonathought

I’m trying to be
Still. But,
my teacher brain got turned to max
and I can’t really dial it down.

I don’t mean to be dramatic, but
I’ve got to get
organized
I tell myself this every few minutes
before remembering that
I have
no
idea
what
I’m organizing for

Who knows where I’ll be
who I’ll be
what I’ll be
how I’ll be
but,
still.
I look at everything with my
teacher eyes.
I took a mini plastic magnifying glass off of a soap dispenser and kept it.
Just in case
I need a mini plastic magnifying glass in my classroom.

Still.
I need to be still.
I don’t know who I’m collecting things for.
Speaking of things I don’t know –
I should probably reread every teaching book
I’ve read over the last 7 years with a new
lens. I’m calling
this lens,
helping myself.

Can I be my own coach?
To try, I will need to
listen to myself
stand by myself
question myself
advocate for myself
stretch myself
grow myself
give myself grace

(And if you see me
talking to myself,
you’ll know why…)

I
still
have time
Months actually
4 full months
Still –
Once the teacher dial has been dialed up, it’s really quite hard to dial it down
and be still.

Dappled Sun

March 25, 2024Slice of Lifeonathought

Do you remember the bus ride home from school? The sun would filter in and out from behind the trees, hitting your eyes. Of course you didn’t have sunglasses. You just got the headache from the moving bus. When you got home, you saw spots from the dappled sun for a bit and then you did your homework.

Or, at least you knew you had to do your homework. You were supposed to do your homework.

My parents had to remind me. A lot. It took repeated reminding for me to get to work. I wasn’t what you would call a fan of homework.

There was also piano to practice.
And lines to memorize.

Now, I don’t have to practice piano. (Although my piano sits in the corner, wishing I played, I think.)

Now, I have no lines to memorize. (Although I have a lot of lines I’d like to say. Maybe I should practice those.)

Today, I just have to write.
And then I can move on with the evening.

But for awhile the sun filtered in through my big window. It wasn’t dappled. Why isn’t undappled a word?

I had to sit in the corner of my couch with my head tilted just right, so the sun wouldn’t shine directly in my eyes, and I could think straight.

Well, straighter than with the sun blinding me.

Nobody reminded me to write.
The sun is setting, undappled, and I finally wrote.

Whether Your Weather

March 24, 2024poetry, Reflections on coaching, Reflections on teaching, Slice of Lifeonathought

March is going
out
like a lion
this year
and I’m not talking about the weather

Two weeks ago someone asked me
What’s your weather?
and I said, it feels like a
storm
is brewing.

So maybe my new job
should be
fortune teller
My crystal ball tells you whether
your life will be this or that

Today at TJ Maxx
we saw a card
you are the teacher the world needs
it said and we had to decide
whether to laugh or cry

Whether your weather
is outside or in
lamb or lion
we can only choose to
March on

Saturday Poems

March 23, 2024haiku, poetry, Reflections on coaching, Reflections on teaching, Slice of Lifeonathought

6-word
Saturday goes quickly, thankful for Sunday

Haiku
Chore filled Saturday
Clean house, cold dog walk, Target
Mind full of unknowns

Limerick
There once was a mid career teacher
Who wondered what decisions would reach her
So much had been discussed
She didn’t know what to trust
Since trust was no longer her best feature

Rispetto
Friday night, Saturday on the horizon
Expectations for accomplishments, no less!
Then Saturday dawns, reality flies in
Do only priorities – no extra stress!
It’s the weekend, you know you deserve to chill
If you don’t take time to rest, you’ll soon get ill
Vacuum, laundry? Sure. But, big projects can wait
You need to rest, and wonder about your fate

Naani
I wander the book aisle
Stare at the titles
Wonder
Which books will I read to my class next year?

Some Complaints

March 21, 2024Slice of Lifeonathought

I am exhausted…

There’s a glass stuck in my garbage disposal
but MacGyver doesn’t live here, and I
have other things to do
like figure out my future, and I
don’t have time to worry about
the themes that I see here, and I
hope that somehow, sleep
will makes things clearer!

My First Year

March 21, 2024Reflections on coaching, Reflections on teaching, Slice of Lifeonathought

I am thinking about my first year
I taught second-grade
in an old school building that looked like it was from a picture book

On the morning of the first day,
I straightened pencil boxes
one more time
on the desks I had placed precisely
I took a picture of the busses lined up outside, right before the kids got off
I knew so little about second-grade
Didn’t know what I
didn’t know about
teaching,
kids,
instructional strategies. . .
the paper cutter
(That year, I would go on to cut my own shirt more than one time on the paper cutter)

I wish I remembered how I learned their names
What books we read
The moment I realized they were
mine.

Maybe it was
when I typed their names on my first
class list
when the last student filed in and we had our first morning meeting
the first time I said “my class,” to explain
“I didn’t do that with my class yet.”
“My class had extra recess.”
“Oh, you know my class!”
But sometime after I got the call that I had a job
and months before I sobbed on the last day of school,
those were
my
second-graders

I know, I know
in a school – they are
all
Our
kids
I know this – I have hundreds of kids in my schools that are
Ours
and I love them

And, when you share a classroom with kids
every day,
know what math they are ready for next,
which kids to put in which small group,
who needs extra reminders or reassurances, or a special whiteboard marker
what book to hand them from your library
what they did over the weekend,
their hopes and dreams
and trials
it’s okay if you think
my
kids

My first year
my kids
were
chatty, sure –
(I’d soon find out that most of my classes were chatty – the one constant being me. . . )
my kids were
funny
sweet
hard-working
good sports —
watching me fumble through
my
first year

Trust

March 20, 2024Reflections on teaching, Slice of Lifeonathought

I was in fifth-grade
the year I got
headaches every day
couldn’t get my homework done
still couldn’t spell
or do my math facts quickly
but, I could read!
I read Stephen King for my book report
my teacher didn’t believe me
Called me to his desk, covered the title on my project and raised his eyebrows, saying
“What was your book called again?”
“The Eyes of the Dragon” I said
He looked skeptical

I think that’s the year I learned
that trust and respect are
two-way streets
or should be
Oh, and that some people are jerks

I remember his name –
That teacher who didn’t
Know me
Didn’t believe I had headaches
Didn’t believe I couldn’t concentrate on my test with his radio on
(Can you imagine?)
Didn’t believe I could read that book
I remember his name, but I won’t name him

I will give him the
benefit of the doubt
and of time

Maybe he was trying his best
Maybe he was having a hard year
Maybe he was someone’s favorite teacher

He certainly taught me a lot about teaching
– the what not to do

Plus, it’s easy to give grace to a jerk
if they are probably already gone
from this world…
Fifth-grade was a long, long time ago.

You Get a Sticker! And You Get a Sticker!

March 19, 2024Family, Reflections on coaching, Reflections on teaching, Slice of Lifeonathought

My friend gave me one of those mini printers and this weekend I played with it, trying the roll of sticker paper it has.

Did you hear me? I can make stickers! Of anything!

Here’s one I made of my dog:

Right away I started thinking about ways I could use it at school. I am sure there are ways I could use it as a coach, but I keep thinking about ways I’d use it back in the classroom. Imagine making conferring artifacts – quick pictures of anchor charts, notes we took together, or even a graphic organizer template. Maybe I could print pictures of student work to add to a small display. Have you seen those mini art galleries? I could use it to label things, of course. I could even make a quick positive note home and stick it to a student’s backpack! I feel like the possibilities are endless.

In my personal life, I am using it to print out funny memes and quotes and add them to a notebook. What is it that makes making a sticker, even with torn edges so special and fun?

I could start to print out funny things and stick them on my kids’ snacks. Or funny reminders stuck to random places.

There’s something very important that you need to know if you are on the fence about getting yourself a mini printer with sticker paper. Listen carefully. You might not realize this, but, if you get a text or email that makes you angry, it actually becomes kind of cute printed out all tiny.

I might have to buy more sticker paper rolls.

Sunny Sunday

March 18, 2024Family, poetry, Slice of Lifeonathought

A sunny Sunday
might remind you that
even a
short
walk in the crisp air
surrounded by blue sky and
trees still winter-brown
near the cold water
is like a breath of
spring

it
won’t
be winter forever

it won’t

and most importantly,
even teenagers
need
to skip rocks

Do the Math

March 17, 2024Reflections on coaching, Reflections on teaching, Slice of Lifeonathought

Freshman year of college I had a required math class
Math 100
it was probably called
Ugh, math
I probably said
I can’t do math

I recall
it was an overview
all the math I should have understood in high school
algorithms, graphs, formulas…
explained, connected, practiced in some magical way
to make sense
or maybe I was finally ready to learn

In third grade, I crossed the hall
for my math class
full of timed tests
and feeling dumb because
I can’t do math

I recall
timers and disappointment
things I should have memorized
but didn’t, couldn’t
turning my paper over to draw pictures and count
6×9 equaled 6 dots drawn 9 times
Always on the first row every time
the timer beeped

Sophomore year of college I started my
math emphasis
a special program for teachers who loved math
and me
I can’t do math

I recall
3 hours every Tuesday night for 3 years
learning about conceptual math
an entire semester on one problem about pretzels and lemonade
I still got confused, lost in the step, turning myself in math circles
one night the professor asked me to share my thinking and I said
no
I had been honest on my application:
I was horrible at math. I’m worried about teaching math. I need to be a better math teacher for math students like me
But 3 hours a week x 3 years equaled understanding that
it’s okay to be confused, math is more than memorizing,
and turning my paper over to draw 6 dots 9 times meant
I actually could do math!

Student teaching in sixth grade
advanced math
full of sixth-graders
with more math smarts than I will ever have

I recall
I got really good at questioning
listening, and saying things like
pretend I don’t understand. How would you explain your thinking to me?
which honestly, is a
damn good math talk prompt

Decades later, I have taught
a lot
of students
that they
can
do the math

(even if they have to turn their paper over,
draw some dots
and count)