The past two weeks have led me to this:

 Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.
There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the Earth
-Rumi

2009 Reflections

I wanted to take a few minutes to just stop and reflect on last year and where I am now...

2009 was a great year for me. I entered the start of last year putting the mess that was 2008 behind me, and was determined to make 09 better. I think that outlook really drove the rest of the year for me. In 2009 I:

Got into the teaching groove:


I made it through my first year as a teacher, which was a remarkable feat. I entered year two of teaching feeling prepared and in control, a drastic shift from the year before.

Stayed healthy:

After wallowing in self-pity for the end of 08, I made a drastic shift in 09 and focused on taking care of myself. This meant that in the springtime, I worked out at least 3 days a week for the most part. It also meant that I focused my summer decisions on myself and my health. Although I still got some crazy ear thing (cough cough, shingles) in March, I took care of myself in 2009.

Let it Be:

In January 09, I let go of trying to make everything happen the way I wanted it to when I wanted it to. I basically had to say: this is the situation,  let it be. And it worked. I was a much happier person for it. I also learned to be by myself, which is hard for me since I usually make such an effort to surround myself with the people I love. Doing this was the best decision ever, because eventually, that stuff organically reappears in your life if you don't force it.

Took a trip:

I rewarded myself thoroughly for the craziness of making it through my first year teaching with a well-deserved trip to COSTA RICA. My surfing and yoga month was an experience I will never forget. It was just what I needed.

Bonded:

The last important highlight for 2009 was the fact that I bonded with so many remarkable people, both from work and outside of work. Back to "letting it be," in doing that, I found myself surrounded with the people that I admire and respect, and with people that make me feel happy.


Now, in thinking about 2010, here are some areas of focus for me:

Staying healthy:

I need to re-focus on this now that the indulgences of the holidays are behind us. My goal is to work out at least 4 days a week and to run a 10 K before summertime.


Figure out my life:

Ha. If only I could do this in a year... anyway, I have such a love/hate relationship with teaching, and my mind is all over the place. I need to figure out where I can best contribute to the world at large and be happy doing it.

Take photos:

I am in the process of buying my first SLR, and I can't wait to take it out and about. I want to begin taking this a bit more seriously and really devoting some of my time to practicing and becoming better.


Travel:

While I already have one ticket under my belt for February (Dominican, YEAH!), I'd like to take about a month-long trip this summer. Some thoughts are either a Latin American Adventure (surprise surprise) OR a Morocco/Egypt escapade.

Don't Judge:

I am great at finding a group of people I love and respect and admire...I'm less good at accepting those that don't fall into that category. If you don't work hard, I judge. If you have different political views, I judge. If you sound stupid on a train, I judge. Am I a horrible person? Maybe. Am I being honest? Absolutely. I need to be better at not judging. Basically, I want to work on re-wiring my brain so that I'm more accepting of people I may not necessarily agree with.

Six weeks and counting...

The first day back at work after an idyllic winter break required a drastic purchase to maintain some semblance of sanity for the next six weeks:

Depart:

Philadelphia, PA Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Depart:	Sunday, February 14, 2010	05:55 PM	PHL
Arrive:	Sunday, February 14, 2010	10:36 PM	SDQ

Return: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Philadelphia, PA

Depart:	Sunday, February 21, 2010	11:30 AM	SDQ
Arrive:	Sunday, February 21, 2010	02:08 PM	PHL

MJ

There's a new generation of MJ fanatics, and one of them is in my classroom. Today, I saw her bust some unreal MJ dance moves in front of 300 plus people during a field trip to a hip hop performance.

Progressive education

 We've taught you that the earth is round
That red and white make pink
And something else that matters more
We've taught you how to think
-Diffendoofer Day


 My thoughts are a-brewing about next steps. Get excited, world. 

Did I mention?

That my kids this year are brilliant? Oh, and this class of fifth graders also happens to be the Say Yes class, which means, among other things, they have college paid for to any university they choose to attend when they graduate from high school.

Rules we live by:

Work Hard. Love Learning. Respect our Community.


To set the tone for the class:

Day one:
Read Up the Learning Tree, a story about a slave boy who wasn't allowed to read and climbed a tree every day to learn to spy on a teacher's lessons and carved letters into the tree.

Day two:
Introduced these images of a bus school program in the slums of India.

Homework:
Draw connections between Henry in Up the Learning Tree and the students in India.


Start of Day Three:

Beautifully brilliant discussion about Henry and the students in India. Students started the discussion by talking about how grateful both Henry and the students in India were to just have the opportunity to learn and how they took advantage of any resources they had, even if they didn't have much to work with. They talked about how much they wanted to learn. They also talked about how the school in India had varying ages and that it must be hard to teach all those different ages on their correct levels. Then, we started talking about what this makes us think about the opportunities we have. The students talked about how lucky they were to have what they have and especially with Say Yes. Then, one girl said: We could start a program like Say Yes for the students in India! This sparked what one of my students called "an explosion of our minds!" Where literally every single student had their hands raised with ideas about what we could do to make the education experience for students in India and students around the world better. Their ideas included:

-Creating a Say Yes Program in India
-Building them a school
-Sending them our extra books and resources
-Building a classroom inside an RV for the students
-Creating a charity
-Going to India as a class and teaching the students what we know
-Bringing the students to our class for a year
-Creating a program for retired teachers to go teach in India
-Creating a program for teachers in the summer to go teach in India.

My mind was literally blown. They were such brilliant thinkers and social entrepreneurs I couldn't get over it! The beautiful thing is they were having a discussion in which they built off of each other's ideas and used accountable talk prompts like, "I agree with ____," or, "to add onto what ____" said....they were communicating better than 95% of adults communicate with one another. I kept telling them how floored I was with their ideas! I asked them how many of them were just in love with the conversation and all of their hands shot up, some shot both hands up. Some of them were having a hard time with the idea of "loving learning" on day 1. I told them that THIS is what loving learning feels like, and it was like a light bulb clicked in their heads. I asked if they were just in love with learning at that moment and again all hands shot up.

I could not ask for a better way to end week 1. What a beautiful thing to witness.

Making the classroom a happy place

Here is my classroom, eagerly awaiting 25 new faces to enter its doors tomorrow: