Blessed to Teach and Read

A couple of nights ago, as I was getting ready for bed, a song from decades past popped into my head.  It has a dissonant, forlorn tune*, which somewhat matched my mood.  I think I sang it as part of high school all-state honor choir.  Its lyrics are from George Eliot's poem, "The Choir Invisible".  I found myself singing the last stanza of her poem: May I reach That purest heaven, be to other souls The cup of strength in some great agony, Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love, Beget the smiles that have no cruelty, Be the sweet presence of a good diffused, And in diffusion ever more intense! So shall I join the choir invisible Whose music is the gladness of the world. The poet talks about what she hopes her legacy is after she dies.  Think about the many who "live again" when we remember the legacy that they leave us.  Someone famous?  A loved one?  Someone taken too soon by a disease or by violence? The start of her poem is: O may I ...

This January kicked off with one of the best birthdays - ever!  Lots of students gave me cards and birthday posters.  Several classes sang to me.  Had a blast!  January also brought the start of an Educational Specialist degree in Instructional Technology, completely online, through The University of West Georgia.  And now that it's UWG's spring break, I am finally making time to update my blog.  ('Cause updating my blog is much  better than doing our taxes!)  In Issues in Instructional Technology, one of the assigned texts is Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns  by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael B. Horn, and Curtis W. Johnson.  It was first written in 2008, but my copy is an expanded edition from 2017.  I LOVE reading current texts, especially since technology has changed so much year to year.  We just got to chapter four, "Disruptively Deploying Computers" about how there are ...

Scrolling back through the photos on my phone - wow, what a full year it's already been, and it's only the beginning of November!  I'm just so grateful to work with the amazing students and staff at my wonderful school! Went back to an oldie, but goodie - Quiver Vision app to make our Dot Day come to life with virtual reality. I gave students the option to donate their dot to our display, if they didn't want to take it with them.  I've seen cute, color-coordinated Dot Day displays on Pinterest, but I LOVE letting the kids express themselves and make a dot that is uniquely theirs.   Last year's 5th Grade Class Legacy Project donated enough money to buy our library 2 sets of Cubetto and some new, non-fiction books!  Both kindergarten and first grade have already done coding in the library!  Students coded routines, and subroutines, to move Cubetto around the map.  The excitement in their voices is priceless!    I added a fun les...

At the end of the first, full week of school, I was feeling on 'empty' in the emotional and physiological tank.  I was stressed, and I was completely exhausted, despite getting more sleep than usual.  Driving home after 5 p.m. on a Friday, I saw a man riding a bicycle toward oncoming traffic, on the sidewalk, though.  My mind did that, "Is that a baby on the front of his bike?!?" right as he came into focus and my brain realized it was, in fact, a toddler, and she was adorable and waving at every car as her dad biked her down the road.  I wish I had a picture.  She was the cutest!  I immediately waved back, and the man's face smiled, big, and he waved back, too.  My heart just melted.  And I was restored. Our school year started very early, on Wednesday, July 24th.  Our first day back was a district-wide look at our county's new Instructional Framework infographic.  From all that I've read about the messages companies' send to their e...

Another great year is in the books!  Am already looking ahead toward next year, gathering ideas for genrifying sections of our library, but am definitely taking some time to relax, restore, and spend time with family.   Here's a brief overview of happenings from March to May: Thanks to the VERY supportive parents of our school, we held our Spring Follett Book Fair.  (I helped decorate a bit.)  While the set-up was super easy and they give 30% cash, we've decided to go back to Scholastic Book Fairs, until they build more Follett distribution centers near us, and/or hire more staff.  We missed having a regional person on-site, to ensure that we were getting the books we needed.     I continued on with monthly Biblionasium Challenges, ending in the grand prize giveaway of 2 Paperwhite Kindles, donated by our local Zaxby's.   Loads of more lessons for my K-5 kiddos, with an emphasis on a variety different authors:...