Today, I am grateful for reading. I am currently reading a couple of books, my goal is a chapter a day. I am starting Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor by Kim Kelly. I am a few chapters in to The 1619 Project created by Nikole Hannah-Jones. I am going to be rereading Quiet Power: The Secret Strengths of Introverted Kids by Susan Cain. I am listening to an audiobook of The World and All That It Holds: A Novel by Aleksander Hemon. All of this is what reading is. Rereading. Audiobooks. A chapter a day or not. I know that my understanding of American History, World History, Psychology, life, work, play, relationships, learning, growing, children, friends, traveling, war, food, Government, language, reading, enviromental justice, all improved when I started reading. Reading is addicting. When I decide that I am going to sit and read, I want that feeling of being able to pick up something or listen to something that tranfers my mind and spirit to the places the authors want me to go. I know that the writers are painting a picture with their words but I am creating what these scenes look like and how the characters are moving and talking. It really a magical, nonreplicatable, feeling. Now, after writing this, I am going to go read to start my day!
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Today, I am grateful for Sunday mornings.
Nothing on the schedule. No meetings. No games for the kids. No work. I pulled out my lawn chairs to sit out in the area in front of my apartment to sit in the sun. What I hear:
Now, Dayterbug is sleeping, coffee has been made and I have taken a couple of drinks, already played my CandyCrush and going to check if I have any new lives, put a sweatshirt on. Next, going to read a chapter from The 1619 Project: The New Origin Story created by Nikole Hannah-Jones and a chapter from Fight Like Hell: The Untold Story of American Labor by Kim Kelly. Listen to Avett Brothers while reading. Later, watch NCAA basketball, play video games, hopefully take a nap, enjoy some food, send messages to my daughters, message with Palacios and Otto, call my parents, talk sports betting with my brother. Sunday mornings are dope! Today, I am grateful for the ability to support others.
My son and I met up with Mr. Palacios and Ms. AM at the Phoenix Heart Walk today, Saturday. We could have all slept in. Hit snooze and roll over. Wake up and do something for us because we have been going all week teaching and pouring into others. Instead, we woke up and went for a walk together supporting and participating in the American Heart Associations Phoenix Heart Walk. I brought my son because I want him to experience things beyond just himself. I went because I want to support others and be a part of something bigger than myself. Today was a good day. Today, I am grateful for Fridays. Every other Friday I am working from 7:30am-9:30pm going from teaching to working at Four Peaks. This is a long day but the people, students to patrons to my co-workers, make it enjoyable. Other Fridays, I am going to pick up my son from school and hearing his excitement. Having the night and the weekend to do whatever we want to do. Some Fridays, I go to my daughters' sports, either volleyball or soccer. Fridays are different. I look forward to all my Fridays for different reasons. It is wild we only have 8 more Fridays this school year before summer break! Today, I hope you and I have a good Friday! Today, I am grateful for being able to learn and grow in my teaching by having positive relationships with my colleagues especially my co-teacher for two class periods, Mr. Otto.
Mr. Otto cares about doing his best and our best for all students. He cares about relationships and building relationships with all students. I like to think big and futuristic and how we can change things and make things, hopefully, better for what we do in the classroom and the environment and experiences we provide for learning. Mr. Otto will listen to those ideas and then say how do we actually do the steps to make that successful. I believe both of these are needed to do good work in the classroom for all students. Dreaming big is good but being able to know and do the day-to-day steps to be successful is absolutely needed. Getting to know Mr. Otto has allowed me to know that we can talk about what is happening in the classroom and we both want to do what is best for our students and even if we may disagree about how to handle something we will both support each other to do an action that we believe will be better for our students. Joking with Mr. Otto and students throughout this year in the classroom, hallways and when we have hung out outside of school has really made this year a special year one at Tempe High. Thank you Mr. Otto for making my days better. Thank you Mr. Otto for helping me be a better teacher. Thank you Mr. Otto for being who you are! Today, I am grateful for rain. The sound of rain falling from the trees or off the roofs brings relief from all the other noises. The calming the gray and white and blue and black clouds bring to me is relaxing. The fresh air the rain brings me makes me take a deep breath of the rain filled air. The life sustaining nutrients it brings to our environment brings me joy. I am grateful for rain. I am starting on this journey. I am asking my students to do this for this quarter and I wanted to do it with them!
Each day, I am going to blog about something I am grateful for. Each day, I will be intentional about recognizing the things around me and in my life that I am grateful for. Format/Asks (for students) 2-3 sentences Possible sentence starter - What I am grateful for... Possible sentence starter - I am grateful for this (person/place/event/feeling) because... Today, I am grateful for my family. My parents have always been supportive of me and have always done what they can for me when I am needing their love. I am grateful for my siblings and all the joy spending time with them brings my life and I cannot wait for all of us to be together in the same spot again. I am grateful for my children. Seeing my children grow up and develop their personalities and their passions has been so rewarding. I am grateful for my nieces and nephews and cheer and celebrate all of their successes! |
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Header (above) - Black Hills, SD, 2013 Portrait (below) - Me! Compadre High School, 2021 Dylan WinceI am not a writer. Archives
May 2024
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