Slice of Life: Home

You can read my post here. Just so you know, pretty soon all of our new content will be over at A(nother) Year of Reading. But no worries. All of the archives will remain here.

Slice of Life: #TeachersWrite

Thank you Two Writing Teachers for saving me a spot
in this amazing community of writers. It's been awhile...

Thank you also to Kate Messner for the annual #TeachersWrite...event? ...challenge? ...encouragement.

The topic for this first week is Reflect. 

"...think about a time when you were growing up and you felt peaceful and whole."

It's wiltingly hot today in Ohio. Hot like nothing I experienced growing up in arid Eastern Colorado. As a teen, I sat in the glaring heat on a lifeguard stand above a blue-as-the-sky swimming pool. For 45 minutes at a time, I scanned swimmers, counted heads, and shouted the occasional, "DON'T RUN!" I was in a zone. It was some kind of chlorine- and Coppertone-scented Zen. It was my identity. I knew exactly who I was and how to do the work (if you can call it that).

In today's muggy haze, I entered a different kind of Zen in the garden. It was a dirt- and green-scented Zen as I dug the invasive spiderwort out of the spot between the Japanese iris (long done blooming) and the day lilies (just putting up buds). Luckily, I was mostly in the shade, and also luckily, the mosquitoes weren't attacking. Gardening is one part of my grownup identity, and I'm as glad for the air conditioning and the shower as I was back then for a quick dip in the pool during rest period.

 

Yet Another Lesson From a Bike Ride

The other Lessons From Bike Rides are here

I walked up to the door of the health club and saw the sign: Pool Closed for Repairs. There went my Sunday and Wednesday swims for the next 10 days.

As I turned around and headed back to the car, I was thankful for the nice weather. I would take a bike ride instead of swimming.

The Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (she'll be a featured speaker at NCTE this year--SO excited!!) warned of the danger of a single story in her TED talk. What I realized in that moment when I turned away from a swim and toward a bike ride is the danger of a single EXERCISE story. We should always make sure we have options. Otherwise, if there is a time when we can't do THIS, we will have no THAT to turn to.

The bigger lesson is about diversification. It is good to have lots of <that> in my life so when <this> isn't possible, I've got plenty of options.

Another Lesson From a Bike Ride

It was my longest bike ride so far this summer. We went all the way from home to beyond the Scioto Mile downtown, to the Scioto Audubon Metropark. About 25 miles round trip. I felt strong almost all the way, but I knew that when we turned off the bike path at the Broadmeadows bridge over the Olentangy River, what would remain was a long grueling uphill ride to home.

As we approached the Broadmeadows bridge, I talked to myself. "You've got this! Push through! Finish strong!"

I probably could have made it all the way home without walking. But it also occurred to me that "finish strong" doesn't have to mean "finish without taking a break." Perhaps my finish could be stronger and more satisfying if I got off my bike, stretched a bit, walked a bit, and had a drink of water before I attacked that final hill.

I took a break. And then I really did finish strong. Stronger than if I had tried to slog through without resting.

And there's the lesson. This school year, when it all gets to be too much and what comes next is a grueling uphill climb, let's remember to take a break so that we can get to the top of every hill still feeling strong.

Lessons From A Bike Ride

I went for a bike ride this morning before it got too hot. I labored up a long, grueling hill with my eyes on the bit of the street just in front of my front tire. In the nick of time, I looked up and avoided a low-hanging tree branch that would certainly have smacked me in the face.

This experience seems to be the perfect cautionary tale for the school year. At some point, the newness wears off and a week can start to feel like a long, grueling hill. With our heads down and our eyes focused on only what is right in front of us, we risk shortsightedness and a reactionary way of dealing with unexpected things that pop up. Let's remember to keep our heads up and our eyes on the long view, enjoying all of the scenery around us and watching for low hanging branches. Let's celebrate the hill rather than cursing it, knowing that we will be stronger when we get to the top.

Slices of Life

SLICES OF LIFE, by Grant Snider

...for the rest of this visual poem, click here.

Wouldn't it be fun to give students the verbs Snider uses, have them create a visual poem, and then compare their creations to his?

Maybe we need to try it first...

Slice of Life -- Overheard Last Week

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

We were taking a restroom break after the whole-school Town Hall meeting on Friday. Most of the class stood quietly in the hall, waiting for their friends to finish up and I asked if anyone knew what time it was. One boy looked at his watch and said, "11:11."

"Ooh!" I said. "Everyone close your eyes and make a wish!" When we opened our eyes, I exclaimed, "I wasted my wish! I should have wished for (insert name here) to have a successful surgery without pain!" (She had a blocked tear duct and a painful-looking swelling under her eye that wasn't responding to medication.)

On my right, (insert name here) chimed up brightly, "It's okay! That's what I wished for!"

On my left, (insert name here) asked, "What did you wish for, Ms. Hahn?"

"I wished for the rest of the school year to be as wonderful as these first three days," I replied.

And he said, "That's what I wished for, too!"

Joy.

Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for hosting Slice of Life on Tuesdays.

Slice of Life -- The Power of Moments

I wrote a blog post last August about our "failed" fly fishing trip to Vermont. I decided that I wasn't going to let one big expectation for this school year determine whether or not it was a good year. I made the choice to capture one shining moment every day, all year long. I bought myself a little purple journal, and every day I "caught a fish." What a gift I've given myself! Moments that would have been lost in the swift current of the flow of time are saved there for me to look back on and remember. It was a great year, and I lived it one day at a time.

My students and I captured moments every week when we created our "Top Ten" for the weekly newsletter I sent to parents. I have those newsletters archived on my class website.

On Tuesday, in the silence after we clapped the fifth graders out of the building and cheered the buses out of the parking lot, I wrote this Top 10 for the school year:

10  Our Friday routines (Poetry Friday, Top 10 and newsletter, blogging, Genius Hour), including "LUNCH!" and the laughter that brought us every week.

9  The list of read alouds on the closet door. We shared so many great books, and spent an hour finishing our final read aloud on the last day of school.

8  Our "words to live by." I loved that wall full of inspiration.

7  One Little Word. I hope the students will choose another word to live by each January. One word is so much better than a whole list of failed resolutions.

6  Our weird math schedule. At first it was so awkward to have 10 more minutes of math after related arts. But with time and flexibility, we worked that 10 minutes for all it was worth. I need to remember not to get hung up on things that don't work out the way I planned. I need to be flexible and creative and make the most of what I'm given!

5  Book clubs. The conversations and learning were priceless.

4  Open-ended ("rich") math problems. My learning curve for math instruction went steeply up at the end of the year when I started designing my own math problems, rather than finding them online. I can't wait to continue improving my math instruction next year!

3  Choice in writing workshop. The writing the students did at the end of the year, when they could choose their genre and topic, was phenomenal. I need to figure out how to build choice time into writing workshop throughout the year in between our mandated units of study.

2  Genius Hour. What a grand experiment this was! I think most of the students would put it at #1 in their own Top 10 for 5th grade. It was one of the best risks I've ever taken.

1  My class. It took longer than usual for this class to gel as a community, but perhaps it was because that gel didn't come easily or early that it made it so much sweeter when it finally happened. This group was filled with such an amazing collection of smart, funny, quirky, sensitive, creative, helpful, talented, honest, enthusiastic...characters. I am a better person for having spent the year with them.

Slice of Life: Lost and Found Writing

Almost 20 years ago, we lived in a neighborhood with a magnificent gingko tree at the end of our street. It stood, not in a yard, but in front of an industrial business. One autumn morning, when I was out early walking the dog, I found the tree, which had been full of yellow light just the day before, a skeleton of bare branches with a perfect circle of yellow leaves on the ground underneath it. I went home and wrote this story.

*   *   *   *   *

In the Way Back, in the time of naming things, Earth Woman lived beside the Gingko Tree. 

During the Hot Time, its fan-shaped leaves cooled her all through her working days. 

As the nights grew chilly and the days shortened, Earth Woman was more and more thankful for the warmth of her fire.

One morning, Earth Woman noticed that the tree who had fanned her in the Hot Time had turned the bright yellow of the flames of her fire. Even though the tree gave off no heat, its yellow light warmed her all through her working days.

Soon there came a night of sharp frost, and the day that followed was no warmer. The Cold Time had stopped teasing and had finally arrived. 

Earth Woman sat in the yellow light of the Gingko Tree and pulled her blankets more tightly around her on that first morning of the Cold Time. She turned her thoughts back to the Hot Time and thanked the Spirits for all of the particular joys of that time. Then she said goodbye to those memories as she prepared to embrace each of the particular joys of the Cold Time.

As she began releasing her memories, she heard a faint rustling around her and felt light kisses on her head and shoulders and knees. She opened her eyes for a moment and saw that the Gingko was also releasing its memories in a steady flutter of leaves -- the yellow light, like shattered rays of sun or individual flames of fire, was leaving the tree to join Earth Woman on the ground.

Earth Woman smiled, closed her eyes, and resumed her goodbyes.

When she opened her eyes again, the tree was bare and she sat in a pool of fallen light. Her memories of the Hot Time had all been released and she was ready to accept this first memory of the Cold Time. She looked around at the fallen leaves, the fallen light, and she named her first memory of the Cold Time. 

She named it Fall. 

*   *   *   *   *

On Sunday, we biked through our old neighborhood and then south for an hour in the glorious autumn sunshine. The gingko tree is still there, and so is the ghost of Earth Woman.

Slice of Life: What We Don't Know

If I had known when we set out for our fly fishing trip to Vermont that I wouldn't catch a single fish, I probably wouldn't even have bothered to try.

Don't get me wrong, the trip was not a failure. There was the otter, the kingfisher, the B&Bs, the Orvis Outlet Store, Niagara Falls. There are a myriad of moment-uous memories. Just none that involve trout at the end of my line.

That got me thinking about high stakes testing. I "fish" my heart out for the entire school year, and invariably, I don't "catch" much. And then I beat myself up.

Well, this year's going to be different. I'm not going to worry about the year as a whole. Instead of taking one big trip that depends on a single outcome, I'm going to slice this year up into 180 daily jaunts. Whatever good comes with each day (whether I aim for it, or it happens in spite of my intentions) will be the "trout" of the day.

I know this isn't a new way of thinking, but it finally makes sense to me. And I'm going to go with it.

Let's check back in a couple of months and see how it's working out for me.

Until then, I'll wish you tight lines, and be sure you watch your back cast.

Slice of Life -- Hemming

One of the jobs on Mom's to-do list for me last week was to hem a couple of pairs of pants for her.

I should back up to say that my mom was a Master Seamstress in her day, trained under the iron rule of her mother, who was a Home-Ec teacher. (Raise your hand if you even know what Home-Ec is...yeah, I thought so...) When Mom started to teach me to sew, we nearly came to blows. She is a perfectionist. I am a generalist. But she cared enough that I learn to sew that she bought me sewing lessons from a teacher who was a little less like her and a little more like me. I became a functional seamstress.

Teaching Lesson #1 -- If you are not the right teacher for a student, have the humility to find the teacher who can best teach that learner.

After we got the pants measured and pinned, I went to work. I wanted to do a really good job. I wanted to make Mom proud that I'm at least a functional seamstress, and maybe just a little better than that. But I was having problems. The legs of the pants were tapered at the bottom, so the hemming was turning out bunchy. Since I wanted to do a really good job, I asked for help.

Learning Lesson #1 -- If it's not turning out the way you want it to, have the humility to ask for help.

I didn't even have the question out of my mouth before Mom knew what the problem was: the tapering. She came and showed me that if I switched the pins from horizontal to the hem to perpendicular to the hem my work would lay flatter. Then she confirmed my suspicion that it would help to take bigger stitches. Then she left me to it.

Teaching Lesson #2 -- Give just enough help to get the learning going again and then get out of the way.

Hemming the second pair of pants when smoothly. I didn't have to cut any off, the fabric was more considerate, and I was back in the groove of hand-hemming. My stitches were quick and even.

Learning Lesson #2 -- Just because one task is frustrating doesn't mean that every task like that is going to be frustrating. Don't give up. Persevere when things get hard...but also remember to enjoy the feeling when things go smoothly.

Teaching and learning...and hemming pants. Good stuff.

Slice of Life

I went shopping on Saturday for winter shoes.  I'm not sure if you've noticed, but boots seem to have taken over the shoe departments in every store in the country this year.  I wanted to take a picture of the shoe department at Macy's on Saturday because, of the 500 pairs of "shoes" on display, 495 of them were boots.  Shoes were almost nowhere to be found.

I texted a few friends from the boot department sharing photos and asking what I could wear certain boots with.  I looked around at the shoppers in the store to see how they were wearing boots. Honestly, either anything goes OR a lot of people seem confused about how to wear boots this season.  I texted Ruth since she had on cute boots last time I saw her and I asked, "What kind of shoes does one wear this winter? Standing in the shoe department and all I see is boots." Ruth's reply: "Why would you wear shoes when you could wear BOOTS?"

Flickr Photo Boots on the Street by Darren Hall 

I am a seasoned shopper so I guess I should have picked up the clues from the display more quickly:  The trend is no shoes this season. Boots. Only boots.   There are ankle boots, high boots, REALLY high boots, mid-calf boots, rustic boots, dressy boots, flat boots, warm boots, camouflage boots, boots with zippers, tie-up boots, cowboy boots and more. I didn't know where to begin. If I had a $5000 winter shoe budget, I would have had no trouble getting started as there were LOTS of cute boots. But I don't have $5000 for boots so I have to really think about what kinds of boots I need.

I decided on a basic black pair of Nine West boots. I know Nine West isn't top fashion but they are usually cute enough and they fit me well.  Well, lucky for me, I have two daughters who keep me humble. They both told me that the boots were ugly, but neither could actually tell me why. They showed me boots they liked that looked EXACTLY the same as the ones I bought, but there was some subtle difference that I couldn't see.  So I need to begin again. The problem is that the boots I love do not necessarily work with the clothes I have.  It seems boots require a different type of wardrobe.

And, yes, it does because on Sole Society, I read this blurb: "Start your look from the -SHOES UP- and create a style all your own."  Really? I buy the shoes first? Then look for an outfit to match?

So I started to look at fashion blogs to see how this boot thing was going to work this season--especially for women in their 40s. And I became even more alarmed when I read this post--If I have to think this hard in order to go for an autumn walk, it is going to be a long long season!  But lucky for me, I found this helpful post about how nice boots are for "older women" because "you may not have the balance you once had in your disco days."  Well, another pleasant addition to my boot shopping experience.

I'll be taking a break from boot shopping for a few days, but I know I am on a timeline to figure this out so that I have the right shoes boots for the season.  On a positive note, thinking about new boots is a pretty fun way to spend my energy, I guess.

No point to this story at all, just a true slice of my life this week:-)


P.S. Last time I had a shoe dilemma, Patrick Allen was a big help (NOT). Wonder if he'll send me some shoe advice again this time!

Slice of Life: Why (Land Lab Edition)

Thanks to Stacy and the team at Two Writing Teachers for hosting
Slice of Life every week!

Why I stopped pulling weeds.

Can you see her there, hanging upside down?

Why I stopped cutting back dead stuff.

On the yucca stalk.

Why I turned off my music.

The grandfather was singing to his granddaughter.
We just happened to leave the playground/landlab at the same time.
 I complimented his singing and asked him what language it was.
Macedonian.
MACEDONIAN!

Why I stopped cutting back the grasses.

Whose pathways? Whose home?

What I did when I slowed down.

Our strawberry plant just might make it!

What else I saw when I slowed down.

Slice of Life

When my doctor  told me I'd have to take 6 weeks off school due to my never-ending concussion, I was not happy.  (understatement) But once I'd been home for a few days, I decided I should use my time well.  There was little I could do as much of my life is consumed by "brainwork", so I decided to spend some time doing spring cleaning and finding some new hobbies--planting some things, learning some crafts, etc. I decided that regardless of how unpleasant it was to stay home, at least I'd have a clean house and I'd have learned some new crafts! I was determined to do all of those things I always meant to do if only I had the time. 

Fast forward a few months. I went into our guest bedroom and I noticed a pile of odds and ends in the corner.  Things I was meaning to donate or put away or toss.  I looked around the house and noticed other little piles waiting to be dealt with.  I realized that these were all remnants of my concussion days.  Those first weeks of time off work. Those weeks of figuring out who I could be without doing the things I love most.

Well, it is now October, 3 months from when the concussion restrictions were lifted.  And, guess what? I still haven't taken care of that pile and my guest room closet is a little bit of a mess again.  The minute I had restrictions lifted, I went back to my "regular" life.

And, the tomatoes I planted?  Well, you can see in the photo above how those turned out...I pretty much forgot about them the minute I was able to get back to my life of reading, writing, exercise, work, thinking.

I'm always looking for the big lessons in life and it seems that there is something to learn from all of this.  My thinking is that the lesson is about accepting the fact that I am who I am. I had some time to live my life without those "brainwork" things that I love most.  I tried some new things, most of which I haven't held onto.  Because really, when given the choice between cleaning and reading, I choose reading. When given the choice between watering tomatoes and almost anything else, I choose almost anything else.  At some point, I imagine the piles will get to me enough that I choose to take care of them before I choose to sit down and read a book.  But, not today.  

 If there are a few extra piles around the house, chances are I found something to do that was more worthwhile than dealing with them.  Rather than looking at the dead tomato plants or the pile on the floor and beating myself up about not doing all that I have decided "I should", my concussion weeks taught me  that I am the one who gets to choose how to spend my time.  And that alone is a gift, something to celebrate.  I realized that I have taken that for granted all of my life. 

Slice of Life: A Visit to the Pet Store

We are now a family with 2 dogs.  Deciding to get a puppy for our 14 year old was a big decision but the timing seemed right.  We have not had a puppy for a VERY long time and we are EXHAUSTED! Arnie (the puppy) is adorable and we are having fun but he is a handful for sure!

I decided that Arnie needed some new chew toys as he has been chewing on the carpet, the windowsill, the woodwork and the kitchen chairs.  I thought maybe finding toys that had more interesting textures would keep the puppy off the other chewables in the house.  So, we made a trip to the Pet Store. We came home with a few toys that seem to be helping. But I must say, I have not been to a pet store to shop in years. Our older dog doesn't really play and hasn't played much in years. So the trip to the pet store was quite an experience.

Who knew that you could dress your dog as Big Bird for Halloween?

Who knew that they had Ugly Christmas Sweaters for dogs?

AND....Who knew they had Halloween Socks for dogs?

We restrained from the Halloween costume and the Christmas sweater but I could not resist the socks (that come in packs of 4, of course!). I was sure Arnie would be adorable in these socks. My husband, however, adamantly disagreed as he has said from the start that Arnie is a "cool dog" and he did not think these socks were cool enough for Arnie.

Well, we got home and Ana tried to put the socks on Arnie. He doesn't growl often but he did growl and snarl once the first sock was placed on his foot.  I figured he would get used to it and tried again the next morning. The minute I tried to put on the sock, he grabbed it from my hand and ran away with it. Within seconds, nearly the entire sock was in his mouth and he ran far away.  We are pretty sure he would have swallowed it whole but we caught him and had a 2 minute battle to pull the sock out of his mouth.  He clearly hates the socks.  (My husband reiterated that the socks are totally uncool...)

How a sweet little baby puppy can hate these adorable Halloween socks is beyond me. Hoping he is not opposed to the ugly Christmas Sweater in a few months....

Slice of Life: Starbucks!

If you are a student in my classroom, you know that every so often, I will yell out, “Has anyone seen my tea?”  My students are used to seeing me carry my Venti sized Starbucks cup around the classroom as I work.  And they become very skilled at finding it for me when I seem to have placed it on a bookshelf, a table or the floor next to my stool.  They know that my mornings begin at Starbucks.

Can you find my Starbucks cup?

There are lots of things I love about living in Dublin, Ohio.  One of them is that, in my opinion, we have the best Starbucks in the world. I find a Starbucks in every city I visit and I have yet to find one that compares to the downtown Dublin Starbucks.   It is the place I stop on my way into school every morning.  The Starbucks is in the middle of town and there is no drive through.  No matter the weather, everyone goes in to get their morning caffeine.  This 5-minute stop on my way to school, has become a favorite way to start my days and my students come to learn this about me pretty quickly.

Many mornings I walk into Starbucks to find my Venti Awake Hot Tea already ready before I even order at the counter. The cup has been marked with my name—the staff often notices when I enter.  And every so often a little drawing decorates my cup.  A fun treat at random times. A staff member may ask questions about the school year. I might ask one of the girls behind the counter how her new baby is doing.  They know me from our quick morning conversations and we’ve come to share quick stories every morning. 

Everyone is on a first name basis at "my" Starbucks.  I realized after weeks of thinking that the Starbucks employees loved me most, that everyone gets the same treatment in the morning. Everyone gets the one-one-one personal hello that I do. I call it my “3-minute Cheers experience”. 

Last winter, a man in front of me, in town for a business meeting said, “When you get up there, will they already know what you want?” He had been watching for a few minutes and picked up the feel of this particular Starbucks.  He was amazed at the relationships that the crew had with nearly every person who ordered a drink.  It doesn’t take long for visitors to realize that this place has a lot of positive energy.  They can't help but smile as they watch.

This is the perfect morning stop for me on the way to school. My family and friends continue to be amazed that I will get out of the car in thunderstorms and ice in order to get my Starbucks fix.  But my morning stop is about more than the tea.  Every day,  my day starts off in a positive way.  And, I am reminded of how important those first minutes of the morning are and of how important a positive transition to each day can be.  I’ve learned that a quick hello and acknowledgement can set my day off right. 

I carry my Starbucks cup around all morning.  I love hot tea but my Starbucks cup has come to be a reminder of my morning and the life lessons I've learned from my morning stops into Starbucks over the past 5 years.  My Starbucks cup reminds me how you can really get to know someone in just a minute or two each day and that those conversations add up.  It reminds me that those first few minutes in the morning matter. They set the stage for the day.  Taking 30 seconds out to really say hello to each child who walks into the classroom—before the busy-ness of the day takes over, can set the tone for the day. It is easy to get caught up in “getting ready for the day” instead of really focusing on each child as they walk through the doorway.  

In a Facebook post last week, my brilliant friend Jen Ochoa reminded me of a Maya Angelou quote I heard years ago, "You must remember, the very first thing a child sees, the first thing they notice when they see you, is you seeing them. They look carefully to see what your face looks like as you lay eyes upon their face. When you see a child, no matter what, remember to fix your face." 

My daily visits to Starbucks are about so much more than caffeine:-)

New Contest at Two Writing Teachers!

Ruth and Stacey at Two Writing Teachers have announced a great new March contest--"The Slice of Life" Challenge. They are challenging bloggers to post and link Slice of Life Stories. On March 31, they will have a drawing for the winner. They suggest having your students write Slice of Life stories. They have great ideas, forms, etc. posted on their blog if you are interested in challenging your students. But I found it to be the perfect excuse to write our own Slice of Life Stories--those things we never take the time to write about. I already have a few ideas. I am pretty sure I won't win the contest but I am so excited to join in by adding a few of my own personal pieces. Stay tuned and join in the fun!