Tag: teachers

Angst

Going through my mother’s boxes I located a folder of my college papers. Looking through the pages I was struck by the fact that they were all hand typed sometimes more than once as I edited. I thought about all the work I put into those papers, not just the typing but the thought process and the creativity. One of the papers was a typed final essay with 7 different questions about Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Maddening Crowd. I was struck by how easy having a computer makes all that writing a little bit different. A little easier to edit. And I thought…kids have it so easy these days.

And then I really thought about that statement and I quickly amended it in my head. We’ve created chaos for our children.  Gaming and social media, screen time and streaming or binging series after series. We’ve let them grow up too fast. Kids have far less time for just being kids; playing outside until dark kind of time. Activities keep them busy like soccer and basketball but competition is different than just play. I’m not going to get all the way on top of this soap box but I worry about our youngest demographic. 

Picking up my phone today I had an email concerning a new Iowa Senate bill being presented that would restrict schools from teaching social emotional learning. People in favor of the bill believe the ridiculous notion that we are trying to indoctrinate students into a specific LGBTQ lifestyle or critical race theory because we as educators want to help them manage their emotions.  And don’t get me started on House File 8-removing any instruction about gender identity or all that Ron DeSantis is attempting in Florida. It’s beyond heartbreaking as a teacher. Because we want kids to be themselves. Promoting empathy and kindness or teaching real history as a teacher should not make us criminals. 

I know the world is different than the 1970’s and 80’s when I did most of my growing up yet common human decency should still be prevalent. I fear in today’s Republicans a return to a world long ago, one where anything different was the enemy. I read a picture book to young students in the library about a young girl wearing a Hijab as she begins 6th grade-it doesn’t mean that I’m promoting the Muslim religion. So much to navigate in these waters. Our public schools are doing a great job everyday, taking care of all the students that we have and SEL has been a great help for all of us. With all that kids have to manage today helping them to understand themselves more shouldn’t be threatening.

Angst.

Peaceful Reading…

Writing, trying to stay normal 2

Happy Friday!

We are on day 10 of our Shelter in Place and what I’ve learned so far is it’s important to make a schedule and get dressed each day. And I mean both of these pretty loosely; I try and do yoga every day, I do something for school, and I do get dressed but that could be sweat pants or other activewear. Most days I make food for both of us. Today is the first day our teenage daughter is home with us. She’s been on quarantine with the family she traveled with for Spring Break for the last week. She doesn’t have any symptoms and neither does the family so we deemed it safe for her to come home. We don’t know what’s really safe and what isn’t yet we missed her and felt like it was just time. It’s hard to keep our distance and it’s extremely difficult not to hug/cuddle but we’re doing it because this is the new norm.  In another week I’m going to feel comfortable to hug her.

Yesterday we had a teacher/car parade through our school neighborhoods. It was fun to honk and see students and families–I miss them all. It’s a lot more fun to teach class in person than remotely. The teenager here is struggling to understand a new set of rules for school as well. She has one college-level course that needs real assignments.  Her teacher posted assignments with no due dates and no real instruction.  It’s confusing and not exactly how she wanted the last months of her senior year to go. Everything is off the table; senior skip day, prom, dance recitals and competition. Really it’s the essence of being a senior that’s been cut short.  Plus her sibling are all trying to make it through.  Kaylee is in Brooklyn trying to shelter in place as she works from home. She takes walks and even then it is too crowded on the streets she says. Tristan is still going to work every day hoping he doesn’t fall ill. Everyone is worried about money and rent, house payments and toilet paper.

It would be real easy to bury your head in your covers and not come out for a few weeks.  Obviously I’ve contemplated this more than once but I find it much healthier to get up at a decent time, have breakfast, do some yoga, clean something (even myself), and read.  I limit watching shows or movies until the evening. We’ve been great about taking our dogs for walks, getting out breathing the crisp air.  We’ve played cards and board games-don’t know how we will do that with the teenager yet but we’ll figure it out.  March seems to be going out like a lamb not a lion so I hope spring weather is just around the corner. I would love a walk without the biting cold.  I always said my house would be the best place to be stuck indefinitely because I have stacks and stacks of books.

Right now I’m reading The Way the Crow Flies by Ann-Marie McDonald (800 pgs). And I’ve finished Netflix’s Next in Fashion, Virgin River, and still watching Sex Education.  I think my goal for next week is to read chapter books using Google Classroom and posting for students to listen in. What are you doing to keep yourself busy?

Peaceful Reading…

Two books for you to read…

There is something magical that happens to me when a student says “You’ve GOT to read this book Mrs. Holt” as they clutch said book tightly in front of them and add “It is soooo good!” (eyes sparkling)

This recently happened with a new-to-Hansen 5th grader, Gabby, and she said all this about Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper, which was on our Iowa Children’s Choice list this year. I always intend to start that book straight away yet that actually rarely happens.  That sweet book sat at my desk for a few weeks and finally I finished a stream of other books and picked that one up and brought it home. I am so excited to return to school tomorrow and march right up to Gabby and tell her thank you for recommending this book to me!  I loved it as much as she did so now I’m holding it out to you and telling you, my fine reader, to go find this book at a library or a bookstore and take it home, settle yourself on the sofa or outside in a hammock and be prepared to be transported to Stella’s world.

Stella is living in Bumblebee, NC and she tries to write in her journal outside at night because she catches her best thoughts in the quiet.  One night she spots men in white robes and a cross on fire right across the pond from her. The Klan is active and creates terrible tension for her small community and her family. Her father joins two other men from the community to register to vote in town and Stella goes along “to be his rock”. When the Klan burns down a house belonging to one of the brave men who registered to vote the town comes together, both black and white to help.  Stella is a brave, smart, kind, and enjoyable character that eventually learns to trust her own talents as a writer. 

Did not know that Miles Davis plays Stella by Starlight, check it out! I’m sure Sharon M. Draper did.

The second book I’m excited about this week is The dog, Ray by Linda Coggin.  I found this gem at the public library while browsing the shelf for a teacher request.  It just struck me and I brought it home and it traveled to dance with me for a long rehearsal and I finished it in one day. Yes.

This is the story of 12-year-old Daisy, killed in a car accident, in the first few pages. She is whisked up to some kind of job central and lands back on earth as a…yes, a dog. So sweet. The entertaining part is that she went through the wrong shoot and she can remember her “Daisy” life. She is adopted first into a neglectful, crabby kind of family which makes her take off after a kind homeless man she meets while tied to a bench at the park. Eventually, she meets a young orphaned and homeless boy, Pip. His mother recently died and he’s trying to find his father who does not know he exists. What a journey. Pip is a delightful Oliver Twist-like young man determined to find a forever home and he and Ray find their way together. This story is filled with an interesting cast of characters and will have you turning pages rapidly.

I wish I had a song to go with this one but go back and listen to that fantastic Miles Davis tune!

Peaceful Reading…

Life is filled with surprises

Here is my life changing moment.  
One day last Spring I received a message on FB’s messenger, it just happened to pop up on my phone while I was sitting at my desk. The message stunned me and I cried right there at my desk.  
It said: “Hey Mrs Holt! Do you remember me?” 
Anton was a student of mine in North Little Rock, AR at Seventh Street Elementary.  He’d been searching online for 6 years for me. 10 years ago we left Little Rock and moved back to Iowa. It’s not much to go on when you’ve only ever called someone “Mrs. Holt” but eventually I showed up on FB for him. Miracle.
We communicated for over a year back and forth from Iowa to Texas and eventually his situation changed and we made the family decision to bring him here to Iowa-on the bus. It took 3 days.  He’d never travelled that far on his own. He was so proud of himself for being willing to go far from home.
He wants to go to school, he wants to work, and live life like others do. He just needs a leg up. He is the first in his family to graduate from high school and he wants more out of life than what he has seen. I knew he was worth it way back in 5th grade when I helped him frequently at home and at school. He is adjusting to Iowa, the cold, and being part of our family again.  
Every day teachers make connections with students. We are teaching young human beings how to be human; how to think, create, and navigate the bigger world around them. It is seriously important work.
Most often we make a daily brief impression (make it kind) but every once in a while you make a life-changing affect on a person and that is monumental for both.  It might make you cry at your desk at some point. That Anton would look for me for 6 years brings me such joy; knowing that as a 5th grader he was paying attention to everything we did together.  I wish he could have found me sooner but it worked out when it did. I’m grateful for our time together now. 

Peaceful Reading…

29 days of book love

Boy meets Boy by David Levithan is a book I won on a blog giveaway years ago in the early days of this blog.  I didn’t know who Levithan was but the book had an interesting premise.  The topsy turvy world that Levithan creates is one that reminds of the wild L.A. world of Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block.  They both are about worlds that don’t exist (yet).

This short novel won my book love for Paul’s story, the truth mixed in with so much good humor, and this quote:

“I’ve always known I was gay, but it wasn’t confirmed until I was in kindergarten.
It was my teacher who said so.  It was right there on my kindergarten report card: Paul is definitely gay and has very good sense of self.
I saw it on her desk one day before naptime. And I have to admit: I might not have realized I was different if Mrs. Benchly hadn’t pointed it out.  I mean, I was five years old.  I just assumed boys were attracted to other boys.  Why else would they spend all of their time together, playing on teams, and making fun of the girls? I assumed it was because we all liked each other.  I was still unclear how girls fit into the picture, but I thought I knew the boy thing A-OK….”

Which leads to this conversation with his teacher…

“Am I definitely gay?”
Mrs. Benchly looked me over and nodded.
“What’s gay?” I asked.
“It’s when a boy likes other boys,” she explained.
I pointed over to the painting corner, where Greg Easton was wrestling on the ground with Ted Halpern.
“Is Greg gay?” I asked.
“No.” Mrs. Benchly answered. “At least not yet.”
Interesting. I found it all very interesting.
Mrs. Benchly explained a little more to me-the whole boys-liking girls thing. I can’t say I understood.  Mrs. Benchly asked me if I’d noticed that marriages were mostly made up of men and women.  I had never really thought of marriages as things that involved liking. I had just assumed this man-woman arrangement was yet another adult quirk, like flossing.  Now Mrs. Benchly was telling me something much bigger.  Some sort of global conspiracy.
“But that’s not how I feel,” I protested.  My attention was a little distracted because Ted was now pulling up Greg Easton’s shirt, and that was kind of cool. “How I feel is what’s right…right?”
“For you, yes,” Mrs. Benchly told me. “What you feel is absolutely right for you. Always remember that.”

And that last line is golden.  Oh how I wish we truly had conversations with students like this. Although odd that Mrs. Benchly openly points out Paul’s sexuality via his report card but his sense of self worth-yes! It’s funny and filled with very real characters.

My copy has this lovely inscription:

Peaceful Reading…

Operation Yes

(2009)

     I picked this gem up from our fall Scholastic Book Fair and let it sit on a pile forever at home.  Spring Break rolled around and I thought to myself…perhaps I should read it before the next book fair is here.  Well, our book fair is here and I’ve finished the book.  I don’t know why it takes me so long sometimes because this book was so much fun and easy to read.  It takes place at a military base school.  This isn’t a topic I’ve given a lot of thought to but it makes you stop and ponder the stress level military kids must go through on a daily basis.  Parents missing for long stretches, moving frequently and constant activitity on the base and this book deals with all these issues in a very normal manner.  Planes fly overhead as kids plan activities around their parents hectic schedules-all part of daily life.

     Add in one incredible teacher though and life goes topsy-turvy. Ms. Loupe is an alumni of this particular base and has come back to teach instead of taking her place in the military as the rest of her entire family has done.  She’s found her passion though as these kids love her and her magical lessons.  I started reading some of it to my sweet husband and his ears perked up “hey, she’s teaching them the important points of improvisation!”  He was pretty excited.  Then later he gave it as a suggestion for teachers to use in teaching drama.  Ms. Loupe is all about the drama and she gets this otherwise bored kids to be exciting about school and learning again.  Suddenly kids don’t want to be transferred out! 

     When Ms. Loupe’s brother disappears in combat the students learn to work together, forming a createve and unique protest, with very positive results! 

Now that I have my book fair set up I’ve already found a few more gems like this one to add to my piles!

4/5 peaceful stars
Recommended for elementary fiction
and all drama teachers
Peaceful Reading…