New England perfection . . . .
. . . and what childhood summertime should be.
musings
Hidden Treasures
Summer is a time to stop and take a deep breath. Look. Listen. Enjoy.
I hope our summer posts will help you on that summery journey. Each year I pick something to share on the blog during vacation, and this summer it will be the hidden treasures of summer. Share your ideas with me anytime!
Yesterday on my first day away from the school, I found this hidden treasure . . .
Jump for Joy!
Glorious God of the universe,
The royal sky shoots from your fingertips,
Crowning the earth with a sapphire diadem.
Every blade of grass pokes out of its brown, dead nest shouting,
“Thank You, Lord, for a bright new spring!
I’m awake!
Here I am!
I praise You!”
The soft sunshine
Gently strokes the earth whispering,
“You tenderly watch over us, Creator.
You are brighter than me.
You are stronger than the gusty, fresh breeze.
The whole earth responds to the tiniest gesture of Your hand,
Awakening,
Dancing,
Smiling with joy
Over the shocking colors of Your springtime.”
Every sweet breath of air,
Every whiff of the lacy daffodil,
Every sound of wind through the long-needled pine shouts,
“Glory to God!
He is beautiful!
Our Maker is King of all!
More wonderful than our highest imaginings,
Glorious God of spring!”
Backhoes, Space Cadets, and Cannons
Over the years, I have received the most delightful collection of cards and paintings. I keep an encouragement folder of treasures like this one. I do believe this is my very first cannon card!
Wow
This was the highlight of my week. We were walking to the kickoff of Spiritual Emphasis Week, when over the horizon floated three hot air balloons. (Especially cool, since our year-long theme is Above and Beyond.)
In the middle of the message, right before our eyes, one of the balloons gently drifted down to land in our soccer field! Life is full of wonders, and how thankful I am to be experiencing those wonders alongside wide-eyed second and third graders!
Glorious Life!
As we create our procedures for the new year that will help us to use our time wisely, we always discuss interruptions. We agree that we will do our best to keep working even when unexpected distractions parade in front of us, such as cars going by the windows, people traveling through our room for various reasons, and thumpings or hee-haws from another room’s learning adventures.
We always leave ourselves an out for the occasional serendipitous opportunity though. One year we decided that we would remain engaged unless a helicopter landed on the lawn outside our window. We kept our agreement until the day someone drove around the driveway right past our windows pulling a lawn cart with a miniature donkey in it. We cracked up over that one until the last day of school!
So this year after we decided that the parade of dump trucks hauling fill to repair the flood damage on Route 4, chipmunks in our feeder, and random interruptions would not keep us from working, guess what the window seat writers spotted?
We are indeed tenaciously engaged learners, but life is too short not to stop and rejoice in hot air balloons that pass right over your school, the first riotous snowflakes of the season, and . . . . . .
Holy Mackerel! Happy Birthday, Poppop!
Today is my Poppop’s 94th birthday, and all the fourth graders know what an important part of my life he is. He keeps our whole family chuckling, for sure.
Well, there must have been a lot of changes in schools between the 1920s and now. Poppop, born in 1916, recently visited our classroom for the first time ever in my teaching career, and all he could say over and over was, “Holy mackerel! Holy mackerel!”
I’m still wondering exactly what he meant!
a school around 1920
2010
Smiling
Ways to Make a Teacher Smile:
1. Let her be with her students.
2. Have her students come back to visit when they are in 9th (or 5th, or 12th, or 200th) grade.
Speechless
I wish you could have been with me this afternoon, as one of our DES students touched my heart with a single moment that could sustain me my whole life as a teacher even if no other encouragement ever came my way.
I was watching the students play when this child called me over to watch her demonstrate something that has been hard for her on the moonwalker. She scampered across the field to invite me to watch, urging me to come closer than my “see the whole playground” location allowed. My injured knee was having a cantankerous day today, so I strolled along behind her. Suddenly, she stopped, turned around, and then raced back to me.
“Don’t worry. You don’t have to walk alone. I will stay with you.”
I long for every one of my students to feel the way I felt when she said those words to me.
Don’t worry. You don’t have to walk alone. I will stay with you.
Tea Party Friend
If you have ever been around a teacher in August, you know that our lives are a jumble. We sort through everything in our classrooms, cleaning and organizing. July’s brainstorming to find just the right ideas to reach our new students morphs into making those brainstorms reality in August. You’ll see word processing, cutting, laminating, and creating going on in big piles everywhere. Everything from designing writing notebooks to trimming and repotting the class plants happens in August.
I have been blessed with many friends, family members, and former students who drop by before school starts to help with the TRANSFORMATION. Yesterday’s helper, our volunteer Mrs. Doris Shedd, brought a brief moment of peace to the bustle. She carried a complete tea party to DES in her bookbag, including porcelain cups, a flowering teapot, and chocolate zucchini bread with sprinkles. Doesn’t that just make you smile?
