Formative Experiences

With holidays, field trips, and professional development, I must say that it's been a mighty long week for what was technically a short week.

A quick glance out the window tonight and it is no secret that the solstice is only three weeks away. At 7:30, there are blue skies illuminated by a warm, slanting sun. We're having a heat wave, too, so this day seems much more like a day in July than the last day of May.

When I was a little girl, bedtime was at 7:30, no matter the season. We had no air conditioning, so on warm nights such as this, we shucked our pajamas in favor of white cotton briefs and, in my case, a sleeveless undershirt with scalloped straps and tiny bow at the bottom of the neck line.

Back then, it felt like such a terrible loss to go to bed when there seemed to be so much left of the day-- who knew what fun and adventure we might be missing? My mother turned the bed spread down, but I can still remember my regret as I slipped between the cool, smooth sheets and laid my head on the pillow.

On some level? I'm sure that's the only reason I'm awake right now.

Role Reversal

I spent the day in a teaching workshop today, and it's fair to say that my brain is mush. It wasn't that the information wasn't valuable, it was just a lot, and there's six more hours tomorrow.

I'm exhausted! How do those kids do it every day?

Industrial Food

As part of our annual water-testing field trip, the students do a physical survey of a near-by creek located in a well-used park. One of the observations they are asked to make is to describe how the land surrounding the waterway is currently being used. Is it agricultural? Urban? Forest? Industrial?

"What's "industrial"?" one of the kids wanted to know.

"It's like a factory," the counselor told him, and then trying to be helpful, she added, "Are there any factories around here?"

He gave it some thought. "How about the Cheesecake Factory?" he suggested.

Solution

One of my students finished his assignment a little early the other day, and as he turned it in to me, he asked, "Can I solve your Rubik's cube?"

The popularity of the cubes I have on my desk has taken me back 30 years. Students are constantly asking to have a go at those brightly colored objects. They just want to hold them in their hands and twist and turn them randomly, hoping for a miracle. I can hardly criticize them-- wasn't it I who bought that Powerball ticket just the other day?

At any rate, I shrugged and tossed this guy one of the cubes. I've found them to be excellent incentives for encouraging kids to finish their work.

In retrospect, I should have been tipped off by this particular student's choice of verbs, for it was less than two minutes later that he handed me a cube with six perfect faces. Certainly I gasped, and I know I clapped in delight, because

it

was

really

cool!

Sea Change

I have never been a countdown person.

25 days to go!

Then there's That

I've written before about the young woman I used to be mentor to when she was in sixth grade. I stay in touch with her mostly through social media, and it amuses me sometimes that at 22 her brain is still as quirky as it was half her life ago.

Today she posted a photo of a dead squirrel lying bloodied on the pavement. I cringed when I saw it, wondering what possessed her to share such a gruesome image. I noticed that another of her friends had the same reaction.

"Why????" the friend commented.

"Hit by a car," my former student replied.

Benediction

I'm not a hugger, but I hugged my cousin tight tonight before we put her on a train for Florida, and I wiped more than a few tears as we walked back to our car, too.

When my brother and sister and I were children we said our prayers together every night. After the Lord's Prayer, the Hail Mary, and Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, we would end by saying, God bless Mommy and Daddy, Tracey, Billy, and Courtney, Grandma and Granddaddy, Aunt Harriett and Uncle Jim, Jimmy and Bobby, Aunt Sis and Uncle Tom, Sandy and Mike, Elaine and Mike, Kelly and Tom, and all my aunts and uncles, cousins and friends. 

Many of the people on that list are gone, and we've been blessed by many more to add, but even today, saying those names has an elemental effect on me-- like repeating a nursery rhyme or a song that I have known all my life. It even soothes me when I wake in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep, because those folks are my original family.

Godspeed, Elaine.