H is for How Much Longer?

My heart sank when I heard last Thursday that our days of distance teaching and learning would continue through June 12. I've been doing my best to stay positive and see the silver linings of this far from perfect situation, but extending it another 5 weeks seems impossible.

As one of my students wrote recently, We are coming to the time we’re we have been out of school for 9 weeks next week it will be ten. I am so bored, it’s a whole new level of bored.

And I know most kids feel that way. It is a struggle to engage them at all, let alone teach them. But of course, we're not giving up. My team and I are working hard to plan and design writing activities that kids will enjoy, and just today I was in a meeting full of ideas for bingo, pictionary, dance parties, and scavenger hunts. We can and we will get those kids involved in school.

And? The end of the year is coming, just not as quickly as we hoped.

Life Lesson: Mind over matter.

G is for Get Thee to the Garden

With all of our pandemic productivity, there is one area of our life that has not flourished as I thought it might. Our community garden is still a bare plot of earth. Every week I think I'll find the time to head over to the hardware store or garden center to pick up what we need, but these cool rainy days have discouraged me from that chore.

My nephew has offered his labor any time we need it, and I assure him each time he offers that I will gladly accept. I'm optimistic that the coming week with its warmer weather will give me the nudge I need to get out there and get to planting. And if it happens? We will still be about 3 weeks earlier than usual.

Life Lesson: To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. ~Ecclesiastes 3. 1

F is for Fantasy

One of my students writes every day about the the TV show Once Upon a Time. Airing from 2011-18 on ABC, the premise of the show is that all the fairy tale characters have been cursed to forget their identities and live real lives in the present day town of Storybrook, Maine. I was definitely aware of the show when it was on, but I can't say that I ever saw a single episode.

Still, this kid was so enthusiastic about it: what a good message it has, what a good role model the main character is, and on and on, that one evening a few weeks ago, when we found ourselves with nothing in particular to watch, I pointed the remote and clicked over to Netflix and found Once Upon a Time and started watching. 

It is a very sweet show, with interesting takes on familiar characters, and a solid good versus evil theme running through (how it could it be otherwise?). Even though it was only made about nine years ago, there is something innocent and even nostalgic about the sensibility that makes me remember the early tweens of this century as a simpler time. 

Whether it was or not, doesn't matter. Once Upon a Time is perfect pandemic viewing for us, and you might think so, too.

Life Lesson: In times of trouble, find what comforts you.

E is for Exploring

We set out to the east this afternoon, over bridges and highways, past expensive homes and secret service details. The day was bright, but very cold, and a brisk wind nipped at our heels the whole way. There were a couple of wrong turns, but the error of our way was quickly corrected, and we found our destination without too much trouble. Down into the valley of a small spring-fed perennial stream we descended, through a tiny mixed hardwood forest. We followed the path through the nature preserve and out into the neighborhood on the other side. Then it was up Canyon Road, around Washington Circle, and over Mount Eagle to the Shirlington foot bridge over I-395.

We were never more than 2 1/2 miles from home, but it was still a pretty amazing adventure.

Life Lesson: "There is treasure everywhere." ~Calvin and Hobbes

D is for Did You Say Frost?

Here we are, over a week into May and some sort of dip in the Jet Stream is threatening a freeze warning in our area and a nice dump of snow in the mountains just a couple hours to our west. Truth be told, I'm not really upset. If we have to stay home, why not enjoy one or two more cozy evenings by the fire? Soon enough, the days will warm, and I will sweep the hearth and leave it bare for summer.

Summer. Whatever that will be like.

Life Lesson: Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy. ~Leo Buscaglia

C is for Cinco de Mayo

We don't often celebrate Mexican Independence Day, but this year, since we were not doing anything anyway, I decided to make it a true taco Tuesday. We actually have tacos quite often-- sometimes fish, sometimes cauliflower, sometimes grilled chicken or steak, but this time I decided to make old school tacos the way my mom used to when we were kids.

Back then, in New Jersey? Nobody ate tacos. But we were an airline family and some good friends of ours had recently moved to Southern California. Whenever we visited them, besides swimming in their backyard pool and biking to Huntington Beach, we also ate exotic foods such as Jolly Ranchers (also unavailable on the East Coast in the 70s), Farrells Ice Cream, and tacos.

The homemade version we had was Mexican only in name. They were really just corn tortillas warmed in the oven with a slice American Cheese and topped with plain fried ground beef, chopped tomatoes and shredded ice berg lettuce, but we loved them! So much so, that my mom would pack corn tortillas in her suitcase and keep them in the freezer in New Jersey for those California dreaming days when nothing but a taco for dinner would do.

And that is what I made for dinner on Tuesday. Okay, I used cheddar instead of American and we had avocado on our tacos, too, but the simple, clean flavors of corn, cheese, beef, tomato, and lettuce took me right back, not to California, but to our kitchen table in South Jersey. Ole!

Life lesson: Sometimes tradition is the best sauce.

B is for Becoming a Reader

I received Becoming Brianna, the latest book in the Emmie & Friends series by Terri Libenson yesterday. I had preordered it months ago, knowing how popular the graphic novel series is with sixth grade girls, especially, and when it arrived I was a little sad to know that I wouldn't be sharing my copy with any kids this year.

I was also a little excited, though, because my niece Annabelle and I have read the other books in the series together, even though she lives in Atlanta. We had a virtual book group before they became popular by necessity. This year Annabelle is in sixth grade, and my heart goes out to her, because I know all that she's missing at the end of the year. She's an extrovert, too, so that in person connection that all my students write about missing is especially important to her.

I texted Annabelle a picture of the cover as soon as I opened the package, and she replied immediately. When she was younger, she used to be an avid reader, but in the last few years she says she doesn't like it much anymore. Even so, she is eagerly upholding our tradition of reading these particular books together.

As a teacher, it has always been my philosophy to help every student find a book they want to read rather than assign them a required text. Years ago, when graphic novels were enjoying the beginning of what has become a publishing tsunami of popularity, there was a big debate in teaching as to whether reading them really "counted" as reading. In between the firm yes and no positions that educators held, there was middle ground that posited that engaging, easy-to-read books could be gateways for resistant readers, inviting them in to the fold, and helping them to see themselves as people who read.

These days, every teacher I know has a lot of graphic novels on the classroom book shelf, but there is still kind of a bias against them. In my niece's school, students are assigned quarterly book projects and they are required to pick a book that is on or above their reading level. Annabelle is a good reader, and finding a book is often a challenge for her because so many great, high interest titles are below her score.

I have to wonder if there is a correlation between the assignment expectations and her diminishing interest in reading, especially given our mutual enthusiasm for Becoming, Brianna. After all? It's a little below my reading level, too.

Life Lesson: If you want 'em to read, let 'em read what they want!