Professor Sharon » life http://www.profsharon.net Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:10:36 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 100 Day Project – Day 50 – Joy http://www.profsharon.net/children/100-day-project-day-50-joy/ http://www.profsharon.net/children/100-day-project-day-50-joy/#comments Fri, 28 Oct 2011 02:10:27 +0000 ProfSharon http://www.profsharon.net/?p=789 100 Day Project – Day 50 – 10:01 pm

Here’s the dictionary definition of “joy:”

joy

[joi]

noun

1. the emotion of great delight or happiness  caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation: She felt the joy of seeing her son’s success.
2. a source or cause of keen pleasure or delight; something or someone greatly valued or appreciated: Her prose style is a pure joy.
3. the expression or display of glad feeling; festive gaiety.
4. a state of happiness or felicity.
verb (used without object)

5. to feel joy; be glad; rejoice.
Today a guest speaker came to my Creative Experiences for Young Children class at my community college.  We sang children’s songs together for over an hour: we giggled, we laughed, we mixed up hand motions, we marched up and down with the Grand Old Duke of York, we cried over Puff, and – don’t tell the students – probably even bonded a little as friends.   This is the glue of learning.  This is the moment I continuously attempt to capture for my students — that, yes, indeed there are goals, there are objectives, there are standards, there are important reasons to do what we do in the classroom with and for young children.  One enormous important reason to do it all goes beyond that: the joy of learning, the joy of life, the joy of living, the joy of laughter, the joy of friendship and holding one another’s hands when Puff slides into his cave and childhood might be left behind.  Today I’m thinking about joy (and I wish it for all of you).  I hope you learn something tomorrow and the day after that, and the day after that….
]]> http://www.profsharon.net/children/100-day-project-day-50-joy/feed/ 0 Life’s milestones http://www.profsharon.net/musings/lifes-milestones/ http://www.profsharon.net/musings/lifes-milestones/#comments Sat, 15 Aug 2009 18:26:32 +0000 ProfSharon http://www.profsharon.net/?p=397 “Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved.  The real milestones are less prepossessing.  They come to the door of memory unannounced, stray dogs that amble in, sniff around a bit and simply never leave.  Our lives are measured by these.”  Susan B. Anthony

Yesterday while pushing my mower around the backyard, the smell brought back memories of a grandmother – my father’s mother – whose backyard I used to mow on occasion with a hand push mower.  It was a city lot, no fancy grass seed, just green stuff that had to be mowed down so we could sit out there and ride trikes and throw a ball about.  I realized that in my lifetime, I have known 5 generations of my family.   There was a time when I was a young girl that I played with that grandmother – who had dementia and lived in a senior home – with dolls.  As I watch my mother slip into the grips of Alzheimer’s and talk to my grandbaby on the phone, I feel  that I have had many important moments in my life and am grateful for them.   I hope that the next time I play dolls with my granddaughter that it provides her with memories that she’ll enjoy one day when she’s a gramma….

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