“Propel, propel, propel your craft softly down liquid solution.

Ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically, existence is

simply illusion.”        Mr. Rogers

Indeed it is.   But, it’s an illusion worth keeping.  Today I’m thinking that life is full, life is complicated, life is complicated, life leaves me powerless at times, and that I’m glad I’m in the stream of it.

“Education, for most people, means trying to lead the child to resemble the typical adult of his society…but for me, education means making creators…you have to make inventors, innovators, not conformists.”  Jean Piaget

I’ve just purchased the newly published Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson  (although it will have to wait until I finish the biography of Einstein by this same author).

I’m looking forward to the read for many reasons; but mostly I want to see if the book covers Job’s childhood.  In flipping pages, I did come across a statement that Job’s biological mother insisted that Steve was to be adopted by college educated people.   When the world calls him a visionary, what part of that can we relate to his early childhood?  I’m interested.  Research tells us the early years make all the difference – so did the difference Jobs make come from his early years?  Today I’m thinking about how to support pre-service teachers in learning how to make space and time and energy to allow children to continue to be the inventors and innovators they are when they arrive.

“It is important to ask and answer this question:  What do students need to know and be able to do “out there” as a result of their work in our classrooms.”     Ruth Stiehls   The Outcomes Primer

Exactly!  I ask myself this constantly.  At times this is the source of the reason I work for such long hours.  A standardized multiple choice test is about content, not about application.  In caring for young children, very rarely is there a multiple choice in the moment when a small person needs her/his needs met immediately.  Although the consequences for me are long hours, and exhaustion, as I create new scenarios, new applications in the classroom, new ways to write and think about the content, the payoff is quality care of young children.  This is what my students need to know and be able to do “out there:”  care for the leaders of tomorrow.  Today I’m thinking about one aspect of quality.

‘There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite passion of life.’

Frederico Fellini Film Director
A beautiful day today — glorious sun, a not so glorious autumn color due to so much rain, good smells and too much food at the fair, the company of good friends, the hugs and kisses of little and big family members, and life itself.  Today I am happy.  Today I am alive.  Today I’m even almost totally rested.

Here’s to the beginning of another year of beauty and passion.  Here’s even to the Tuesday morning that will come this week when I must put in a 12 hour day.  Today I am thinking about gratefulness.

“Here’s the lesson: If you have something to say on the page, don’t hesitate. Don’t procrastinate. Don’t make excuses. Seize every moment you find to write. Honor your voice and your stories. Starting now. Because this moment is all we have–take it from me. Write. Now.”

Great thought from a blog I just found while actually poking about looking for a picture to use as a writing prompt.  I missed writing on Friday (although funny thing was  I woke up from a dream that morning having blogged in my sleep and spending most of the day thinking I’d done my blog for the day – with no time to log on and check!).   I’ve had a busy weekend, and am still in the middle of being on call for some moving that’s going on while hubby empties a long overdue for it clean out a storage unit day.

This quote and the news I heard this morning about a dear friend’s passing coincide in a way that my dear friend would truly believe was no coincidence.  She was a loving soul, open to all kinds of living, and life.  We spent many many hours together as young mothers: she with one child (before she remarried and had two more children), and me with two.  We spent many hours talking as women, and many hours enjoying life with our children at beaches, and ponds and hiking and amusement parks.  I shall miss her so dearly.

What does this have to do with teaching?  Everything.  I am how I teach.  I cannot separate the me from the teacher I bring to the classroom.  Oh, I can do the professional behavior thing of not crying in class this week; but that’s not the same as my dear friend’s passing (at a young age of around 60) doesn’t remind me to enjoy the moment of my teaching.  Watch for the student’s smile; watch for the enlightenment bulb go on, and remember that one or more of them may be sitting there with heaviness in their hearts as they try to learn what I am trying to teach trying to still the heaviness in my heart.  Today I think of Carla and her living in the moment.

“Ten. At the end of the day, good teaching is about having fun, experiencing pleasure and intrinsic rewards … like locking eyes with a student in the back row and seeing the synapses and neurons connecting, thoughts being formed, the person becoming better, and a smile cracking across a face as learning all of a sudden happens. Good teachers practice their craft not for the money or because they have to, but because they truly enjoy it and because they want to. Good teachers couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”

I experienced a wonderful day of teaching today.  Four classes, a little short of  80 students, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.  Each class began to interact in really important ways.  The reluctant student spoke to others.  The student quick to volunteer to speak thought before speaking today.  In one class, a student visably had a lightbulb turn on with only two articles under her belt.  Others were drawn into her enthusiasm as she came to a (I suspect) transformative moment in realizing the real task of early care and education.  Fabulous!

Are all days like this?  Nope, no how, no way.  Even if I was as prepared as I was today, thought through the rhythm of large, small group discussion, free writes, mini-lectures, participation activity, and expected brain cells to pop all over the place.  Somedays the energy just isn’t there:  perhaps life is too stressful for too many in the classroom to pay attention to the material or to me, someone that they know is usually at least interesting and as I was called today, “creative in presenting the material.”  (Loved that compliment!)

Great days, like today, make teaching “easy.”  The excitement of watching learning is infectious and joyful.  Not so good days are the ones where every being of your professionalism must come to bear.  I must be understanding of the student who I’m sure has asked that how to question at least four classes in a row.  I must guide that student who talks way too much to give others air time.  I must notice that the reluctant student, after coming out of the shell a bit, has suddenly retreated.  I must figure out what to do about the two cellphones being used to text under the table.

Even on those days however, days when the classes didn’t go well, and I’m so tired that if I were four years old, I would sit down and cry, I do it.  As the quote mentions above, good teachers can’t imagine doing anything else.  I certainly can’t – and I’ve tried other things – so I know of which I speak.  Today I am thinking about passion.

Some days I’d like to be a teacher of long ago (okay, I’d like to believe it’s long ago, but in fact I know there are still teachers who teach this way) who gave the same lesson to all the students each day.  I am always surprised each September (why is it I forget?) how long some preparation can take.  It takes longer for me not because I’m inefficient.  Although I do admit my filing system leaves a lot to be desired, but that I’m willing to blame on not enough time alone in my office to file – have to blame something!   It takes longer because as I get to know my students I rearrange what subjects to cover and in what way.

I work hard to keep Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences in mind as I prepare my daily lesson plans, and that can make presenting some material pretty challenging.  Keep in mind that I teach at the college level.  What’s interesting is that there are many students who have never experienced being asked to learn in their own style, and we spend a few classes adjusting to this.  Students are a bit “weirdid out” (to use what they say although I think that’s misspelled) by my asking them to do something like talk to each other about their thinking about what they just read or I just explained to them.

It’s been a long day of meetings and preparations; it’s late and I’m not done.  Could I just figure out how to give standardized lectures wth standardized quizzes?  Today I’m thinking about teaching to the individual.

“It’s not how smart you are that matters, what really counts is how you are smart.”

~ Howard Gardner

“In the end, we will not remember the words of our enemies; but the silence of our friends.”  MLK  1929-1968

Albert Einstein, “Letter to Queen Elizabeth of Belgium”