Writing everyday means looking for an idea for writing every day. I get a number of email newsletters about assorted topics that pique my interest. Today, it was the Art of Noticing newsletter that I was drawn to as I read the subject line, Objects Quarterly. To be honest I haven’t really read through it yet, just skimmed over the topics such as A History of Women in 101 Objects (which is book that I have not read). But as I skimmed that I started thinking about the role of objects in a teacher’s life.
I’m one of those teachers who still uses a traditional paper plan book. You know, the ones with plain brown or blue covers that has each week laid out with the spiral binding in the middle. For many years my plan books were just that, plain, unassuming…sometimes I wrote the year across the front (often once the year was over). Then at some point, my teaching partner and I started to put a sticker on each year that included the year, our names, and an image that indicated the overarching theme of our year. But recently, I started putting stickers on my plan book. Not just one here or there, but wall to wall stickers both front and back.
Where do I get these stickers, you might ask? And what significance do they have? Those are great questions. Some of the stickers are USvsHate stickers, student messaging about equity and inclusion. I’ve received them as a teacher who has submitted student messaging to the USvsHate contest. I’ve even had students whose messaging was selected as winning. And my son–the one who is an artist–designs and produces stickers as “swag” that he sends out with products he ships (he also sends his mom some stickers–and those are featured prominently). Now, I collect stickers from wherever I can. Sometimes the stickers are promotional, like the ones I got from the Rainbow sandals store. Some are from environmental organizations… The list goes on.
I love these stickers on my plan book. When I open it each morning my eyes skim over the images and it makes me smile. When my student gave me (and all her classmates) stickers last week, I carefully found a place for them on my plan book. One of my students noticed the plan book cover and said–hey, where did you get that sticker book? And so I had to show off the covers. (They never see the cover since I keep it opened to the week on a table most days.)
There was a time when my plan book mostly stayed at school, but since the pandemic I find myself taking it back and forth with me from school to home each day. Honestly, it is more of a security blanket since there are many days when I change almost everything that is written in it. But maybe that is what objects are all about–symbols of thinking and planning and preparation with my stickers reminding me of the value of creativity, social justice, nature, and whimsy.
If you were to write about an object in your professional life, what would it be? What is its significance? How do you personalize it?
In a couple of spare moments between parent-teacher conferences today this email heading caught my eye: Significance of the Seemingly Ordinary. It was a Daily Good article, which always begin with a quote. Here was the one from today:
As I read through the teaser paragraph I became even more intrigued. It describes a movie where the character takes a photograph of the store across the street every morning at 8 o”clock. He has 4000 photos meticulously labeled and mounted in albums. Photos that are the same…and not the same. When he shows them to a blocked writer, the writer flips through the photos quickly, not knowing what to say, says, “They’re all the same.” The photographer replies to him, “You’ll never get it if you don’t slow down, my friend.” You can read more of the story here.
I found myself connecting on two different levels. The photographer in me is intrigued. Why take the same photo every day? But then again, I do find myself taking the same photos over and over again. Maybe the light is different, or the angles…or even my mood. I frequently take photos of this iconic palm tree–here’s a small sampling of my many photos of this one tree.
“One has to be in the same place every day, watch the dawn from the same house, hear the same birds awake each morning, to realize how inexhaustibly rich and different is sameness.”
The experience of taking the same photo over and over echoes what it means to be a teacher. Each day is filled with sameness. I greet the same faces, the same small humans for nearly a year. And yet, no two days are the same. At my best, I take hundreds of mental photos of my students every day as I strive to pay attention to the nuances of their individual learning processes. I need to know them–when the sun is shining, when the fog hides their features, in a tight close up, as the sun sets.
To be a teacher is to learn to appreciate the richness and difference of sameness. And as I navigate the sometimes groundhog’s day-ness of parent-teacher conferences I find myself thinking about sameness in a different way. During each conference I am taking stock of those thousands of mental images, knowing that supporting learners (and their parents) is in the small moments. It’s in the slowing down even when the world keeps urging us to speed up. When I got behind in my conference schedule today I was tempted to cut things short, to “catch up.” But the conversations were meaningful, adding new images to my store of mental photos of my students, their families, and their learning and I know I’ll be perusing them in the weeks to come.
And now I think I’ll be looking back over my photographs to see what else I can learn–from them and about myself.
A few years back I got annoyed at the way that Instagram selected my “best 9” photos of the year and created a practice for myself of selecting my own “best” photos of the year. This year I have continued this tradition of taking time to look through my daily photos (it’s a rare day when I don’t take a photo) in order to find a subset that I will call the “Best of 2023.” The forced choice of picking a best for each month pushes me to think about what makes a photo best. Is it the subject matter? The experience that accompanied the photo? The actual photo itself? Other’s reactions to the photo? I think the answer may be a combination of all of the above!
My January 2023 photo captures my wonder when watching pelicans. I marvel at how they get low and skim the waves, seemingly almost running their wings along the edge of the swell. In this photo I love the way the squadron of pelicans in formation demonstrates this “surfing” behavior while also capturing the energy and movement of the waves and the range of colors of the water as the sun does its magical work. If I could change anything about this photo I would want to get closer (that would require a stronger zoom lens)…and I think a sunset version would be magnificent.
There is something so compelling about this tiny lifeguard tower in Solana Beach that perches on the cliff, jutting out into the sea. I’ve taken many version of this photo–and this is my favorite direction to shoot from. I love the low tide exposure, showing the rocks that are oftentimes covered with the sea. This unfiltered photo shows the February light on an afterwork walk, capturing the ordinary beauty of this less-than-ordinary, but functional building. I’d love to know more about the history of the building, who decided it needed to be here, why this design…and even when the decision was made to make lifeguard towers less permanent and more portable.
March shows off the playful aspects of daily photos. I’m constantly trying to capture movement in still photos. This was a windy day and the palms were showing their flexibility. To make the photo more dramatic and interesting, I did some filter play, enhancing the colors and showing the interplay of sun, sky, clouds, and wind (through the movement of the trees). I go with the adage that the best camera is the one that you have with you…and you’ll notice that many of my photos are taken with my phone.
April meant Spring Break, and in 2023 our break included a road trip to Zion National Park in Utah. In spite of that fact that it was “Spring” break, the weather was unseasonably cold…and while you’ll notice bright sun in this photo, we experienced snow, ice, wind, and rain on this trip. None of that kept us from hiking and taking photos. I love the contrast in this image of the white of the cliffs and the blue of the sky along with the long, sharp icicles hanging down. Angles and light and shadow keep drawing me back to this image…along with the brilliant blue of the April sky.
Lucky for me, I don’t have to go far from home to find interesting subjects to photograph. In May, a trip to the local lagoon brought me up close to this teeny tiny hummingbird. A colder than usual spring meant that the trees were still relatively bare, allowing a good view of this tiny gem against the steel gray sky.
But in June, I did travel a long way to find some different, interesting subjects to photograph. And inclement weather was a theme all year. With our school year ending earlier than usual (on June 2nd!), we hopped on a plane and headed to Maine to explore Acadia National Park. While it rained almost every day we were there, we didn’t let it dampen our adventurous spirits. We were lucky to get a short reprieve from stormy seas to head off on a boat to see puffins (which we did) and also get some spectacular views of lighthouses like this one. This composition reminds me of a postcard, filling the space both side to side and up and down. If only the light were illuminated! (Unfortunately, this was not a working lighthouse.)
Back in California, in July we took another roadtrip to explore the mountains in the middle of the state. Mammoth Mountain includes snowy peaks, gorgeous lakes and geologic phenomenon as well as interesting flora and fauna. While exploring Convict Lake I found myself mesmerized by the swallowtail butterflies fluttering, flitting, and feeding on the local flowers. They were everywhere and in constant motion. This time I was trying to capture the stillness of these pollinators rather than action!
In spite of the fact that school now begins in early August, this is truly the heart of the summer. I love to watch surfing competitions and lucky for me, there are often quite a few to choose from at our local beaches. This longboard contest also included something they called a paddle out relay where surfers organized themselves into teams that raced (with long surfboards under their arms) to the water, paddled out and around a designated buoy and then returned to shore to tag a teammate and continue the race. I love the way this photo captures the action, the length of the board, and even the muscle definition of the surfer.
UCSD is the home of the San Diego Area Writing Project and the end of September was the date of our annual Fall Conference. Early Saturday mornings on a college campus are quiet, offering opportunities for photos that do not feature students. I love to take photos of the iconic Geisel library…and in this shot you can see Fallen Star (a Stuart Collection art installation) perched on the engineering building in the distance. I love the light and clouds reflected in the many windows of the library. I definitely have fonder memories of photographing this library than studying in it!
No, this isn’t night photography. This is a photo of the partial solar eclipse we experienced in October. Using an app called Solar Snap and a special sun filter to protect my eyes, I was able to enjoy this not-too-common event and capture this image of the moon passing in front of the sun giving the illusion of a crescent moon when what you are actually seeing is the sun with the moon in front of it. This is one of those images where the experience was an interesting part of the photography process.
I don’t think I could do a “best of” set of photos without at least one of my favorite bird to photograph! I take many photos of snowy egrets, some better than others. I love this one from November where the reflection is so mirror-like. One of the benefits of the early dark after daylight saving time ends is that sunsets and my daily walk often coincide. My photos show the magic of the “golden hour,” where the light is perfect and photos have that magical quality that is otherwise so hard to obtain.
Somehow in December, between holiday celebrations and visits to and from family, we managed to squeeze in a trip to Yosemite. I’m not sure there is a bad day in this very special place. This late afternoon light was perfect for capturing the reflection of El Capitan and Bridalveil Falls in the Merced river.
Even as I write about these twelve photos as my “best of,” I find myself questioning my choices. There isn’t a single sunset photo featured although I have taken many. I didn’t include any of the many selfies we use to document adventures (for good reason!). I tried to pick photos that represented a range of subjects and maybe even some photography techniques. I notice how I often use rule of thirds to my advantage and how I am drawn to natural frames and reflection. I’ve been working hard to capture action and I think that shows in some of these selection too.
Do you have a favorite of these twelve? How do you select your own “best of” photos? What makes one photo better than another?
On a bittersweet day, a heading home day, a too long on the highways and byways day, the poetry prompt at #verselove was to write a Sijo. Please don’t count the syllables too closely!
There’s something satisfying about accomplishing a goal you know will be a challenge. And even though I have taken this challenge for a few years now, it really doesn’t get easier. Two Writing Teachers and their annual slice of life challenge is an amazing community of welcoming writers. There is something about writing in community that makes this daily writing and posting of writing not only something I can do, but something I want to do…with some level of competence! Many thanks to all who have read, liked, and/or commented on my slices this month. And also thanks to those of you who have written and offered your writing for comment and reading. It’s such fun to see all the different approaches writers take to accomplishing this 31 day challenge. You are appreciated!
Writing every day is humbling. Some days coming up with something worthy of posting seems impossible. I envy those early morning writers who seem to wake with ideas galore. I feel like I search all day long, and luckily when I open my computer to write, a slice somehow finds me. I love the way writing takes twists and turns. Some days I KNOW what I am going to write…and then I open my computer and the words take a new direction.
I look forward each day to reading other slicers’ offerings. I love the glimpse into lives across the country and world, across different stages of life, and seeing life from a variety of perspectives. It’s interesting to see some people dig deep with their writing, sharing grief, health concerns, and parenting dilemmas. It’s fun to read poetry, ramblings, 6-word memoirs, lists and listicles, photo essays, and everything in between. I’m reminded that there are lots of way to write and lots of approaches to developing a topic and idea.
I like that a focus on my own writing also helps me focus on teaching writing. I find myself thinking about how to help my students prime the writing pump, getting ideas flowing so they can’t wait to pick up their pencils and start getting those ideas on the page. I’m reminded to offer variety and choice, letting them follow their thoughts and ideas. Community for writers is essential. My students want to share their writing with their classmates and me and benefit from hearing each other’s writing.
And each year I remember that March is not only a month for daily writing, but also the month for writing report cards, preparing for and conducting parent conferences, and thinking about that upcoming spring break. Then it is followed by April, National Poetry Month, and I find myself tempted to keep on writing, challenging myself to another thirty days of writing–this time all in poetry (yikes!). As my spring break begins, will I also be writing and posting a poem a day? Probably.
Maybe I need to figure out what the May and June writing challenges should be. Why do I write every day for 61 days and then stop? Apparently I need the accountability of a community of writers and a daily challenge to keep my writing flowing. Guess that’s my next puzzle to figure out!
Sometimes it seems like I’m always tired. Even after a full night’s sleep, I wake up feeling like I could just stay in bed all day. It seems worse since the time change, even though I purposefully gave myself some extra down time to try to make up for the “lost” hour.
A week or so ago I read an article about seven kinds of rest that all people need. Now this is really not news–I know that sleep and rest are different, and that my mind can be whirling even when my body is resting.
Here are the 7 types of rest the article outlines:
physical rest
mental rest
sensory rest
creative rest
emotional rest
social rest
spiritual rest
It’s interesting to me that physical rest can include both passive (sleeping, laying down, napping, etc.) and active rest (stretching, massage, yoga). I’m pretty good at passive rest, not so good at active rest. It is definitely the mental rest and the social rest that are challenging in my line of work as an educator. Teaching is not the kind of job that is easy to leave at the office–and it’s also not easy to just take a break during the course of the work day. I think this is an area I need to make some more conscious effort to let my brain relax–and I think it explains why so many teachers hate to make decisions when they get home from work! That social rest is another challenge. We are people facing all day long, and it’s hard to be “on” all the time. Especially those of us who are introverts at heart can find the constant social interaction exhausting.
I love the idea of creative rest–which doesn’t really sound like rest at all. Taking photos is definitely a version of creative rest for me. And I often think I should pull out my watercolor paints or some other art more often. Lucky for me I do get to paint and draw with my students, which is another creative outlet.
I’ll admit it. I’m done with rain. As I may have mentioned (aka complained) before, we’ve nearly reached our annual rainfall total in the first three months of the year (I think the storm this week–some today and more forecasted for tomorrow and Wednesday–will take us over that total). As a classroom teacher, rain tends to make me grumpy. All the wet stuff, the missed recesses, the eating in the classroom, the pent up energy…ugh.
But, instead of complaining, I’m going to switch it up on myself and find some reasons to love rain–even in the classroom!
Here I go…
Super bloom! Our local plants are loving this water and we are already seeing hints of the bloom to come. It won’t be long until cactus as in full flower, trees are already dressing in their best green leaves, and the ever invasive black mustard is showing off its showy yellow best (and getting taller by the minute).
Music to my ears. The drip drop of rain is wonderfully soothing if you take the time to listen. Just last week, my students and I took a few minutes to soak in the sounds. Those few minutes of the rhythm of the rain were priceless.
No need to wash the car. With the regularly occurring rainstorms, my car is staying pretty much dust-free. A few swipes of the windshield wiper and the windows are clear. This is probably the cleanest my car has been in years!
Makes Elaine Maglioaro’s Things to do if you are Rain incredible relevant–and perfect to study tomorrow. What better activity to do when it is raining than read a poem about rain?
Quiet time with kids as they trickle in before school. Instead of playing on the playground and lining up for me to pick them up, on rainy days the kids trickle in a few at a time. I feel like I get a chance to check in with kids when things are quiet, a softer more mellow start to the day than is typical. I love the informality of it.
Raincoats and rain boots get some use! I bought a pair of colorful, fun rain boots a few years back–and wore them at most a couple of times before this year. This year, my rain boots and my cowboy boots are both getting some love. Same for my raincoats!
Drought relief. After all the misery that accompanies extreme drought, it’s nice to get a bit of relief. While we are certainly not out of the woods when it comes to adequate rainfall and enough water to meet the demands of our region, it is nice to see our state drought map begin to ease and reservoirs begins to fill. Hopefully this will also decrease some of the wild fire danger this year.
It’s cozy. Even though my ideal rainy day would be spent curled up in my own home with the fireplace blazing, a cup of tea at my elbow and a good book in hand, I do like the coziness of rain at school too. It’s fun to experience rain through the eyes of children–their pure joy at the wonders of nature as we all hunker down, enjoying the indoors is nice (on a limited basis–of course).
No recess duty. Tuesday is my day for recess duty–both before school and during our afternoon recess. But if it really rains as predicted, I will have a duty-free day. Of course, I will have my own students during those times but an occasional break from recess duty is always welcome. And it’s always great to not have to go outside and watch kids when it’s cold and windy (as tomorrow is promising, along with the rain).
Opportunities for new and different photos. A change in the weather means new opportunities for photography. What will I notice on the rain slicked streets? Where will rain drops stage themselves? What new beauty will reveal itself?
Reflection in a puddle on the playground
Hopefully I will be loving the rain tomorrow instead of griping about it. All my grumps will be put away for a while as I remind myself of all the reasons to love rain.
I have a colleague who shouts out an alliterative greeting to everyone she passes for each day of the week. There is no day when she utters a negative term or skips her greeting. Positivity is her way of being in the world.
Me, not so much. Some days are hard and I do think we have to face both the positive and the negative. But honestly, I weirdly like Mondays. Somehow they symbolize a new beginning each week–and who can turn down a “Magical Monday” greeting?
So today I’ll use my slice to consider some things I appreciate about Mondays.
I love our “3 words about your weekend” beginning to Mondays. It’s short enough that there’s time for each of my students (and me too) to say something about our weekend–and also creates conversation starters to lean on as the day goes on.
My students get to spend time in the garden on Monday mornings with our garden teacher. Today they combed the clover in search of 3 and 4 leaf clovers. One student found a 5 leaf clover! (Is that even a thing?) She came back convinced of her luck–even after she promptly lost it. I love first graders’ belief in the magic of things!
I read The Lion’s Share today–a book about fractions (and some selfish, not very thoughtful animals). I love when a book provokes interesting math to be done on the spot. This one goes from “halving,” back to doubling–something we had worked on last week. There’s nothing like watching the wheels turn as students strive to solve harder doubles (64+64) and (128+128)!
It’s Ability Awareness Week in our district, so we learned about a student with Cerebral Palsy who wanted to raise money to build a playground where she could play with her friends. My students immediately recognized that our playground equipment would also not be inclusive, leaving children with physical limitations out. They loved designing a playground that would be inclusive and enjoyed learning about this student who they appreciated for, in their words, “standing up for herself and for other kids.”
And after a gloomy, foggy weekend I came home to sunshine this afternoon (thank you Daylight Saving Time) for my walk around the neighborhood. And to top it off, dandelion puffs were in their full glory in the couple of grassy patches we pass along the way. They always make me smile.
Mondays really are magical when I take the time to consider all that they have to offer. What will Triumphant Tuesday have to offer?
I rolled the virtual metaphor dice inspired by Stefani over at Ethical ELA coming up with the words poetry, well worn, and brand new toy. Combined with my afternoon lagoon walk, words tumbled and fell into today’s poem.
On this last day of the Slice of Life challenge I want to thank those at Two Writing Teachers for offering this blogging challenge. I also want to thank my fellow bloggers–those I left comments for and those I read and didn’t comment, and even those I simply didn’t have time to read for engaging in this place of words, ideas, and incredible generosity. There is something about this challenge that keeps me accountable and somehow motivates me to write each and every day in March.
It’s also the perfect day for a bit of reflection and thinking about the take aways of an already busy month of teaching, report card writing, parent conferencing also spent with daily writing. Here are a few of my thoughts:
Writing begets writing. The more I write, the more I seem to have to write about. Early in the month I feel challenged to come up with writing topics and things to say with any kind of eloquence. With each successive day, I find myself mulling over writing topics as I go through the day, turning them over, considering angles I might take, and even then often surprising myself with the actual post that emerges.
A daily slice often means that I am making my teaching practice more visible. I consider the ways instruction and learning interact, often focusing on the ways writing develops with young writers. When I write about what I see my students produce, I understand it on another level. And when my colleagues comment, they also help me see if from new vantages.
Reading and commenting on others’ posts helps me see my teaching life in a larger perspective as I consider stories from other parts of the country (and the world), hearing struggles and successes and making connections in spite of differences.
I love the many stages of life expressed in slice of life posts. Stories of toddlers and teens, grandchildren and aging parents humanize us all. It helps to know that even the best teachers struggle to find the work/life balance and that writing is a way to process the curveballs that life throws.
This is a community where I feel like a dandelion. I thrive and grow where I land. Some days I might land in the crack of the sidewalk, trying to avoid the crush of feet walking over me. Other days I find myself in an open field, swaying in the breeze and soaking up the sun. I’m thankful for landing here and looking forward to next year’s challenge.
This might also be the year that I manage to write a weekly Tuesday slice. I’m making that a regular writing goal. Hope to engage with you all again soon!
Thinking Through My Lens 