Tag: growth
-
Eight Days and Counting: The Monkeys Found the Wi-Fi Password
Is there such a thing as over-writing? We’ve all heard the term overeating. Some of us have lived it. No point in lying about it. Just accept it and move on. There’s over-drinking. Over-exercising. Overworking. Over-seasoning (no one asked for that much paprika, sir). Over-texting — because three question marks in a row is not…
-
Yeah, I Told You So
There’s a side of being an educator we don’t talk about much. At least not in staff meetings. Maybe over coffee. Definitely in therapy. It’s not just about caring. It’s about pattern recognition. It’s a very human thing. And God knows, the kiddos already think of me as anything but human. In my role as…
-
The Art of School Discipline
(Or: Why Your Kid Probably Isn’t a Villain, But Also Isn’t Perfect Either) There’s a part of me that’s always been a storyteller. I’ve spent years watching the chaos of childhood—my own and others’—and turning it into little stories that make sense of the messy, funny, absurd moments of growing up. I like noticing the…
-
The Noise of Learning
I used to think learning was supposed to be quiet.Neat. Orderly. Predictable. But in my world, it never sounded that way. It sounded like pencil scratches in the margins of a notebook, screws rattling on a garage floor, the click of a camera shutter, the uneven notes of a song I hadn’t yet learned how…
-
Several Hundred Words Later
We’ve all been there. Not as heroes, not as villains—just as silent witnesses to someone else’s emotional eruption. That strange moment when you realize you’re no longer part of a conversation, but the audience to a performance you never bought tickets for. You don’t interrupt.You don’t argue. You simply stand there, nodding politely, mentally taking…
-
Me, My Thoughts, and That Morning Cup of Joe
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to appreciate the morning quite a whole lot more. Not the dramatic, cinematic kind—the kind you see in a travel magazine with the sunlight spilling over mountains—but the ordinary, quiet of a house that hasn’t fully woken up yet. The kind of quiet where the world hasn’t started asking…
-
Being me…
The hardest thing about being me is forgetting how hard it is to be me. I wake, I move, I mend the cracks and call it progress. I joke, I help, I give what’s left and call it love. Some days I remember the weight of it all— and some days I wear it so…
-
Sleeping In: A Universal Law
Sleeping in is not a character flaw. It’s not laziness. It’s not poor planning. It is a cosmic law, etched into the fabric of existence—right up there with gravity and Wi-Fi never working when you need it most. No one escapes. One day, like Thanos promised, it will happen. The circumstances vary. Sometimes you forget…
-
Year 26
25 years as an educator—and at least a dozen more before that coaching, mentoring, running camps, leading arts programs, and engaging in general kid-centered monkey business (some of which may have included dodgeballs, duct tape, and popsicle sticks). It’s been, quite literally, a lifetime of working with young people—changing lives, dodging glitter explosions, and watching…
-
To Teach (and Learn) Is to Be in a Constant State of Reconnaissance
To teach—and to learn—is to be in a constant state of reconnaissance.It’s a phrase that’s been echoing in my mind lately. At first glance, it might sound a bit tactical, even militaristic. But in truth, it captures the quiet, intentional vigilance that defines the work of an educator. Teaching is not a static profession. It’s…
-
The Crossroads
There comes a time in every person’s life when they stand at a crossroads — a moment that demands not just any decision, but the decision. One that will alter the course of their life forever. There will be an easy way out — the path of least resistance — tempting in its comfort, but…