Balance – That’s my one word resolution for 2012.

Last week on the Art of Education blog, my PLN friend Jessica Balsley wrote a post about how she is going to make her new year’s resolution in one word.  At first, I thought this was a little crazy, but as I read on, I decided to jump on board!  I’m finding the more I think about it, the more it fits into EVERY aspect of my life.

Balance -

It works for home and school,

for work and play,

for body and mind.

Balance -

Reminds me to keep myself in check,

to lift myself when I feel down,

to slow myself when I feel rushed.

Balance -

Reminds me to be creative and stick to the rules,

to teach the whole child,

to differentiate.

Balance-

Reminds me to take care of myself and those around me,

to spend time with each of my kids

those both in and out of school.

Balance -

Helps me to write less so I can read more,

reach out and allow others in,

keep on working hard and, gosh darnit PLAY!

Balance -

Ya, that’s my word!

What’s yours?

(Please share!)

~EMP

Related posts:

1. PLaiC – Process, Play and Balance
2. Poetry in Balance – Part 1: Appreciation
3. Poetry in Balance: Part 2 – Creation

The end of 2011 has me really thinking about life, work, parenthood, and teacherhood.  I’m trying to put things into perspective.  What are the tops of my lists?  At home – quality time with my family.  At school – time to invest in the learning of my students.  This vacation break, I’ve decided to really look at my time and how I spend it.  I’m going unplugged for much of the vacation, checking in here and there at emails and tweets, reading blogs and books at  my leisure.  My main focus, though is to spend time with my own kids while I have this time.

I put a lot of energy blogging about the importance of taking care your yourself as an individual in order to be the best teacher you can be for your students.  Less is more – I wrote that post not so long ago and I’m trying to put it into practice this week.

I was forwarded an email a while back that I just got through reading again and I thought it would be a great one to share with you this last week of 2011.   This is my last post for the year, so I want it to be a though provoking one for all of us.  Maybe you’ve seen this before.  It’s The Charles Schultz Philosophy.

So I invite you to read, think, reflect and please comment.  And then move on with the rest of your week and enjoy the beginning of a new year!

~EMP

According to Snopes.com this should not be credited to Charles Schultz, but regardless, it is a great idea to ponder.  Please comment and add your thoughts!

Related posts:

1. The Good Things about Reading (and Listening) Again

Ever feel overwhelmed?  I’d be willing to make a large bet that more than 90% of the people reading this will say loud and clear, “YES!”

That’s how I’ve been feeling lately with many things and I’ve been contemplating all the ways I can try and simplify things at school, at home, on the computer…

Just a couple of weeks ago, I was having a conversation with one of my close co-workers about how much we try to cram into our days at school with our students.  We constantly feel the pressure to do more, make it happen, but the time to do all that is just not there.

There have been many times since the beginning of this school year when I have said, “Stop, you are trying to do too much at once.”  I mean I have actually put myself on pause in the middle of class as I was about to hand out another assignment, start something new or try to get ‘just one more thing in before we leave’ and said, in my head, “Stop, it’s too much!”

What really needs to happen is for us to feel like we have the permission to do less, because we know that in the end that really means more gets accomplished.

Let’s face it.  It’s hard to say, “No.”  We want to do it all, help everyone, make our mark, make a difference: but sometimes we lose our way.  Take me and my tech journey.  I’ve been blogging faithfully three times a week for almost 2 years.  I feel quite a sense of accomplishment from that.  I’m proud that my content has been, in my opinion, strong.  I’m not in any way running out of ideas for posts.  There is SO much to contemplate and reflect on for that and this space I’ve created has truly made me a stronger, more effective educator.

The problem is that once we try to do too much, something’s got to give and, in some cases, things tend to drop out.  For example, with all the writing I’m trying to do and technology I’m keeping up on (not to mention the lesson planning and correcting that needs to happen on my own time…oh, ya and raising a family and being a good wife…), I feel like I’ve fallen off the Twittersphere.  Some of you may laugh, maybe even roll your eyes at that, but Twitter is a large part of a blogger’s world.  Creating and keeping a supportive PLN is so important.  I don’t want to stop, I want to find that balance.

Have you ever read Seth’s blog?  Seth Godin is Mr. Super Blogger Man and has a highly successful blog.  I really admire how each of his posts are short (unlike what I believe this post will end up being), to-the-point, and though-provoking.  With him, less is certainly more!  In some ways, on some days, I aspire to be like that.  Giving a seed of an idea that stays with you and grows with time.  That’s what I hope to do with my students, and with this blog.

So at this junction in my life, I’m trying to do a little fall cleaning of my home, my teaching and my online world – a decluttering, a streamlining, a re-prioritizing of my time and energy.

So, I offer you my plan, at least for now.

Online, I plan to cut down my posts to 2 times a week (Tuesday, Friday) and schedule in time each morning and some evenings to catch up with friends and trends on Twitter.  I want to use some found time on the computer to work on my new book Studio Days which I have self-inflicted a deadline of April 2012.

At school, my overall goal is to give myself the permission more often to slow down with my students and allow for the time dive into things worth while.  At times that will mean to spend extra time on those skills or students that need extra attention.  Less quantity will mean more quality.

And as for home, well, here are some examples of less in more:

• less TV, more quality time with my kids
• less clutter, more relaxed feel every time I turn to go into another room
• less procrastination of house work during the week, more time on the week ends to enjoy
• less junk food, more energy!
• less toys, more involved play

I hope you don’t mind my getting a little personal here, but the way I see it, this site is not for the educational scholars who want to only talk curriculum and data.  It’s for real teachers, real administrators, real people who want to make a difference in education and in children’s lives.  And if we are to make a difference as we help others mold their own way, we need to talk about how we do that ourselves.

If you’ve made it this far in this post, you must been gettin’ me, so I ask you to please comment and let me know what your thoughts are.  Don’t just click a new link, but take a moment to ponder what “Less is More” means to you.  We must be supportive of each other if we are to be encouraging to our children and students.

 Image from www.premierdecorativestones.com/

Related posts:

1. Reflection Time
2. Reflection of Gratefulness

Practice what I preach…that has been a saying in the back of my head for the last few weeks. Our state testing for math starts today and it has been a real challenge balancing test prep with innovative, meaningful teaching. In the past few weeks, I’ve had to squeeze in math topics we hadn’t gotten to yet and complete many test preparation exercises and work. I feel like I’ve been on a mad dash to the test, trying to make sure we get it all in. And all the while, I’ve tried hard to balance myself and my students with some fun and creative lessons and projects.

In some ways, I’ve succeeded.  A couple of weeks back, my colleague, Chris and I combined our classes for a studio day where students took pictures of the land and water (one of our science units) in our school’s backyard and wrote haikus inspired by their own photography.   For Mother’s Day, our entire fourth grade team decided to work on a project that integrated our study of Mexico as we created Mexican yarn art Mother’s Day cards.  And what has turned out to be one of my class’s favorites: the many math dances we have come up with to help solidify math concepts – the topic of a future post, for sure!

But I have to admit: it’s been hard.  The weeks that lead up to THE TEST are stressful for teachers.  There is a lot of pressure put on us to make sure our students do well.  Sometimes it’s from administration, sometimes from colleagues, or ourselves.  So much rides on these tests and how OUR students do.  It’s been hard to fit it all in.  A few times I contemplated giving up the good stuff so that I can jam pack the day with as much math practice as possible.

But if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times to the many teachers I have come in contact with at art integration workshops and courses.

You have to make the commitment to just do it! Provide those meaningful opportunities for your students. The lasting rewards are well worth the time you spend in class and the experiences will only deepen your students’ love of learning.

Yes, I feel as if I am coaching myself sometimes.  These last weeks I’ve found myself saying more than once, “I’ve got to practice what I preach.”  It keeps me in check and hopefully makes me a better teacher.

Related posts:

1. Arts 4 Learning – Putting Integration into Practice
2. Putting Arts Integration into Practice
3. Why Practice Reading Skills Away from Reading?

Last night on #ntchat (New Teacher chat) we discussed resources and ideas to use for National Poetry Month.    During the chat, someone tweeted me a “ponder”:

I was taught a poet, then made 2 mimic. Valuable? Exposure was, not regurgitation. how to start? #ntchat ~@theHelpGroup

To which I replied:

I hear ya! There needs to be a balance to poetry instruction (as w/all arts) appreciation&creation #ntchat

It is true that many people and teachers spend time reading poems and then ask students to answer questions and to mimic them in some ways.  And that’s ok!  I am often reminded that modeling and mimicking is a step in the process to freedom in structure; improvisation.  I myself was like that.  Growing up I would create new lyrics to tunes I loved from the radio, I would change words in poems to fit my own situation and copy the writing style of my dad who would check an essay before I passed it in to my teacher.  But eventually, I found my own voice.

The same can be true with poetry, but there does need to be a balance.

This month, I started a poetry project with my students and it is two-fold for just that reason.  One part of it is to create their own poetry.  (I’ll talk more about that in another post.)  And the other part is to research, read and discover other poems and poets.

I was given a list of great activities for students to do (that I will upload and share if I can later).  The activities include everything from finding books on poets to copying a favorite poem to working with and mimicking a poem and reflecting on a poem or poet’s style.  I gave each student one of those blue “examination” books to use and transform into their very own poetry book as they complete the activities in it.  (They are also required to design a new cover for it.)

I have many poetry books in my classroom and we also have a great collection in the library, but don’t forget about the wonderful resources online.  Just the other day, my friend, Melissa Edwards http://twitter.com/mwedwards posted yet another great collection of online resources, this time for poetry.  Please check it out.  It has great ones for teachers and students alike.

“Poetry in April” from Melissa Edwards

And here is one last idea I learned about last night on #ntchat: Poem In Your Pocket Day.  This year it is on April 14th.  It is a day where  you are encouraged to keep a favorite poem with you all day and share it with others.  This idea reminds me of a poem.  Keep A Poem In Your Pocket   by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers

What a sweet idea that is!  And it’s easy to implement.  So, I will be adding that to my poetry appreciation part of this project for sure.

Poetry appreciation as with any art appreciation is important!  Part of our job as teachers is to expose students to great works and challenge them to discover their own personal connections to them.  That’s when they can really start to grow into their own creative beings.

Related posts:

1. Teacher Field Trip-Beat Night-Jazz and Poetry
2. Jazzy DADA
3. Poetry from Workshop

Today, I am sharing a guest post I wrote for the Whole Child Blog on the ASCD website.  Here is the first paragraph.  To read the whole article, please click the title’s link. ~EMP

Educators need to do more than teach; they need to create experiences for their students. Experiences are what make learning come alive. Let’s face it, experiences are what life is made of and what we need to emphasize in our classrooms if we are to teach the whole child. The arts provide a wonderful way to bring experiences into your teaching.

To read the whole post, please click this link: Creating Experiences Through the Arts

Related posts:

1. Collaboration in Action – Music Listening Experiences
2. Creating Time for Play
3. Musical Experiences – Composing in the Classroom