September: Time to Make a Resolution

I know many teachers across the nation began their new school year this month.  Educators in my district, though, have nearly a month and half of school under their belts.  Although we may bemoan the end of summer vacation, we love starting a new school year, and many of us make and implement ‘new year’s resolutions’ during August and September.  The change in seasons can also bring about the desire to begin anew or implement changes in our professional lives as well as our personal ones.

Through reflection, we begin to plan our resolutions for the coming year even before we wind up the old year.  The reflection and planning comes about when we learn new strategies or programs. A teacher or administrator might learn about a new technology tool and begin reflecting on how it could enhance the learning of a particular unit or topic during the next school year.   Other times, our resolutions are developed during an internal debrief after a lesson ‘disaster’ in the classroom or in a meeting.   As a teacher, I was anxious for a new year to begin so that I could put in place some new ideas and units.  As a district administrator, I love to hear teachers talk about what they plan to implement in the upcoming year, and I love working on new district initiatives and programs.  

I have a new year’s resolution that I began reflecting upon last year when serendipity made an appearance.  The term ‘elevator speech’ has been around awhile. It is a reference to having a brief speech about your company’s or organization’s positive attributes that you could convey to someone in the time it takes to ride an elevator between floors.  I had read an article that urged educators, especially administrators, to develop their elevator speed and then use it every chance they could.  Doing so would ensure that people and community that the schools served would stay informed.  A week or so later, I saw another reference to the idea of an elevator speech.  I asked myself, “What is my elevator speech?”  

My resolution, then, is to develop at least three elevator speeches for this current school year.  And share them as often as I can.  I will share them with you in future posts.  

Do you have an elevator speech? How many of you also have resolutions for the new school year or the new season? Share with me in the comments.  

 The idea for this post came to me from Renee Boss, an educator, writer, and friend, who wrote a resolution post as part of the National Blogging Collaborative Post of the Month.  If you are interested in blogging or learning to use blogs in the classroom, then check out the resources on their web site.  

Mining the Gold

A couple of months ago I accidentally read a book of short stories by Ron Rash, entitled Nothing Gold Can Stay.  It was an accident because I do not routinely read short stories.  I have nothing against them, except, well, they are short.  I like to live with a story for awhile, savor it for as long as possible, even while I read furiously to the end.

That said, I loved Nothing Gold Can Stay.  It was not my first encounter with Rash's work, having read some of his novels previously.  One of the reasons that I enjoy his work is because of all the connections that I can make with it.  English Language Arts teachers know how important making connections to new text and new content is.  It is a great way to activate prior knowledge and prepare oneself for reading.  Not to mention that finding something familiar in a new story just makes it more fun.

The connection in the Gold stories is one of place.  The stories are set in Western North Carolina around Sylva, Canton, Cherokee, and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  While there are many extraordinary characters in the collection, the setting feels like a character.  Though none of the stories share characters, they do share the familiar places, and so feel loosely connected.

Shortly after reading the stories, I was facilitating an online professional development course/ book study for some of the educators in my school district.  One of the texts that we were reading was Momaday's Man Made of Words essay.  In the essay, Momaday shares a Kiowa myth that underscores the importance of language.  One of the characters in the myth did not realize his danger because he was unfamiliar with the language of the other characters.  The discussion that resulted from this point of the essay reminded me of one of Rash's stories in Gold.

In "A Servant of History," a young, immature, and blathering man named Wilson thought he would surpass his teachers from Oxford by collecting stories and knowledge from Appalachian settlers that would provide a connection to the language and stories from England.  Being a pushy, know-it-all outsider proved to be a hinderance to gathering the information he sought, but his runaway mouth revealed more about him to the settlers than he realized.  Too late he realized that if he had paid more attention to history, specifically the animosity between clans McDonald and  Campbell, he might have recognized the danger his visit posed.

Another story that resonated was "Those Who Are Dead Are Only Now Forgiven."  It disturbed me because as an educator, I have seen too many students find themselves in similar situations.  In this story, a bright, young couple had plans to attend college in the fall.  Only Jody makes it to the university, while Lauren remains at home and, like so many of their high school classmates, loses herself to drug use.  Jody returns after a year and attempts to persuade Lauren to return with him, but she has long abandoned any hope of having a better life.  Rash mentions how so many young people believe that the hard, poor, and hopeless life is inevitable.  This inevitably often leads students to sabotage themselves through various means as Lauren does.  The most heartbreaking part of the story, though, is the decision that Jody makes at the end.

The book contains several other stories, all of which quickly draw the reader in.  These stories were just the right length to read before sleeping each night.  And like the novels that I prefer, they gave plenty to ponder for days.  I hope you pick up a copy soon.

Some helpful references:
Momaday, N. S.  "Made Made of Words" excerpt.
This is the essay used in the online course that I facilitated.  It contains the story of the Arrowmaker, which provided the immediate connection, but it also speaks about the nature of storytelling and the Kiowa migration.  Momaday speaks of how any burden can be borne if there is a story about it.


Frost, R.  Nothing Gold Can Stay.
This is the poem from which Rash took the name for his work.

"'Nothing Gold' Stays Long in Appalachia." Scott Simon, NPR, interviews Ron Rash.  16 February 2013.

Maslin, J. (27 February 2012).  "Be Careful of the Locals:  They're Tough."  The New York Times book review.

Welcome to Ponder + Putter!

I have long wanted to start a blog to share my ideas and thoughts about a variety of topics.  I am not sure why it has taken so long, except that I am somewhat of a perfectionist and well, the time was never perfect.  It still isn't, but finally, I started typing.  So in this space, I will share my ideas on both personal and professional topics.

Professionally, I have been an educator for over twenty-five years, and I have seen things come and go and come again in the education world.  I have been a central office administrator for over 10 years, and in that time, I have found limited resources to support the work of district level personnel.  Often, we have to create from scratch.  I plan to share some of the things that I have created or found over the years that have helped my work as a district-level administrator.  I think the topics that I will share here will appeal to teachers and administrators, but I hope that my education-related posts will be helpful to non-educators, too, especially parents with children in public schools.

At home, I am basically a putterer who reads. I love reading, and my world feels out of kilter when I am between books.  Fiction is my favorite (escapism, anyone?), but recently, I have found myself reading some non-fiction titles that I have enjoyed.  Keep checking in to see what's new on my book list.  I must also admit that I have a magazine addiction, but I am working diligently to bring that under control!

I putter in a lot of areas.  I dabble in making jewelry and paper crafts.  Years ago, some of my teacher friends and I started a stamping and card-making group.  Although I do not make cards as often now, I still enjoy designing new ones.

Currently, I am working on putting together a 'New Log Cabin' quilt.  I will share more on this endeavor in the coming weeks.

I especially love to dig in the dirt.  My husband bought me a small greenhouse last year, and I love puttering in it.  I love my flower gardens and vegetable beds.  I am so happy that the days are lengthening and warming up again.  I tend to spend as much of my free time as possible outdoors.

Because healthy living is important to me, I enjoy fitness activities and cooking.  Admittedly, I do not always cook healthy meals.  How can I when I grew up in the rural South?  But I do try to make meals more healthy, and I guess I believe that most of the time, a home-cooked meal has to be better for you - and tastier- than fast food.

These are some of the topics that you can expect to read about here, so please check in with me again!