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Today, I am grateful for being a teacher. Here are the reasons I am a teacher:
I can't believe I am almost done with my 10th year of teaching. Wild. Today, I am grateful that people are waking up to the fact that we all have to play a part in ending our unique american problem of gun violence. Gun violence at schools. Gun violence at places of worship. Gun violence at parks. Gun violence at music festivals. Gun violence at grocery stores. Gun violence at clubs. Gun violence at movie theaters. All of it needs to end and we all need to advocate and pressure our elected politicians to do what they should be doing. This is not a problem in a vast majority of the world. This is america. It is tragic. I want my kids to live, grow and thrive in a safer place than I am currently living in. We have a lot of work to do! Today, I am grateful for going through this process of identify areas in my life that I am grateful for. This year has been interesting. I have really enjoyed the people that I am working with. I have been able to wear my mask to hide the hurt that I have been having in my personal life. I am reminded by the article (click on the image) about the scientific results of expressing or thinking about gratitude. 1. Gratitude unshackles us from toxic emotions 2. Gratitude helps even if you don’t share it 3. Gratitude’s benefits take time 4. Gratitude has lasting effects on the brainDay 50 is wild! This paragraph represents the science around what is happening in our brain when we go through expressing gratitude, Most interestingly, when we compared those who wrote the gratitude letters with those who didn’t, the gratitude letter writers showed greater activation in the medial prefrontal cortex when they experienced gratitude in the fMRI scanner. This is striking as this effect was found three months after the letter writing began. This indicates that simply expressing gratitude may have lasting effects on the brain. While not conclusive, this finding suggests that practicing gratitude may help train the brain to be more sensitive to the experience of gratitude down the line, and this could contribute to improved mental health over time. " This is something that I am going to continue to do with my students so that they can have this positive experience.
Today, I am grateful for being able to spend time with my son doing something we both enjoy, golfing. Being able to be outside and hitting golf balls is awesome! Yesterday, we went to Arizona Grand. It was my first time playing the course and it seemed like every shot the ball was either above or below my feet, never flat. When it is not flat, every shot is harder! I love seeing my little boy running around and talking about how awesome his shot was because it went far. My buddies are fun to be around and joke about how we are playing. What a great day yesterday was! Can't wait to do it again! Today, I am grateful for being able spend time with my son and have good food. My son beat me in Garbage and was so excited. I made up a rule that if we both "go out" than you cannot win so we went to 4OTs. Even making up a rule, I could not get the victory. My boy was so happy. I did nothing to deserve the joy that my son brings me. I love him with all my heart. Image from @nba_paint on Twitter
Today, I am grateful for being able to watch Devin Booker play basketball for my favorite basketball team. He is on an absolute streak that very few players have ever accomplished. Hearing the stats that put him in the company of Micheal Jordan is wild! Shooting 20-25 and scoring 45+ on two free attempts is wild! Booker is 26 and is playing like one of the best basketball players in the world. Yes, the Suns are down 2-1 but that will change on Sunday because of how Booker is playing. Just need a couple more guys to come with him on this streak! Go Suns! Today, I am grateful to be reminded how immovable, rigid, our education system is and how educators benefit and find joy in this. There are some educators that want to maintain a rigid, inflexible, anti-learning, adult supremacy environment at school to create some sort of machine that does "their time" and "follows the rules." Super frustrating when all of what I value and appreciate as an educator are at the opposite end of those 19th-20th century mindsets. No matter what people say you have to look at their actions and who or what they allow around them. I am reminded of the crab mentality today. The crab mentality goes like this. You place one crab in a bucket and it will not try to escape. You place two or more crabs in a bucket and the others WILL NOT LET any crabs climb out. Everyone gets dragged down. No one can try anything that could possibly create the question that someone might need to question what they are doing and might need to adjust their mindset so that others can thrive. If this is still confusing to you, watch this video. Being a teacher is hard. I strive to be my best by reading, thinking, asking questions, growing. I abhor the mindset of making sure others cannot do something for the fear of making me look like I am not doing my job. I cannot get into the mindset of people who think they have to tear down or prevent someone from doing something because they themselves are unwilling to try that.
Progressive Education is about freedom for students to be curious, to create, to have space to do things they enjoy with how they want to complete it. Human Restoration Project has a whole bunch of resources if you want to explore this more. Reading thinkers and authors like bell hooks, Alfie Kohn, Monte Syrie, Paulo Friere and Howard Zinn has greatly expanded my thinking about education and how we treat learning and young people. This has taken me years to learn and apply and adapt.
I am going to keep learning so that I can create opportunties for all my students to experience freedom, joy, curiousity and be in relationship with their classmates. Today, I am grateful to be able to enjoy our students putting on a performance at the end of year dance recital. My son was not so excited to be dragged to the event but after he said that it was pretty cool! Congratulations to all the students who put on a great performance. Congratutlations to the people who worked behind the scenes to make this work! Today, I am grateful for the time I get to spend doing enjoyable things with my son. I picked up Dayterbug from school and asked what we should do. Dayt immediately said "golf" and I was all for it. He had a blast. Dayt stepped up to the first tee and smacked the ball into the fairway after I hit my ball into the water. We haven't been out much together but now that I have some buddies that like to go. I like seeing him be able to hit the ball, run after the ball and hit it again until he catches up. I want to do things with my son that are enjoyable for both of us, golf is it. Dayt has been making plans to go this weekend. lol. I love my son. |
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Header (above) - Black Hills, SD, 2013 Portrait (below) - Me! Compadre High School, 2021 Dylan WinceI am not a writer. Archives
May 2024
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