To All the Teacher's I Admire

 When I think of school starting I want to run and hug my own kids.  They inspire me to work harder and find more solutions. As school starts soon for so many teachers I wonder if they get nervous to re-kindle their artistry as I do.  I think so often "how am I going to get started" or "how can I remember how to connect with kids in real-time." Last year during Covid-19 when things were really tough, teachers bonded, united, and found new ways to do so many lessons.  Teachers looked at their lessons objectively and discovered what was important and what could be let go of.  As we re-boot this year, will we still remember to re-boot and re-kindle those lessons?  Driving into the first day of school today made me wonder about teacher artistry.  I wondered who had written about it and what was significant. I discovered a great article on my i-phone and was reading just a bit while driving and then decided to continue this pursuit later. Important realizat...

  Meetings or Meanings? When I think back to starting in my educational pursuit, I dreamt of becoming a singer, sharing songs with those that would listen. I loved music, any music, singing it, playing it on my french horn, or even practicing the piano when I had time in college. I think now to teaching, the expectations whether it's meeting the demands of the curriculum, more and more meetings with colleagues, or student's music learning, developing their ideas into realities: educating turns into and is born from a meeting. I know that we are bound by obligations. Meetings are one of those expectations. It is possibly out of obligation to meet that meetings have turned from deep and meaningful conversations and sharing of ideas and dreams into many other things. Some colleagues may really look forward to meeting and discussing, learning from each other. I know from my very first two weeks of teaching that was what I looked forward to. My best colleague in the whole world turn...