Eye to Wonder

         One of my favorite reads this year has been The Ten Thousand Doors of January  by Alix E. Harrow. There's a paragraph that I've thought about a lot in the months since I read it. The chapter, "On Loss," begins, "No one really remembers there own origins. Most of us possess a hazy mythology about our early childhood, a set of stories told and retold by our parents, interwoven with our blurred baby memories. They tell us about the time we nearly died crawling down the stairs after the family cat; the way we used to smile in our sleep during thunderstorms; our first words and steps and birthday cakes. They tell us a hundred different stories, which are all the same story: We love you and have always loved you ."           When I read this, it resonated with me and reinforced something I've thought about often since becoming a parent. We are the keeper of Avi's days and memories from this time in her life. She doesn't have...

     The plus side of not writing this post until August 8th is that I've already got started on lots of these goals! August is always a big month of transition for our family. Joel's starting a new semester of grad school and TA-ing, and it's the start of a new school year for me. Back to school looks very different with Covid. Both of us are starting the year virtually, and so I'm trying to think creatively about ways to connect with a new group of students and families. This year Avi's starting at daycare too! It's the first time she's ever been cared for outside of our home, but so far we've been really happy with her teachers and the set up. I think she will love being around other kiddos too.      Given all these big changes, and the air of uncertainty that comes with back to school this year, I tried to focus on goals that would support overall well-being without being too ambitious. My biggest goal for the month is to give ourselves time and comp...

        Like most of us, I'm experiencing a lot of uncertainty about what this school year will be like. I've never taught in a hybrid model before, and I'm trying to be flexible in thinking through how to design my classroom for this format and aware that plans could change.      I'm finding my brain turning to what ifs and ruminating, but one thing that's been really helpful is turning my attention towards creating something. I'm really grateful that I got to take so many awesome professional development classes this summer, and one that I've been coming back to a lot is the book study of Intention: Critical Creativity in the Classroom  by Amy Burvell and Dan Ryder (see the above quote). One key idea of the book is that creativity is for everyone. I definitely have had a boxed up definition of creativity as solely artistic talent. The idea that "creativity is a birthright," stuck in my mind and made me broaden my ideas of creativity. When I foun...