SOL #10: Haiku, Part 2

My owner comes through!

Hope the need to devour

will remain at bay.

SOL #9- A Haiku

The look of regret

As you realize life is now...

Uncomfortable

SOL#6: Zip It

"C, can you name some of Ramon's actions that tell you he is changing in the story?" I ask.

Before he has a chance to speak, N starts blurting out the answer and just as quickly I say "zip it" while pretending to physically zip my lips.  N smiles, doesn't say anything and allows C to answer.  K, the other student in the group doesn't say anything either.

A few minutes later, I ask another question. But this time it was directed at N. I wait for a minute, and am getting no response. She now is sitting there with air filled chipmunk cheeks, turning slightly red and trying not to burst out laughing.

"Are you ok? What's happening? Why aren't you talking?"

She points to me, points to her lips, stands up and starts writing on the board, "You need to....".

At this point K and C are laughing pretty hard, i'm still perplexed and N is laughing so hard she can't write.

K says, "You told her to zip her lips and now she can't talk until you unzip them."

OMG, seriously!? Now I laugh and roll my eyes, motion like i'm unzipping N's mouth and we all take a minute to finish laughing together. N answers the question and we finish our discussion.

Kids are silly. And I love every minute of it. 

SOL #5 One Day

Last week I was having one of those “I REALLY wish I woke up with pink eye so I can call into work sick” days. 

I hadn’t been sleeping well, was doing a lot of work at home lately and just hadn’t been spending good quality time with my daughter. I missed her.

Just as I was about to get ready to leave for work, my daughter woke up. Yes! I can get a little squeeze and a few extra kisses in before heading out. This moment curbed my pink eye yearnings. 

I start the leaving process now and have my coat on. Not three seconds later my daughter comes running to me, “Mama nooo! Coat, off,” as she is physically trying to remove my jacket. Guess she was missing me, too. 

So what do I do? Go to work just like every other working parent out there, who have been in this situation far too many times. And try to find a balance between being committed to your profession and the desire to never have to work again. Maybe one day. Until then, perhaps pink eye will hit me. 

SOL19 #4

Parent/toddler gymnastics classes are amazing and yet super awkward at times. Seeing my daughter run around freely, exploring her physical capabilities with climbing, jumping, running and even interacting with other kids is really quite something. She has a huge smile on her face from start to finish and it never fails to lead into a really great, long nap. 

It’s also a time when you become super aware of other people’s silent judgements. Apparently there was a rule that I didn't know about in our gymnastics class - until today. My husband usually takes my daughter but with it being a holiday, I got to go. So it’s not surprising I wasn’t aware that the kids weren’t supposed to run down the (what seems like) mile long trampoline, let alone at full speed. They can hop down it at full speed, but not run. 

Well here comes my daughter, doing just that.  And she was having so much fun. But the two moms at the end of the trampoline didn’t think it was as fun and every time she reached the end, they avoided eye contact, pursed their lips and moved their kids. At this point I am still unaware of the rule and thought they were just being total sticks in the mud (TO PUT IT NICELY). The last time she ran down they made sure to turn and say to their own kids right,  “No, no little Johnnie. We don’t run down the trampoline.” And then finally made eye contact with me.

Uhh....your kid wasn’t running. Mine was. And instead of being passive aggressive how about you just clue me in to the rule? Help a fellow toddler mom out. I mean it’s clear that I am not a regular attending class parent and these two are. 

Thankfully, my daughter moved on to the next thing and as she is doing so I walk up to my friend that’s in this class to tell her about the trampoline situation. She starts laughing and then *gasp* tells me the rule. We laugh together. Imagine that. 

The two moms are still, in my eyes, sticks in the mud. 

A Reality Check SOL19 #1

Last night, I was talking to my husband about starting a blog for the Slice of Life challenge and how i'm stressed because I can't think of a name for it. I met with a friend earlier in the day and came up with a temporary one but wasn't feeling it. He starts tossing ideas around and within four attempts Living and Loving Literacy was born. A sense of relief came over me as this step allowed me to fully embrace the challenge and focus on my writing. I was also feeling proud because I think this name is a true reflection of my beliefs as an educator when it comes to literacy (insert eye roll as some egotistical thoughts started floating into my head). 

We head to bed shortly after but not before going through the nightly routines- turning lights off, letting the dog out and making sure all the doors are locked. I pass the bathroom (which happens to be across from my daughter's room) where my husband comes lurking out of the dark whispering a creepy "hey" and scaring the crap out of me. In my house this is a regular occurrence and had I not been distracted with said egotistical thoughts, I may have been able to see it coming. So what do I do? Jump a little and get mad. Totally logical, right?

Laughing at me he says, "Why are you mad right now?" 

"Because you know how easily scaredable I am and I could have screamed and woke up Bridget." 

"Scaredable? Ok, Living and Loving Literacy."

And we both laughed. 

Touché, Rich. Touché. 

Thanks for always being my reality check.

Clarity: SOL19 #2

Had a meeting yesterday and part of it involved planning an event our district is hosting. A coworker and I will be presenting a breakout session together and we had to come up with a two sentence blurb describing what participants will be learning about. 

I have to be honest when I say that I initially teamed up with her because it made my life slightly easier as she already had a completed presentation for this particular topic. But to my credit- I was 100% honest and vocal with her about my motives for teaming up, she didn’t object and we actually laughed about it. Obviously we will work together to enhance it and I will be the one to do the legwork from this point on for anything that needs to be revised- which brings me back to the two sentence blurb. It was my job to write them. 

Two sentences. That’s all I had to write. 

But I stared at the little box it was supposed to fit in, stumped. Stall tactics were being used and I was spewing out random thoughts in 2-3 word clusters, trying to convey what we want to teach others. I would type a few things, erase, add some more, erase again. 

It’s not that I don’t know how to write a sentence or don't know how to knowledgeably sum up our session or am not very confident in my abilities to provide PD for others. It’s just that when it comes to writing, I freeze. And it takes me FOREVER.

Meanwhile, my coworker’s natural ability to craft these two sentences within seconds of thinking about it made my own insecurities about writing come rushing through my head. My professionalism allowed me to quiet these thoughts, and even though it took me longer than everyone else, I wrote the two sentence blurb. 

Driving home I’m thinking about this and it dawns on me. That’s what I’m striving for by pushing myself to do this SOL challenge. Learn how to get my thoughts to flow as freely and seamlessly together as my coworkers all while conquering some writing fears and learning new techniques for writing. 

My coworker has no idea how this little interaction gave me clarity and helped me see my end game. So, thank you.