Slice of Life: Life in Perspective

The month of March brings on the Slice of Life Challenge where bloggers are encouraged to post daily about, well, a slice of life from their day. Link up with Two Writing Teachers to read what others post for their Slice of Life daily challenge.

I have actually been avoiding my blog this past week - not blogging means that I can avoid being some raw emotions that I experienced this past week.

I live in a rural coastal town where we tend to know everyone's business. Social media adds another layer of knowing what is going on. In February, a lot was circulating over Facebook about praying for a man named Kurt Robinson. Kurt needed a 2nd double lung transplant.

Kurt attended school in the district where I work - so my colleagues know him because they coached & taught him. His mom has been employed by my school district. His brother-in-law is an administrator here. Kurt's sister is employed by the ESD (educational service district) and works in my district as a speech pathologist. I have never crossed paths with Kurt himself, but know him of him based on my other work relationships and friendships. 

There's a lot that has been circulating over my Facebook feed about friends and relatives who have shared the comments of "positive thoughts sent their way", or "prayer for healing", or "please consider donating" - Kurt's story didn't push any emotional buttons, initially. 

When I saw GoFundMe/KurtRobinson begin to cross my feed I became more curious about the specifics of what is going on with this man that I know of but do not know personally.  

Through the GoFundMe website, I linked up to Kurt's blog lungstoanewlife.blogspot.com and was able to learn about Kurt's journey leading up to his first lung transplant only two years ago. His story blew me away. To begin with, he put a face to a disease that I have only heard of - cystic fibrosis. Next, reading of his first journey and the false "starts" for his initial lung transplant were unreal to me. He was in the fight for his life and in a horrible twist, he was fighting the same battle all over again. 

His blog brought his condition to life. In February, when he was hospitalized, his wife continued his blog giving me an opportunity to know her as well. Kurt and his wife, Lisa, were no longer people who were random individuals showing up on my Facebook feed. They were real people opening up about the realities of their fight for survival. 

A bit less than a week ago, the family received news that there was a set of donor lungs only to find out that once the lungs were harvested that the lungs were not viable. A day later, Kurt was taken off of the donor list (he had deteriorated that much). The day after that his family agreed to take him slowly off of life supports. Kurt died at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday.

I was saddened by Kurt's death. It seemed unfair that this man who so many talked about as kind and courageous was taken from life too soon. However, was particularly difficult for me to cope with was the impact that his death would have on his wife, his sister(s), and his mother. I identified with all three of these women because it could have easily been me - not the one dying, but the one left behind. I would be heartbroken, as a sister, if anything happened to any one of my brothers or sisters. I would be completely devastated if anything were to happen to my husband. If anything were to happen to my daughter - I think I'd rather die, too. His mom, Sheryl, losing her son is what as stuck with me the most. I grieve for her in what feels like an unnatural occurrence. It doesn't seem "right" when children die before their parents. 

I appreciate Kurt and his family opening up about their lives - Kurt's battle with Cystic Fibrosis; his life as Kurt 2.0 (as he called it); and then the last chapter of his life that his wife subsequently documented for the rest of us. I have a lump in my throat as I think about the post that Kurt's wife posted today - the letter that he wrote to her in January just in case another lung transplant was not successful or possible. (Read From the man I loved).

I thought that when my dad died in 2010 that I had gained perspective. In the business of work and life, I have veered off of that perspective and have become unbalanced. Kurt's story, his family's story, has refocused my perspective. My work is important to me, but at the end of the day, I will be actively appreciating and taking advantage of every moment with my husband, my beautiful daughter, my extended family. Life is too short.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 2.24.14

 It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is an opportunity for everyone to share their book journeys: where we've been for the week and where we plan to go next. To learn more about It's Monday! What Are You Reading? with a kidlit focus, jump over to Jen Vincent's blog, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee Moye's blog, Unleashing Readers.

  

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I missed posting and catching up on what everyone was reading last week.  I was sick most of last week - sick enough that I didn't blog much less meet my reading or writing goals for the week. The good news is that I am on the mend - I am so ready for winter and its friend, cold and flu season, to be gone.

Maddie and I did read but since I was not feeling well, I took few book pics. 
Here's where Maddie's book adventures took us:

 

I've been trying to find the balance of introducing new books to Maddie while honoring her choice - so, you'll see that there's some returning friends in Pinkalicious & Llama Llama. 

Here's where I ventured:

I read this book, thanks to #virtualbookclub. LOVED it!!!!

This is part of the OBOB Grades 3-5 list. Ok, it made me cry in the end.

#audiobook

Here's where I'm headed this week:

Another OBOB Grades 3-5 book. I'm super excited that it's a story told through poem. I think that this may be a mentor text for my own writing.

#audiobook I cannot seem to get enough of Kate DiCamillo

Still reading as part of the LCSD Reads group on Facebook.

#SharpSchu bookclub on 2/26

I'm looking forward to a great week of reading.

What are you reading?

Celebrate! 2.15.14

 

Life is busy. Too often it flies by at a pace that unless I have intentional time to sit and think about the good in my life, goodness is not always apparent. I appreciate Ruth Ayres hosting a weekly challenge that encourages a mindset of celebration.

This week, I am celebrating:

An Collaboration Grant All Teams Meeting on Monday that yielded strong conversations around next steps to take as my district develops and works to sustain a collaborative culture around professional development, evaluation, career pathways, and compensation. There's ongoing conversations that are uncomfortable but we need this disequilibrium in order to move forward.

I observed and/or had a 1 to 1 conversation with all 13 of the teachers that I mentor. :o)

I co-facilitated a kick-off event for a group of teacher leaders who are leading their schools through some calibration activities related to our Charlotte Danielson evaluation system. The structure is flexible and some teachers have already provided feedback about ways to improve the calibration activities for next school year. 

I spent most of Thursday observing data team meetings at one of the schools where I have a large number of mentees. I appreciated observing the dynamics amongst the team members (which included classroom teachers, Title I, Special Education, and the Principal). I saw some real strengths in the teachers I support and made note of some things that I want to follow up on in terms of the types of data used to make instructional decisions. I was most excited to observe the principal, who is a first year principal, ask questions around classroom based formative assessment versus placing so much emphasis on data from state assessments which are summative results. 

My sister arrived on Friday. We haven't had a visit from her in many months so it's been fun having her here. 

My sister offered to hang with Maddie so Mark and I could go out for Valentines Day. We opted to stay home - we could not imagine spending Valentines Day without her. It's amazing how different and wonderful our life is now with her in it. 

The fact that I am "back in business" with blogging is reason to celebrate.

LCSD Reads - First Thursdays Book Club Book Review

On the first Thursday of every month, interested folks join together in one of the high school libraries in the Lincoln County School District. What brings us together? 

Books!

I have yet to determine where the books come from, but there are tables and tables of books from picture books to young adult that we are able to take with us as long as we write a review. Thus begins another piece of my #nerdlution ... the intent is that each Thursday I will review one of the books that I picked up from the First Thursdays Book Club. 

Title: Big Bear's Big Boat

Author: Eve Bunting

Illustrated by: Nancy Carpenter

Publisher: Clarion Books

Publication Date: September 2013

Genre: Picture Book

Goodreads Summary: Big Bear outgrew his little boat, so he is building himself a big boat and can't wait till he's rowing, fishing, and relaxing in it. When his friends start suggesting improvements, Big Bear obligingly follows their advice. To his dismay, his big boat is turning out all wrong. It's because he hasn't followed his own dream, and he knows exactly how to fix it. With all the simplicity, warmth, and wisdom of Little Bear's Little Boat, this book honors an important step in growing up.

Grade Level: Preschool/Kindergarten+

Kristin's Thoughts: I found this book appealing due to the fact that it illustrates for younger children that it is ok to try the ideas of others but that when one can determine that the ideas don't work for them that they can say "no thank you" and take action that works for them. As the parent of a preschooler, I see that even at a young age, my daughter is trying to fit in. I appreciate that the character in this book, Big Bear, was open to the ideas of others (my 4 year old tends to be very egocentric) but that later he could assert himself and make choices that better suit his wants and needs. It's important to be open to suggestion but it's also important to stay true to yourself. This book illustrates this idea in a simple, comprehensible way.

Being a Reflective Mentor - Slice of Life 2014

 

 A Slice of Life is a weekly blog hosted by Two Writing Teachers, Ruth Ayers and Stacey Shubitz. Click on Two Writing Teachers to be taken to their website to learn more about this week's Slice of Life.

Today I actually struggled to find something to write about. I often want to blog about my work as a mentor but I constantly worry about inadvertently breaking confidentiality so I choose not to. The topics that I want to blog about focus on the ways that the teachers I mentor inspire me. I think that I just need to take the leap and do it and blog as if my mentees were my students.

I mentor 13 beginning teachers as half of my work (the other half of my educator world is spent managing my district's Collaboration Grant). It is work that I find rewarding. I spend my days observing beginning teachers - collecting data related to classroom environment and/or instruction; as well as meeting with my teachers one-on-one to reflect on instructional practice. My role during these meetings is to listen and ask questions. My work is about helping beginning teachers to find their teacher-selves; not try to coach them into being mini-Kristin Becker's (Lord knows that one Kristin Becker is enough). I am only in my second year of mentoring and already feel inspired and energized about a future return to the classroom - I have learned as much or more from the teachers that I mentor than they have learned from me. Talk about educator blessing - WOW!

Part of my district's mentoring program includes a series of seminars that our beginning teachers attend that focus on topics unique to supporting beginning teacher development. Each January, a portion of the seminar is spent on reflecting on individual beginning teacher growth thus far. The teachers refer back to their self assessments they completed back in September as well as any data mentors have collected from observations (we have a series of tools that we use). A part of this January's mid-point reflection was to focus on a significant area of growth and then the mentee needed to indentify what he/she did to make that growth happen. The idea was for each mentee to see that he/she did something - that the growth didn't just happen by accident or chance. 

It was powerful to see that the teachers I mentor could see their growth and what they did to make it happen. I feel such pride in their openness to feedback and coaching and that each one could state for certain at least one thing worth celebrating. 

I decided to do the same process for myself. 

I found it difficult. 

One of my professional growth goals as a mentor focuses on questioning. My overarching goal is to be a facilitative mentor - as I stated earlier, mentoring is about helping my teachers to determine their own path. Not get them to follow mine. It's not that I don't have great ideas, but I really want to make my actions be more about coaching and less about "here's how I did it". 

I have found that when teachers share their challenge with me and my response is more of "tell me more about..." that the teacher and I are actually able to get to the heart of the challenge quicker and that the teacher is actually able to determine some next steps independent of me. I've noticed that I have stronger more trusting relationships with the teachers I mentor (half of which are not teachers that I mentored last year) based on the fact that I am more willing to listen and ask questions that get teachers to go deeper. Now, I'm not saying I'm perfect with this. I've actually caught myself saying, "when I taught 4th grade, I...". The teachers I support are gracious and accept that type of instructive feedback; however, in that instance I missed my target of being facilitative.

As I move forward for the remainder of the year, I will say that I have grown on as a mentor; I am cognizant of which role I take on (instructive, collaborative, facilitative) yet I want to continue to refine those effective listening and questioning skills.

I am always learning and growing.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 2/10/14

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is an opportunity for everyone to share their book journeys: where we've been for the week and where we plan to go next. To learn more about It's Monday! What Are You Reading? with a kidlit focus, jump over to Jen Vincent's blog, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee Moye's blog, Unleashing Readers.

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It's been a struggle for me to find balance between work life, mom & wife life, and reader/writer/blogger life. I formalized my #nerdlution, which I will be blogging about later this week. 

Part of the imbalance involves the nightly #bookpic that Madeline and I had grown accustomed to doing. Things got busy and I quit taking the nightly picture. But then I heard these words,

"Mom, what about a book pic?"

Wow! Talk about accountability! I can promise that we have been reading nightly but I have not been very consistent about even tracking what we read. I'm on night #2 of book pics with Madeline so I promise that the meme for Maddie's book journey will return next week. 

My book travels have been short as well. This week I'm doing something that Donalyn Miller suggests in her book, Reading in the Wild, by keeping a reading itinerary for myself. I'll share my findings next week. 

  

In the meantime, here's where I did travel this past week:

One of the books off of Oregon's Battle of the Books list for grades 3-5.

This was my #audiobook.

 Where am I headed next?

This is another book off the the Oregon Battle of the Books list for grades 3-5.

My audiobook for the week.

 

as part of the LCSD Reads Facebook Book Club

My district mentoring team is rereading this for our own professional development

I feel new life breathed into me as I re-commit to reading, writing, and reflecting more this week. 

What are you reading? :o)

Celebrate! 1/4/14

 

It has been a good week. 

My husband and I have been battling illness for a majority of my winter break, but I think that we are on the mend and I'll be able to return to work on Monday feeling healthy again.

Sunday: Maddie and I drove to my mom's house (three hours away) to spend New Year's at her house. Any time the two of us can travel without incident, and by that I mean, not witnessing any accidents, I feel that there's reason to celebrate. Maddie loves time with her Grandma (and vice versa) so she was happy as a clam.

Monday: I spent most of the day with our Chalkboard Project/Collaboration Grant coach working out a timeline for work left ahead of us for the remainder of the school year. There's nothing necessarily fun about working during your break, however, it felt good to process some of the grant work left ahead of us. I left with a plan of action for the next couple weeks-success!

Tuesday: In my Slice of Life post on Tuesday, I shared about my daughter's participation in making mochi for Japanese New Year. This still sticks with me as the best part of my week since she is engaging in a tradition that my dad and I started together six years ago. Since dad died in 2010, I've been doing mochi for Japanese New Year on my own and it's been lonely. This year, Maddie changed all of that by wanting to be a part of the entire process. It's something my dad would have loved to see - it's something that just makes me smile as I type this. 

Our 2014 Mochi

Wednesday: Maddie and I traveled home...safely. As stated above in regards to travel, any time Maddie and I are on the road without incident then I celebrate. When we arrived, we found my husband still sick but at least without the fever that we left him with on Sunday. 

Thursday: Maddie and I checked the mail to retrieve packages from Christmas that we were expecting but didn't arrive until after. One package that was in there was my National Board Certificate. I completed the renewal process last spring for the Middle Childhood Generalist certificate. The National Board process has been the one thing I've done for myself professionally that I am most proud of. The process has helped me to develop habit where I reflect about my practice and continues to open my eyes about what I do and how I do it. It is the filter that I run things through in terms of - is this action was is best for kids? The feeling of accomplishment with renewal was the same as when I submitted my portfolio in 2004. My husband, daughter, and colleagues have continued to support my efforts to constantly learn and grow and for this I will always be grateful.

Friday: My husband has always been my biggest supporter when it comes to continuing education, personal professional development, basically, anything I do to constantly learn and grow. So, the National Board Certificate was something he congratulated me on but did not get the "big deal" that it us until he saw the 100+ Likes on my Facebook page. He then, on his own, planned a babysitting for Maddie and dinner out at wonderful restaurant in Lincoln City. We rarely go out, and when we do we usually have Maddie with us, so this was a pleasant surprise. I loved that he was willing to make a big deal about celebrating my National Board Certificate.

Saturday: Today, I walked my second Newport Resolution run. What sets this year apart is that I signed up for the Polar Plunge. By plunge, I mean that I dove into the frigid waters of the Yaquina Bay after I finished my race. My husband thought I was crazy, but he did bring Maddie to the finish line so she could see me plunge. For me, this run was unlike last year's in that I spent my time during the "run" thinking about resolutions for reading, writing, mentoring, parenting, marriage, and health. The plunge was a sort of cleansing of old habits to make room for the changes that I intend to make this year. At the end of the race, my friends that finished ahead of me were there waiting for me making the finish all the more special. 

Majalise, Me, & Jana before the race

There is a lot to look forward to this next week: return to mentoring my beginning teachers who I've missed, my last mentor training of the year with the new instructional coach that we hired, the leadership team I facilitate as part of the Collaboration Grant, the books I plan to read and the writing that is ahead of me. 

What are you celebrating?

Have a fantastic week!