The Future of Teaching

This term is a start of a new 3 year cycle I'm turning 40 and when these freshmen graduate I'll definitely have more grey hair but I'm hoping I'll be all the more wiser. 

Most of us have aspirations for our teaching career and mine is to bend those young minds, stretch their perspectives and perhaps start them on a path in life that will take them on a great adventure. There are moments in the classroom where things just fall into place. There is a flow that could be compared to what surfers call the perfect wave. Each lesson can be like that, there are ones that put a smile on your face for the rest of the day and then there are those that leave you feeling like a washed up castaway. 

I've come to realize something that our School Board and Ministry of Education has missed and that is, teachers do not choose their career because they are fond of administration work, or documentation, or even evaluation and yet these three duties have become the focus and foundation of our daily practice. We enter teachers college wide-eyed and with the conviction that the majority of our time is going to be spent on inspiring students, building relationships and yes actually teaching. There is nothing more satisfying than having planned a lesson that results in that perfect wave. But sadly the time spent refining the art of creating and preparing that lesson for a specific class that you know is really going to enjoy it, is eaten up by the numerous and tedious tasks that have little or nothing to do with actual teaching. 

So what happens? We sacrifice the time we would have spent tailor making our lesson and follow a pre-packaged lesson plan or throw out a second rate "keep them busy until next time when I have something prepared that I'm proud of" lesson. It's the equivalent of paint by numbers for a skilled artist, the fast food menu for the trained chef and the lip-synced version of the audience's favorite hit. So yes there is the high you experience when you catch that perfect wave, when the flow in the room gives you a fulfilled warm and fuzzy feeling deep in your gut, and then there are the lows. It's the unimaginative painting, the greasy after-taste from that burger and fries that now feel like a brick in your stomach, and the fear of being seen as a fake when the crowd realizes the mic is not on. 

I fear where we are headed, because the new job description for my profession is soon to be recruiting another breed of teacher, and that is the one that sees the actual teaching part as the tedious duty in the to do list of the day.  

The loppis season has started

For the past 2 weekends I've visited the local Loppis with my friends and kids. So far I've managed to start a few upcycling projects with some of these favorite finds.

 

I took some vintage tea towels and sewed some pillow cases for the balcony sofa. I especially like the pillow with the M embroidered on it because my grandmothers name was Mary, and up side down it reads W which was my other grandmother Winifred's first  initial. A bit of an homage to them. 

 

This was an oil painting I found today and for 150kr I had to take it home. It is one of the small islands in Bohuslän. The painting is over 30 years old and in great shape. It really was love a first sight. 

This is a copper pot that I picked up for 20kr and now it is one of my favorite planters on the balcony. 

I feel a new weakness coming on and that's for handmade baskets. 

I found another old bicycle basket that we filled with lavender and begonias in the top one.

Last year I spray painted these planters in neon pink and green, this summer I'm falling for pastel so they got a new makeover. 

 I've looked at this print "svala" a few times but today I couldn't resist this large bowl. 💗💗💗💗

 

30 day shred

Today is
day 4 of the 30 day shred and I'm sore but determined to continue. It does seem like a lot with 26 days ahead of Jillian Michaels yelling at you, but I'm feeling resolved to finish it, and may it not be the last of my 30 day challenges. 

I've been using cans of coconut milk instead of hand weights, Gustav saw me working out and wanted to join so he ran and got his cola bottles from his toy kitchen. He was a champ! And was very bent on hydrating from my water every 2 minutes. I fear that I've awoke with a touch of his cold, but the challenge must go on! 😉

#30dayshred #shred #handweights #30daychallenge 

The Secret Lives of Bees

Today I took a first step in an idea I've had since seeing my husbands grandfather's abandoned bee hives 17 years ago.  What a shame I thought that these hives are sitting in storage just waiting for a queen to move in.  Well fast forward 17 years, and there I was in my classroom sharing a TED talk on the disappearance of bees, and how desperately they need our help.  It was only a week afterwards that I was contacted by one of my student's mother who wanted to tip me off on a beekeeping course that would be starting this spring in Karlskrona.  I thought well if I don't take this chance now, the risk is those hives will still be empty for years to come.  I've already planned to plant some clover and wild underbrush that are rich in nutrient for the hive.  I can't imagine I just might be a keeper of bees, and if I dare to dream maybe even a bee charmer.

30 Day Challenge

After watching a TED talk the other night about setting a goal for yourself for 30 days, I decided, I too wanted to embark on something like this.  So today at work while discussing this with my colleagues I decided that my challenge would be to sit down once a day and write a handwritten letter to a friend or family member.  The idea being that after a month 30 people will have gotten a message in the post from me, letting them know that they matter.

Now a days we have so little time, and I wish that I spent more of it on the people in my circle that have always been there to support me. So this month is going to be about thanking them.  Thanking them with my time and consideration.  Today, I sat down and wrote my first note, it took me 20 minutes and I enjoyed every second of it! The reflection that comes with putting pen to paper is truly wonderful.  I really understand why people journal, why the best therapy can be that inner dialogue between your brain and your fingers either scribbling away on a paper, or dancing on the keyboard.  My goals for this challenge are 1. to actually complete it, and 2. to encourage others to do the same.  I guess only time will tell! Tomorrow I know who will be getting letter number two and I am already planning what I want to say in it to her!

Going to bed excited tonight, and I'm shocked to realize how often that has been happening lately, since getting healthy and spending time cultivating art and expression in my life.  I'm so happy to be back here, it literally has been years since visiting this state.

First Impressions+ Work

Friday
 Not just any Friday but the first Friday after the first official week of regular school.  The verdicts are in, and all of my students are getting rave reviews! From the shy and timid to the charismatic they all had me at hello.  And I have to ask myself, were they always like this? Just right in front of me, plain as day? And was I just too cloudy to see them? What ever the answer I am grateful, truly, for my wonderful colleagues that stuck by me when the going got tough. 

I awoke early Tuesday morning, to a message that my uncle had passed away during the night. I was of course hit with the overwhelming isolation that those who have immigrated only truly understand. I was here, and all of my tribe back home were circling around to share the sorrow, the air, and that existential mood. That connective thread that we all share to those in our family is undeniably strong when one is taken from the group. It's as if there is a gravitational pull both mentally and physically.  When my husband awoke I told him of my sad news and he immediately suggested that I stay home from work, but I answered no with out a blink of an eye. 

It was there that my colleagues listened to me, and shared that heavy air, so that it became lighter and lighter, by the end of the day I could once again breathe. The tight knot in my stomach that had tied itself when I got the news that my cousin was called to return to her father's bedside, had started to loosen and I could let some tears out and yes not feel so far away from home. 

My uncle was a wonderful man, and I have so many fond memories of the kindness he showed me especially when I was a rebellious teenager.  But my uncle to say the least was not a very social person, and I had my first big smile when thinking of him the other day. I called my mother to inquire about the funeral, and she replied " He didn't want one, so there will not be one" And there it came! The smile, because my Uncle was true to who he was right to the end! Go uncle Nick! There is something to be said about a person who can swim against the stream, I'm hoping it's a family trait. This last wish of his and the family respecting it, sends a vital message to my nearly "hitting the wall" self that is loud and clear. "Be yourself and those that love you will accept you" 

Some Moments Are Longer Than Others

Today was a day that started off great and ended up as a night to remember. As I do almost every Sunday in the summer, I got up early and started the coffee to make take-away lattes for my loppis girls. Anna picked me up just after 8 and we were off with a pocket full of change and an empty sturdy carrying bag yet to be filled with the day's finds at the local flea market. Just as always Ronneby Brunn never fails to delight. The weather was great and there were loads of tables with interesting things, I was on a new mission to find things for a fall winter conversion of our balcony as well as my usual list: antique linens and toys for the kids. Today I managed to find an old pot that was over 200 years old that will now hold a small evergreen shrub. And I just decided at this moment that they colours out there will be green red copper and some light blue. I can slowly see all of the layers coming together in my mind the fun part is making them appear in reality. 

Later today a colleague that I have had for over 10 years came by, and although we had worked on projects together in the past, we never really have connected on anything but a work level. But after tonight I have so much to thank her for, and even if we never hang out again I will look back on this night and our conversation as one of those moments in time where you realize something and the effect of that are so big that the whole notion of time freezes and transcends the entire concept of it. I can honestly say that sitting at my table tonight with her over a cup of tea I realized so many hard truths about myself and my life that I am still in a bit of a shock. It's like I've been fast forwarded to some other kind of understanding and realization that usually comes with years and yet here in one night bam, and now I just need to wait for my body to catch up! 

Tonight I realized, and this is big, that despite all the trials and tribulations I went though this past year physically, emotionally and mentally, I would do it all again!!!! Simply because I realized that the person I was before all of this happened is not the person I want to be. The girl that I was, seems so far away now, and I look back, and I am thankful that I won't be her again. I remember when I was teaching IB we had to pick a favorite quote and mine was "Once a perspective has been widened it can never be narrowed" and this night will go down in my personal growth history as the night I realized all things really do happen for a reason. And tonight I got many of my why questions answered =)