When it comes to giving gifts, I often feel that my choice of gifts never adequately shows my love and appreciation for the recipients.  I am always in awe of those individuals who find just the right gift for just the right occasion.  Recently, I was thrilled to be the recipient of one of those creative and meaningful gifts, just prior to the birth of our granddaughter.  A good friend, Denise Taylor Edwards, who knows my passion for writing, gifted me with a journal. As I unwrapped the gift, I recalled George Couros visiting Thames Valley years ago and addressing our administrators and senior team members.  George and his wife had just welcomed their first daughter.  George lovingly shared that he had already created an email account for his daughter and was starting to populate it with letters and artefacts.  At that time, I wished I had started something similar for my own children when they were young.

Fast forward to March 28 ~ the day that I opened this beautiful leather-bound journal for the first time and crafted the first, of what I hope will be many, many entries.  I documented the details of Ellie’s journey into this world and our hopes for her. To date, I have written 12 entries (one for each of the times that I’ve been blessed to spend time with her).

Although the last thing I want to do is to wish away any of her time growing up, I can’t help but wonder at what point in her life I’ll be able to “gift” her this journal.

Do you keep a journal for yourself or for a loved one?

Come write with me….

Have you ever reached a part in a book where every sense in your body immediately relives a time/place in your life?   Deep within the pages of Elizabeth Acevedo’s novel, “Clap When You Land”, there is a chapter that begins with, “But sancocho is a daylong dish to make. It has many steps; it’s making a pact with time that you will be patient & the outcome will be delicious”.  As I turned the book over and sat in silence, my mind immediately drifted to those many summers that I spent in the Dominican Republic with our Teacher Mentors Abroad team. TMA is an organization that is near and dear to my heart. For the past 15 years, Canadian educators have been partnering with Dominican mentors to learn from each other as we impact a global movement to support educators and their professional learning.  The experience is both rewarding and humbling and I long for the days that we can, once again, travel to the DR and continue our work.  As an organization we have shifted to connecting via zoom meetings, in order to maintain our connections.  But you will never smell sancocho via a zoom meeting.

One of the many traditions associated with our work is a final night celebration, when the team is invited to Isobel’s home where she proudly and lovingly serves us some delicious sancocho that has been cooking all day.  The smell of the mixture of meat and vegetables wafts through the air as enjoy each other’s company through conversation and dance until the long awaited, “It’s ready” is shared in both Spanish and English.  As Canadian visitors it does not go unnoticed on our part that this family has probably sacrificed their entire meat ration for at least a month, in order for them to share this special meal.

Unlike our celebration, in Acevedo’s novel, the family is preparing sancocho to serve to guests as they come together for the funeral of a father, who died in a plane crash ~ a man who unbeknownst to both families was living a double life.  The story unfolds as Camino who lives in the DR and Yahaira, who lives in New York City discover each other and together, come to terms with the news and how to ultimately create a blended family.

As I craft this post, I have the novel on my desk, in my office, with a sticky note attached, “First Chapter Friday”.  I was scheduled to share the first chapter of this novel with one of our grade 8 classes when we returned Spring Break.   I’m hopeful that I’ll still have that opportunity at some point this year.

When was the last time you read something that you couldn’t wait to share with someone else?

Come write with me….

This weekend we worked on finalizing a Christmas gift from my son-in-law.  He had created a metal work art piece of our last name.  Our job was to paint it, create the plaque to mounted it on and attach it the pillar in the front of our property.  I had just snapped a photo of the finished product to send to a friend and got back into my car when the 60s funny, catching tune, “The Name Game” sung by Shirley Ellis came on the radio.  It immediately brought back memories of listening to the Goofy Greats album when I was younger. So, as I continued my drive into school I started to think about the power of our names and the power that they play in our lives.   I know as a family we recently welcomed our first granddaughter and there was great excitement about what her name was going to be and then the final reveal on the day of her birth.  My daughter and her husband chose to use my maiden name, Taylor, as her middle name.  My parents were beyond thrilled!  There is such pride, sentiment and meaning associated with family names.

When our own children were born, I recall that there was less excitement with my Dutch in-laws as we broke with tradition and did not give our children Dutch first names.

As my day continued, my administrator partner shared that today was her son’s name day.  I had never heard about such a celebration and was excited to learn more.  She shared that in the Greek culture, when people are named after a saint, on the day of the saint’s special feast, those individuals who share the same name as the saint, celebrate their name day. So today, Georgie and Grandpa were selecting St. George Day!

Following our conversation about name day, I recalled that a few months ago, when we invited Leroy Hibbert to speak to our junior and intermediate classes about racism, he shared a video about the power of names and more specifically about names of Asian heritage. The participants within the video spoke to the notion that most of them had adopted an English name as others found it too challenging to pronounce their Asian name.  They proudly shared the meaning behind their names and how their parents had intentionally selected them. The descriptions were breath-taking and so powerful.

Today, like every other day, I continue to make a commitment to listen carefully as families share their names and to seek clarification as I do my best to honour the correct pronunciation.

Does your name hold special significance for you?

Come write with me….

As educators we are blessed with a tremendous number of those moments that take our breath away. For some it’s seeing the joy in the eyes of a child as they finally understand a concept. We often refer to that as the light bulb moment.  For others, it’s that moment when a student who is learning English as a second or third language magically speaks in class and their classmates cheer as they hear their voice for the first time.  How many of us have been emotionally impacted when one of our students scores their first basket or finally masters Double Dutch.  Then there are those moments of pride when we see our students comfort a friend on the school yard or extend a welcoming wave to a new classmate.

One of the most recent moments, which took my breath away, began when an educator was proudly sharing the artwork that their class had just completed.  Amongst the many amazing creations was a pencil sketch of masked classmate holding a notebook and pencil.  From an artistic lens it was effectively crafted ~ proportions were realistic, shading provided depth and the attention to detail was obvious. This student is a wonderful artist!

Yet, as beautifully sketched as this piece of artwork was, it was not the craftsmanship that took my breath away; it was the fact that this student (completely unbeknownst to him), with one drawing had effectively captured what I couldn’t bring myself to say out loud.   It’s as if COVID (symbolized by the mask and closed eyes) had somehow silenced my voice (the closed notebook) and hence my confidence to document our journey through this pandemic.  The literal mask and every implication that wearing a mask has had on us as a society had become a figurative mask and the closed notebook symbolized the days, weeks and then months that went by without a single post. As I reflect over this past year, I can’t help but wonder if my reluctance to blog (something which I enjoy and gives me a sense of pride) was somehow connected to my fear of how my writer’s voice was going to be impacted by all that we were navigating, as a school community and as a society.   Was I going to be less positive and too focused on the negatives of COVID? Not realistic enough or vulnerable enough to share the struggles and frustrations?

This moment that took my breath away, also breathed new life into my commitment to writing and I will forever remember the powerful impact of this student’s artwork. When I shared my strong connection to his artwork, the student was grateful for the compliment and thrilled that I found it so meaningful.  He was also very humble and shrugged it off as, “Just something I did one day when my work was done”.

Have there been figurative masks and closed notebooks in your life lately? How has the past year affected you and your voice?  Join me in being brave and removing the figurative mask to share our experiences.

Come write with me…

As the COVID pandemic continues to impact our daily routines, including accessing only the essentials when we go grocery shopping, stores have had to find creative ways to ensure that customers do not aimlessly wander into those “out of bounds” non-essential spots.  Today, as I completed my weekly shopping and made my way towards the check-out, I found myself wondering about the number of purchases of chips and whether they have increased, as this store’s solution to keeping us out of bounds was to create aisles upon aisles of Lays, Miss Vickie’s, Doritos, Cheetos, etc. as their barriers.  How many customers, who had already passed the regular chips aisle, decided to place a bag in their carts as they wove their way to the front of the store, or as they stood in line waiting to be directed to the next available cashier?

This is indeed product placement at it’s best. According to the The Psychology Behind Retail Product Placement post,  there are four factors which lead to effective product placement:

• Essentials at the back
• Luxury items at the front
• Eye level is buy level
• Complementary products side by side
• Give space

In reflecting on our current online learning model and the significant appeal of Google Classroom banners, I couldn’t help but wonder about the similarities between the two.   It’s not hard to draw the connections between online learning and consumer fulfilment.  Educators are working extremely hard to gain the attention of their consumer (the students) against several competing factors (home circumstances, spring weather, online gaming etc.) ~ much like our choices in the store.

As educators design these virtual invitations to their online classrooms, what would it look like to have the essentials at the back.  Does that mean that students would need to work their way through other material in order to get to the sites/activities that are the most necessary? What are the entry level luxury items that we might use to entice a student away from Fortnite and to our Google Classroom?

Once we return to our beloved world of in-person learning, what role could product placement play in our classrooms?   Would we rethink our classroom libraries?  Our math manipulative placement? The visuals on our walls?

As a side note… It worked! Mr. Bruyns was treated to a bag of his favourite Miss Vickie’s chips, even though they weren’t on the grocery list.

Come right with me….