Celebrate: the bright spots of a busy week

Ruth Ayres invites people to share a celebration every Saturday. Thinking back to a week you can pick anything - small or big - to celebrate. Thank you for the invitation, Ruth!

I celebrate the bright spots of a busy week.

Have you noticed that busyness invites more tasks and suddenly you find yourself squished by all the things you need to do? You do what you have to do but time seems to move faster and faster. You are organized but the unexpected fills the time slots you had set aside for getting things done. You keep yourself calm (or try to) but little irritations gather and bombard you. You know about the importance of rest and you go to bed early but your brain keeps processing and you wake up in the middle of the night with thoughts racing and colliding in your head. Even when you know you will get everything done (because you have no choice), the stress keeps building,  and once the week is over, your get home on Friday and your head is ready to explode. 

My week was just like that. Fortunately throughout the week there were many bright spots that saved me from falling apart.

Teaching is much easier than leaving sub plans for someone else. To write sub plans for a week is extra complicated. (Should I mention it will be a week after spring break?) My head was spinning like crazy. We are in the middle of an inquiry unit and this means giving more independence and responsibility to the students. The teacher has to know the students very well to guide them and decide to whom and how much to give support. How can a stranger do that? Our current unit is about innovation. I am so thankful that  our school's IT specialist was eager to help me out. She organized Lego Mindstorm kits and when I am gone she will come in several hours a week to do robotics with my students. I am so thankful that the person who is going to substitute me came to visit my class. She has been a teacher herself and assured me that everything will be ok. Knowing what my current inquiry unit is and what we are dong in math, she can prepare herself and she will be able to adjust the plans.  She observed the class to get to know the students a bit, and we talked about what we we have done and where we are heading with our learning. So my plans are ready: goals, routines, and  activities all placed in files, day by day, lesson by lesson. I feel calmer knowing that the person coming in is experienced and flexible.

Of course of all the weeks this week one planning period was cancelled, and during three planning periods different people needed to talk to me. The moments when I couldn't do what I wanted turned into bright spots. One showed to me that I have become a good listener, one ended with an inspiring invitation, and one with common understanding and hope for a future. I value time spent listening to people, building and strengthening relationships.

My friend and I had agreed a long time ago to give a workshop to teachers on Friday. We had no way of  knowing that it would be the week when I have to write sub plans or that she would get sick. We both regretted to agreeing to it but on Friday at 4p.m, when all the other teachers had left the building (should I mention it was a day before spring break?), we were ready. We have had these workshops "How to create a supportive reading environment" before and the feedback has been positive. We like to keep the groups small. This time we had 15 participants. Three teachers came from a city 200 hundred kilometers away. We had some people who weren't even classroom teachers. One was a music teacher and one was a support teacher from a school for children with special needs. One teacher said that she had been to this workshop a year earlier, had liked it and decided to come again. We realized that we were probably doing a right and useful workshop. The sharing, talking, walking around the school, questions, note and picture taking, and comments and thank you-s gave us so much energy that when at 7:30 p.m we rolled round tables in the long hallway back to different classrooms we laughed. Having a friend who is as crazy as myself, willing to do extra than just teaching, is a very bright spot in my life.

Last month I wrote daily. It was time consuming. I don't regret it but I know I won't be able to continue it.  This month I take pictures. It doesn't take much time but inserts little bright spots throughout the day. 

The last bright spot of this week that helped me keep going is SPRING BREAK. 

I have some school work to finish and some getting ready for a course after the spring break, but I plan to sleep, read, write, spend time outside and take photos. After a long time of chill and gray the sun is shining, the weather is warmer and I hope to see some green.