River Brown

This is a new procedure to me, the game of finding one’s own One Little Word for the year.  Kind of a predictive metaphor.  The blog Two Writing Teachers and the teachers who write on Slice of Life do this kind of thing.

It is lovely, as The Word, like ideas hide.  Sometimes important things are veiled in our conscious mind.  Sometimes it is a pretty butterfly chase or simply a way to stop all the buzz of busyness and think.

Well, what word will pick me for this year?  This expanse of slightly less than 365 days called 2014?  This 30 somethingth year of my teaching…

The writing project work to present at other schools continues to expand, and I’m taking the leadership of the young writers programs in summer, and I’m the coordinator for two school in my district to partner with the SJAWP in our high needs school pd grant. 

And on top of this I am teaching the Fountas & Pinnell LLI – three levels and about 8 groups a day, which is a bit of an organizational stretch.  The intervention is the real deal and I have so much to learn from my next 3 days of training with F & P. 

Reading.  Teaching reading has brought me great joy as has reading good books lately.  And loving word nerd activities like playing Words with Friends on FB for unwinding. 

I’ve been thinking about being humane being tied up in a kind of literacy…so this really sounds like a complete stall to see if my word will magically alight in the process of this somewhat unguided discovery draft.

 Well…I think my word is moi.  I am slowly and late in life learning better self-care and finding out everything doesn’t need to be about what others want. I think I need to give myself a place in the whirlwind.

Which is why I made my meditation room, and began Pilates, and have cultivated my own company rather than running out on social errands to avoid my solitude.

Moi.  Yes, it is important that my word is in French, because one way I relate to my artistic side is through French culture.  Painting, poetry, wine and frommage. 

Okay, that’s it.