Knowing Along the Way

My heart learned much this year. Mid January last year Alan returned once again to Saskatchewan. Some time during that January, that time of -25 plus the wind chill, exploring back alleys, walking the shoreline of Old Wives Lake, we knew. Cold be damned. Home was together. Sometime during the slow hours of this past December break, on holiday at… (read more)

My Plan

17 months ago I successfully defended my thesis. Shortly afterwards, I sought a new role. I also felt, in a way, that I had earned one. No work change happened and what I came to understand were some truths: To the co-participants who lived alongside me, to my family, to those who lived and taught alongside me, the work mattered… (read more)

Making the Causes Visible

At the provincial grad symposium today, my Director of Education stated, what I believe, the most authentic bit he’s shared since taking the job. He reflected that perhaps (and I’m paraphrasing here) it isn’t graduation rates educators need to be focused on improving. He wondered if graduation rates were perhaps a symptom of a bigger problem. Perhaps our work as… (read more)

i believe

believe in…. Trust and time. And listening. And relationships. And belonging. And sharing stories with students. Their stories. My stories. And listening to their stories no matter what. The cat stories, the lunch stories, the stories of suicide. Staying late. Arriving early. Showing up. Saying ‘I love you’ and ‘I am proud of you’ and meaning it. Reading aloud to… (read more)

Lifemaking

  Three and a half years ago I made much needed changes to my blog, finding more identity in this space. Soon afterwards, I entered graduate research and found myself bound by ethical guidelines of a research journey that needed me to write privately, or at least, not here about my research.… (read more)

Language of Hope

A few days ago while scrolling through a social media site, I noticed that a student I teach had posted a photo with, what I consider to be, an offensive word. It is not uncommon for me to connect with students on some social networking sites. I am as selective about who I connect with as I hope and try… (read more)

Red Shoes

I am attending Festival of Words this week. Tomorrow is workshop day. The morning is poetry. The afternoon is passion. I have been instructed to arrive in the morning with a poem to work on in class. I wanted to write a performance piece about my deep loathing of homework. However, the following emerged:   Red Shoes Del was 81… (read more)

Dad: storying

I’ve been taking a photo a day for the past four years. For the past two years I have made these photos into a photo montage of my year, letting the adventures of the past 364 days swirl into a movie. I have even begun to add music. Sometimes I go about my day thinking about the photo I might… (read more)

2013: A Video Story

Toward the end of year I noticed short videos popping up in my Instagram feed. What a great way to share a year in review. I began putting a short video together and then I realized that much of my year was missing. I went back to my photos from 2013. Though I don’t deliberately take a photo a day,… (read more)

Different Stories

I changed schools this fall, moving from a traditional space, teaching kids I loved and subjects I adored (ELA, Outdoor Education and Arts Education) into a different role. A role I sought. The subject areas, for the most part, have been the same. And I still adore the kids. The move was spurred in part because of my graduate journey,… (read more)
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