Category: Photography

Friday Photo: Have You Ever?

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Jennifer Wolfe

Have you ever felt that

If you hold it in one more hour

Minute or

Second

It will explode

And your insides will stop absorbing

All

While your body will simply

Reject

And release?

Have you ever felt that

If you don’t find someone to

Listen or

Care

It will dribble

And spew out your mouth

Urgently

While your friends will simply

Watch

And weep?

Have you ever felt that

If you say it out loud

Honestly and

Deeply

It will change

And you will gather yourself up

Gracefully

While your soul will simply

Endure

And persist?

Have you?

Jennifer Wolfe

Jennifer Wolfe, a writer-teacher-mom, is dedicated to finding the extraordinary in the ordinary moments of life by thinking deeply, loving fiercely, and teaching audaciously. Jennifer is a Google Certified Educator, Hyperdoc fanatic, and a voracious reader. Read her stories on her blog, mamawolfe, and grab free copies of her teaching and parenting resources.

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Friday Photo: Opportunity Knocks?

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Jennifer Wolfe

Shortly after I posted this photo on Facebook I received a phone message from my mother. She’s not a Facebook user, but became concerned after my younger brother alerted her that something might be wrong, since I posted a big red sign on my wall.

At first I had no clue what she was talking about. I figured it was just a glitch in her understanding about Facebook. Suddenly it dawned on me what they were worried about, and I reassured her that everything was OK.

Only, it’s not really OK.

These are difficult times for many Americans. For teachers and students, it’s getting nearly impossible.

My school district is attempting to balance their deficit budget by laying off employees. They’re threatening to furlough teachers again, which means at least a 5% pay cut next year. Districts have met their March 15 layoff notification date ‘over notifying’ teachers, administrators and counselors in preparation for the state budget ‘worst case scenario’.

These people are me and my friends, my colleagues, and your child’s teachers, vice principals and counselors. They are the people who run the after school programs children turn to for enrichment and support. They are the teachers who used to make it easier for kids to have smaller class sizes and take elective classes that provide an alternative to core academic classes. They are the elementary school teachers who create a stable foundation for the rest of your child’s education.

So yes, these are difficult times for me to go to work each day, wondering what my job will look like next year, what my school will look like, and what my son and his friends can expect to find as they end years of anticipation for junior high life. These are difficult times for my daughter and her friends as they see the end of their high school years and now look forward to skyrocketing college tuition and challenging admission processes.

These are difficult times to see highly qualified professionals being released from their service. These are difficult times to answer the probing questions from my students. These are difficult times when I find myself questioning my 21-year career in education, and wondering how much longer it will last.

So I’m sorry, Mom. It’s difficult to explain this sometimes. It’s really difficult to see the opportunity here, but I’m trying.

I hope it makes you feel better to know that when I walk into my class each day, I smile. That part is not difficult at all.

Jennifer Wolfe

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Friday Photo: Knowledge

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Jennifer Wolfe

Viewing the United States Capitol Building in Washington D.C. for the first time stopped me dead in my tracks. I wasn’t expecting such majesty and grandeur to rise out of the trees and look down over the city. Maybe it’s from growing up in California-we just don’t have history that is so universal. Everything in D.C. is grounded in our forefathers’ vision for the American Dream.

I also wasn’t expecting the fascinating experience I had in the Visitor’s Center. Located in the publicly accessible area of the Capitol, the Center offers a comprehensive display of all aspects of United States history.

Looming large on the entrance wall, plaques proclaim key values of our country. Catching my eye, naturally, the word ‘knowledge’ jumps out at me. As I took a closer look, the text spoke to me: “Knowing that democracy flourishes best in an open environment with an educated citizenry, Congress has promoted public education…”

Is our forefather’s message still accurate? Does our democracy still flourish? Can our children still hope for the American Dream?

Are we advocating for educated citizenry in this time of education cutbacks, pink slips, and layoffs? Is this really an open environment for our children, when they are told if they work hard, take the right courses and score well on standardized tests they will be rewarded with a college education, yet that reward will strap them with debt for decades?

Knowledge definitely is power. The question is, who has control?

Jennifer Wolfe

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Friday Photo: Schizophrenic Spring

Posted on March 10, 2012 by Jennifer Wolfe

I woke up and realized it was actually spring. Well, sort of. According to the calendar, according to the blooms, according to the upcoming switch to Daylight Savings Time, that is. According to me, it feels like I’m still stuck in the darkness of winter. It has my brain and body scrambled and in a state of constant confusion.

At my day job, I’m teaching kids what they need to know now and telling them how to prepare for the future. I’m scrambling to complete all my school year expectations while planning for the next crop of students to arrive in late August.

My weekday central California mornings are just above freezing, but steadily warm during the day. My Sierra weekend mornings are far below freezing, but eventually warm and turn the snow to slush.

In the morning I want to turn on the heat, but know in the afternoon I will want to throw open the windows. I wear a wool coat to work, but strip down to a single layer by noon.

I’m washing woolen ski socks, fleece long underwear and baseball uniforms in the same load. I have a baseball bag on one seat of the car, and a ski bag on the other.

Hot, steaming coffee brings me into the day, and cool diet Pepsi keeps me going into the dark.

The weather report calls for sunny days this weekend and rainy days next week. The trees are blooming, partway.

At home, my son is growing out of sixth grade and growing excited about moving to the junior high school. My daughter is planning for junior year classes to prepare her for college admissions.

I feel like I’m half way there, too. Balancing between two jobs, two lives, two of everything and never quite whole of either. Sometimes blooming, sometimes dormant.

And I’m all mixed up. Some days it feels like the best I can do is just make it to bedtime in one piece. On others, I have the energy to take on the world and then some.

Do you feel it, too? Is it a schizophrenic spring in your world, or am I the only crazy one?

Jennifer Wolfe

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Parenting Athletes: How I Do It

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Jennifer Wolfe

Parenting athletes requires particular obligations-some sport specific, some general to having athletic kids living in the house. Until they move out, we are responsible for keeping track of practices, purchasing equipment and locating lost parts of uniforms.

We calendar games, attend training clinics and volunteer to work in snack shacks or host end of the season banquets. We learn how to run a scoreboard, rake a field and wax skis.

Parents write the checks for tuitions and races, replace cleats on what seems like a monthly basis, and stock the pantry with excessive amounts of food to feed their famished bellies. We know the value of having duffel bags for each sport, and invest in sturdy folding chairs, seat cushions and endless tubes of SPF 45 sunscreen.

Parenting athletes means we wash mouth guards and uniforms, and know the value of Oxi Clean to make grass stains disappear. We wait in cars and on benches for practices to end, and we trudge through heat, wind, rain, and snow to show our supportive faces.

People always ask me how I do it. Why do I drive 125 hours each way, every weekend, to transport my children to a ski hill in the wee hours of the morning. My answer? I just do. Everyone has a busy life. Everyone has places to go, people to see, things to do, jobs to work. And I don’t sleep much.

When your kids have a passion for something, parents make it work. It’s what we do. Our payment is the smile on their faces as they finish a race course, the laugh that erupts as they play with friends in the snow, and the comfort of knowing exactly where they are every weekend night-asleep early in their beds to prepare for the next morning’s 7:00 a.m. training runs.

That’s how I do it. And the why? The photo my daughter texted I received from my daughter last weekend at 7:15 a.m. from the top of Squaw Valley says it all.

She knows a good thing when she sees it. Me, too.

Jennifer Wolfe

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