Category: quote

Weeding

Posted on May 10, 2012 by

“All gardeners live in beautiful places because they make them so.”
– Joseph Joubert

Some days it feels like weeds are overtaking my life.  Those dreary March and April days spent looking out my window made me ache to smush my hands in the dirt, prune back the overgrown branches, and clear out winter’s accumulated debris.  It’s not very beautiful out there.

Now that the sun is shining and I’ve had a few solid weekends in the garden, I’m questioning my eagerness.  Everywhere I go, I encounter weeds.  The unwanted stuff, the clutter, the dead relationships and outgrown friendships bog up my mind and consume my free space.  It’s not very beautiful in here.
They creep up next to the stepping stone, through the sprinkler heads, and crowd my lavender bushes.  They sneak next to the day lilies, snake their way up the Japanese maple’s tender stems, and root themselves firmly and cleverly amidst the heirloom roses.  They consume my free time, crowd my in box and rest on empty spaces.
Depending on my mood, I pull, or dig, or bust out the sprays when I just can’t get a handle on them.  Some days I carefully unwind them, desperate to leave the host unharmed.  Other days, lack of patience gets the best of me, and I curse and yank, decimating both simultaneously.
As I’m down on my knees, I occasionally upend an earthworm and send him wiggling back into the soil, or startle a mourning dove feasting on scattered seed.  Sometimes I unearth a new bloom, resilient from the winter’s frost.  Or an abandoned baseball, leather long gone.  Sometimes I close my eyes and breathe in and out, searching for an answer.
Plowing through the weeds gives me time to think, to meditate, to wonder about what might emerge next.  I strategize, sensitize, and surrender to what is yet to come.  Sometimes I just sink.
Pushing through winter’s debris to uncover, to create some breathing room, I sense an opening, a space for clarity.  I see progress, I sense some control.  I inhale, exhale, and look around me.  Blooms, new growth, and possibility are in sight.
Just for today, a little bit of beauty, made by me.

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.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedInPinterestGoogle PlusYelp

Education Issues April, 2012

Posted on May 2, 2012 by

 

via Pinterest

Last month, education made the news daily. At this time of year, school districts are winding down and gearing up at the same time. Educators are finding it hard to keep motivated in the face of declining support from state governments for our profession. Parents are celebrating their children’s college acceptance letters while wondering where the tuition money will come from.

These controversial education issues weighed on me last month. It’s not an easy time to be a parent or an educator. I think it’s time to start thinking like Einstein, and come up with some new solutions, don’t you? What do you think about schools using advertising to increase revenue, computerized teaching, grading systems, and the cost of college? Just follow the link to read the full articles – I’d love to hear your thoughts!

On school advertising: Imagine walking into your child’s school and seeing the expected: a lunchroom with folding tables and bench seats, a stage, the office doors, a lost and found box, lockers, classrooms, and a blacktop with basketball courts.

Now imagine your child’s school with a lunchroom advertising on the tables endorsing eating habits and nutrition, a stage with offers for drama education, office doors advertising organizational skills, classrooms endorsing local services, and a blacktop with banners on school safety.

Many public schools today, searching for innovative funding sources, are considering advertising on their campus. Should schools allow ads on school grounds?

On computerized teaching: It’s an educator’s worst nightmare: technology. I’m not talking about the common, everyday kinds of technology that our students carry in their pockets, or we use to read our emails.

I’m talking about the kind of technology that is replacing teachers.

In Virginia Tech’s largest classroom teachers are not required. Can teachers really be replaced by computers?

On grading practices: How does a student know when a teacher likes them? How does a teacher show they like a student? These were the questions I grappled with this week with a freshman AVID student.

While making my rounds in the classroom, I overheard him saying, “Why does she hate me so much? She never gives me 100% on my work. She doesn’t think my answers are good enough. She says other people’s questions are better than mine.” As I walked up and stood behind him, he sensed my presence and stopped. Do you think simply completing a school assignment should earn an “A”?

On the cost of a college education: When I entered the University of California at Berkeley in 1987 as an English major, I really wasn’t thinking about the high cost of education. Tuition was under $2,000 per year; add in books and living expenses and I still wasn’t coming close to what today’s students face. In 2011, tuition costs were up to $12,834 for California residents, and $35,712 for out-of-state students.

Two senior UC Davis students working as tutors in my public school classroom report they will graduate with $14,000 and $20,000 in student loans, despite having entered college with scholarships and their work study jobs.

Something is wrong with this system. What if we did something crazy, and offered free UC tuition?

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.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedInPinterestGoogle PlusYelp

“Mommy, please read me a story”

Posted on April 17, 2012 by

After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.” – Philip Pullman

The author of The Golden Compass has a good point.

Parents know to provide the basics for their children: keep them fed, keep them protected, keep them company and all should be well. Kids beg for one more thing: our attention. One of the most gratifying ways I met that need with my children was through sharing a story.

Storytellers can take many forms. In many cultures, children learned life lessons and the natural world was uncovered through the oral folktale tradition. Families share boasts about ‘back in the day’ to instill values.

When my kids were very young I read to them constantly. Hours of repetition began with Goodnight Moon, then Richard Scarry, and Curious George. I remember reading a children’s version of The Nutcracker Ballet for twelve months straight because my daughter insisted and I gave in.  


Please click over to Yahoo! Voices to read more about storytelling…

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.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedInPinterestGoogle PlusYelp

Swing the Bat, Not Your Fist

Posted on April 10, 2012 by

“Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets.”    Yogi Berra

Two JV high school baseball teams meet up in Yuba City, California for a tournament. It’s the sixth inning, the game is tied 3-all and suddenly the dugouts empty and players, coaches and umpires tumble on the infield in a fist flinging brawl that lasts several minutes.

KCRA’s headline, “Was JV Baseball Brawl preventable” made my jaw drop. Tsunamis, tornadoes, and earthquakes aren’t preventable. All human behavior, at some level, is. The problem is, it takes effort to teach kids to swing the bat, not their fists.

From the moment a child is born, they are looking to the adults around them to teach them how to navigate the world. When a baby cries, they look to an adult to feed them, change them, or pick them up. When a toddler throws a temper tantrum, they look to for their parent’s reaction. When a six -year-old pulls another child’s hair, they watch to see what will happen next. When a 12-year-old doesn’t do their homework, they expect a reaction from their teacher and parent. When a teenager lies about where they went, they hope they get away with it.

To read more about Basebrawl and poor parenting, head over to Yahoo! US Shine.

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.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedInPinterestGoogle PlusYelp

On Life & Childhood Dreams: A Lesson I Learned After 23 (Long) Years

Posted on April 4, 2012 by

Writing.jpg
 Do you remember that moment when you knew what you wanted to be when you grew up?  Please enjoy today’s guest blogger, Anne Mercado, as she shares her story of following her dreams.





“There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.” -Deepak Chopra

As adults we view childhood dreams in two ways. The first as an uncanny certainty of what a child wants despite her tender age. The second as a changing desire of an impulsive and creative young mind. For the latter, how many times have your children proclaimed their inner-most desire to become a spaceman, only to have this change the following week. What do they want to be now? The next Picasso. It’s for this very reason we initially dismiss childhood dreams as anchorless ships that sail off into the vast blue sea, never to return again.

But that’s not how it was for me.

I always knew I wanted to write. In fact, I was always writing (and reading) as a child. My younger self – during the time when I could barely spell “chicken” right – would pound away on a typewriter, basking under the sun. I wrote about nature-inspired poetry, fictional news reports and stories produced by a hyper-active imagination. I spent my after-school hours in the backyard taking in fresh air while observing chicken, dogs, grass, leaves, trees, and yes, even creepy-crawlers. These were often the subject of my writing. As I got older my intensity for writing grew with me. Pen and notebook in hand, my thoughts would materialize into words etched into white pages. I wrote more poetry, fictional news reports and stories about scientists using the moon’s magnetic field to hurl missiles at approaching meteors. There was even once when a magazine published my writing.

You’d think that with such a desire for it, I would end up just as I had always wanted to be.

Wrong. I was advised against pursuing my dream and chose a career path that had little to do with writing anything creative, unless you consider reports and contracts as page-turners. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending how you view it, I couldn’t seem to find fulfillment from the jobs I had. In retrospect, it was because what I really wanted was to churn out words. I wasted 6 years of my life, excluding college. 6 years I could have spent honing my skills as a writer. But hey, now I’m back writing. Starting from scratch, which by the way is wrought with challenges. A bumpy road indeed, but what path isn’t? If there’s anyone who claims to have had a silky-smooth road to their dreams, they deserve to be ostracized from the rest of humanity for risk of spreading false hope.

Now for the takeaway.

“The things which the child loves remain in the domain of the heart until old age.” – Kahlil Gibran

Once my child told me he wanted to be a chef. Fine with me. Now he wants to be a lawyer. Nothing wrong there except I’d rather have him pursue another career (the reasons are my own and irrelevant to this post). I was thinking about our conversations and realized that my objections shouldn’t prevent him from following what he wants. It’s not my life to live after all, but his. And if defending those in need makes him fulfilled, who am I to prevent him from that? Now that we have children of our own, let’s not be so quick to smirk at their childhood dreams. These aspirations should be taken seriously and nurtured because those who love what they do often excel. Why? Because one of the best things about being human is the feeling of fulfillment and purpose that comes from passion. Passion is an endless supply of fuel, one of the greatest motivators there are. So for my child who has recently turned 5, my promise is to help him lock-down the sometimes elusive childhood dream and help him reel it in. That way, he never has to “work” a day in his life because he’ll be doing what he loves, whatever that is. As long as it’s legal, of course.

Photo Credit: Creative Common from Linda Cronin

Anne Mercado is the quirky author behind Green Eggs & Moms, which offers clever parenting tips and news to keep moms with young kids sane. When she’s not hunched over the computer working, you can find her either counting down to ten to get her kiddo to move faster, or reading a horror book. She also loves vampires and zombies.

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.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedInPinterestGoogle PlusYelp