State: live free or die
Country: USA
Member since: Jan 12, 2008
Last logged in: Nov 27, 2008
I get to write this a second time - the first one didn't stick - maybe for good reason. I have been a teacher for thirty years. I have taught in inner cities, suburban areas, and rural communities. I have been a Reading Recovery Specialist, ESL, bilingual, and regular ed. classroom teacher. I have spent 20 years in kindergarten, and 12 of those designing a three and four year old curriculum. There's not much about play dough, or bodily fluids that I don't know. Four years ago Bud and his mom, May, came into my classroom. I have had children on the spectrum for years, more towards the Asperger end, but not someone like Bud. It was love at first sight. I love all my kids - but Bud was someone with whom I felt a connection - as was his mom. Since then, I have gone down this path of autism. Since that year, I have had 6 more children on the very wide range of the spectrum. I am working my hardest to try to "get it" and develop the best program and practices I can within our public school. I am fortunate to have an amazingly supportive special education team at work. I am, however, leaving teaching at the end of this year to pursue my passion. I never did get that Master's degree right out of college, because I was either having children of my own (4 of them), or happily teaching and waiting to see what my passion - my "special purpose" (think Steve Martin) would be. He, Bud - not Steve - walked in my room four years ago...actually, we had it planned that he would walk BY it many times over the summer to see me and the room in a variety of stages until he was ready to cross that threshold for the first time - albeit VERY briefly, and go IN. My passion: I have been attending a variety of workshops for the past two years, and have narrowed myself for the time being to get certified in RDI, as well as go through the SCERTS model in more depth. These two protocols make sense to me at the moment. My goal is to "bring it to the masses" - back to the classrooms to help others "get it"...and to work with these kids - these great kids. That's me - "There are lives I can imagine without children but none of them have the same laughter & noise." (Story People)
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Mrs.H.'s Compositions
by Mrs.H. on 07.21.08 - public - 99 visits
This was today's entry on Garrison Keilor's Writer's Almanac...it resounded in me...
Monday
Jul. 21, 2008
The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor
LISTEN
The Layers
by Stanley Kunitz
I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray.
When I look behind,
as I am compelled to look
before I can gather strength
to proceed on my journey,
I see the milestones dwindling
toward the horizon
and the slow fires trailing
from the abandoned camp-sites,
over which scavenger angels
wheel on heavy wings.
Oh, I have made myself a tribe
out of my true affections,
and my tribe is scattered!
How shall the heart be reconciled
to its feast of losses?
In a rising wind
the manic dust of my friends,
those who fell along the way,
bitterly stings my face.
Yet I turn, I turn,
exulting somewhat,
with my will intact to go
wherever I need to go,
and every stone on the road
precious to me.
In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
"Live in the layers,
not on the litter."
Though I lack the art
to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written.
I am not done with my changes.
"The Layers" by Stanley Kunitz from The Collected Poems. © W.W. Norton, 2000. Reprinted with permission.
Comments(3)
LisaAKAmom
Posted on Mon, 21 Jul 2008
"Live in the layers, not on the litter." Though I lack the art to decipher it, no doubt the next chapter in my book of transformations is already written. I am not done with my changes. AMEN!!!!!!!!!!! I'm a work in Progress too.
