Skip to main content

Spinning into summer

The end of the school year has always provided a challenge for me. The silence of an empty room  has a certain poignancy about it. Leftover student projects litter the counters, like confetti after a ticker-tape parade. Empty hallways seem like medieval catcombs. And custodians begin clearing out rooms with a business-like efficiency.

There's also the letting go. Saying good bye to the many students I've developed relationships with;  saying goodbye to colleagues who've decided to move on; letting go of projects that have been in the works for several years; Letting to of a daily routine, which I have down to the minute due to my commute and class schedule. It all involves quite an adjustment. It used to be a  difficult transition for me, taking several weeks to slow down and adjust to my summer schedule. It doesn't take quite as long now, having cultivated the tools of mindfulness and relaxation. I think of my "school mind" as a spinning top, whirling from months of planning and thinking, that takes time to settle down to a new, quieter routine. The "habit energy" of a school year can be quite powerful. 

There's plenty to do in the summer, with a house and family to keep going. There's the inevitable planning and reflection that will happen. Some travel. Keeping up with the Kardashians is certainly a bit easier....Where student issues were a concern for months, now I think about the pesky weeds  growing in my garden. 

The energy of summer is different. Spinning top mind gives way to reflective mind, and the voices of nature- the wind, the rustling of leaves-  replace the voices of young people streaming through the hallways. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The conscious and connected student

While the mindfulness in education movement is still young, it has an increasing footprint in schools across the US and the globe. One can argue that most of the practices are body and sensory based practices- breathing, awareness of sound, mindful movement, etc. All in the service of self-awareness and emotional health, all well and good. But some educators are trying to expand that interpretation of mindfulness. Amy Edelstein is an educator in the Philadelphia schools where she has worked as an outside provider (meaning she is not a regular classroom teacher) teaching mindfulness to students for many years. She has developed her own program called  The Inner Strength System , and her most recent book is entitled, The Conscious Classroom (Emergence Education Press, 2017) . In this  wide-ranging book Edelstein shares her experience working in the urban schools of Philadelphia. She does not shy  away from describing the tremendous challenges her school f...
Post a Comment
Read more
I recently published my first book on Amazon, "Advice for Every Hour." It's available in both ebook and paperback. It has many of the essays on this blog, as well as additional content. It chronicles my adventures applying mindfulness and other strategies in my life, and classroom. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Embracing your life

I met Tom Odland my freshman year at St. Olaf college in 1977. He was a typical college kid, full of life and had a great sense of humor. He was a talented trumpet player too, and was always after  me to sit and listen to his latest jazz hero. (He was part of  a small band that played Mexican and traditional rock music which I remember dancing to and having a ball.) Tom eventually left St. Olaf, to continue his studies at the University of Minnesota, eventually becoming a successful research scientist for St. Jude's Medical for ten years. After that, he worked for a German medical company and later, went on his own as a consultant.  He was happily married, with a wife and four  daughters, when tragedy struck.  While fixing a toilet one day,  he realized something was going terribly wrong. When he tried to grasp a plunger with his right arm, he couldn't hold it. With his knowledge of biology, he figured he was having a stroke.  By some miracle, he...
Post a Comment
Read more