If you're just joining in on this series, here's what's going on:
I'm using the quotes as a basis for reflection on a shift in my professional journey. You see, for 12 years I was an elementary music teacher and now I've found myself to be an assistant principal. In a time that I anticipate to be filled with much personal and professional growth, I'd like to be sure and carve out some purposeful reflection time. As an educator, I've personally benefited from purposeful reflection through blogging and I can only imagine that I'll still benefit from reflective blogging as a leader in education.
My goal is to spend some time in each post writing about the quote, about the author of the quote (when possible), and about how I see the quote and/or the background image of the quote applying to my day-to-day world.
As a gal who always credits a source, I'd like to give a shout out to a dear friend, Kara Lowery, for coming up with the name of the series. Kara is a fabulous special education teacher who specializes in working with children who have autism. Not only is she a gifted teacher; she's also terrifically punny.
Read on; enjoy!
According to my quick Wikipedia search, Hanshan was a 9th century poet (Tang Dynasty). He is honored in the Buddhist tradition. No one knows exactly where Hanshan was born (or when), where he lived, or when he died; scholars simply know that Hanshan existed (a lesson to all of us in this social-media crazed world). Hanshan's poems were first translated into a Western language in 1980. WOW!
This evening, I'm baking DELICIOUS orange rolls from scratch to take to a data dig meeting for my 5th grade math teachers tomorrow morning. Any time educators look at data, we take it personally even if we've know we've done everything we can to make our first teach (and our reteach, and the reteach after that) solid and reach the needs of our students. Tomorrow, I have no doubt that our teachers will take a hard look at the data, eat an orange roll, and dig in to make changes to their instructional plans to deliver a greater instructional impact to our students. Good friends and fine teachers make up a part of the network that helps us take those hard looks at data and make solid plans for our children.
Data Dig day is something I've been looking forward to with MAJOR anticipation for WEEKS. I saw the language arts teachers go through their data dig and I was green with envy--I'm so glad it's finally math's turn into the batter's box. We're going to hit it outta the park!!
#teamjowell