Pure Manaʻo

I saw this on Instagram just as I was thinking about a way to get our alumni and early career teachers to think about their challenges in a way that "reframes" the source of their challenge. I noticed a pattern last quarter where the source of the challenges seemed to be other people (mostly the other adults in the school ranging from parents, colleagues, department chairs, mentors, administration). @authenticallylearning posted this caption with the image above: Taking a moment to do a self check-in is so important for us as teachers and leaders. It’s truly a form of self care. Celebrate your wins, forgive your mistakes or others, and enjoy your well deserved two days off. Take care of yourself, teacher leaders! Happy Saturday! 💜🙃 What is Sacred I think taking time to actually finish these starter sentences above helps to reframe our perspective. It allows us to get out our frustration but quickly reframes to a more compassionate and healing space.  I would lik...

This may be an odd post to go here since I have a blog for books, however, Minding the Middle is a blog for books that will appeal to the middle level reader so that I can keep track of possible book talk novels and graphic novels. This book is not a middle school book unless there is a middle schooler who is really into tidying up or becoming a clutter consultant. So why here?  When I am at my most creative, I am messy. My office space reflects the multiple strands I have going on in my brain, but as this book relates, my mess is a temporary mess and easily tidied up in 5 minutes.  So why here? When I talk about self care to my incoming student teachers, and the importance of self care in the last semester when even for the strongest teachers, life comes crashing down all at once, the lessons from this book are what I want them to learn. Perhaps in the semester before student teaching, we need to focus on tidying up and finding what sparks joy and rel...

National Geographic's Short Film showcase highlights exceptional short videos created by filmmakers around the world. This one is of Manu Topic in the L'Arros river, French Pyrennees. Filmmaker Patrick Foch, cinematographer Benjamin Ziegler, music Yann Rouquet, sound design Christophe Girod. I am not sure how to reference this so I linked the article above. My connection, or "reading" on this and how I might use it: This is really about process, craft and balance which are key concepts we continue to try and push with our students going into student teaching: trust the process, hone your craft, find balance in your life which is the key to self care and thriving.