Notes from public school - day 80

First thing this morning, I stood at the door and welcomed my students into our classroom community.

As they gave me a hug, handshake, high five, fist bump or dance move to enter the room (or, like Ariana, said, “I want to give you a hug, handshake, high five, fist bump AND dance move!”),  I wondered at how wonderful each and every one of them is, and how wonderful it is to be a teacher.

This afternoon, I found a piece of writing I wrote on a hike to Yellow Branch Falls in Sumter National Forest.

Here is that piece of writing -


2 Things I Like About Hikes To Waterfalls -

* You see life from below. Underneath the canopy of the forest. Off the side of the trail. Behind a tree. Under a rock. In a stream. Life is struggling to live. Small, beautiful leaves growing up and out of a broken stump. A hobbling beetle on 5 legs. An acorn tumbling down the waterfall, riding the current of the stream. All the opposite of "survival of the fittest," all surviving, even thriving, in the community around them. A community of compañeros - a patch of sunlight shining through the tall, strong trees; other beetles; a way to migrate to a new place with the hope of planting a new life. "Survival of the community."

* You hear before you see. I could hear the waterfall before I rounded a bend and climbed down into it's basin of clear, cold water. I like thinking about things I can't see with my eyes. I am more of a microscopic person than a telescopic person.


I could easily change the title to ‘2 Things I Like About Being A Teacher And A Writer’ and leave the other words the same.

There is great beauty in the plain things around me, great genius in the simple things around me, and great wonder in the ordinary things around me.

All in a day in public school.