Reading this blog with Giona, by Giona actually

 Well, the time has come, I am not sure when I imagined it would happen, when Giona would be reading the words that I typed for him, all about him.

It is pretty remarkable, the time has passed swiftly, almost ten years! 

Now he is an avid reader, and so many other things, but he sure does seem to appreciate looking back at a younger me, incredibly in love with baby him, in all the fastidious detail.

Now, he is a big brother!! Hawken is now 8 months old, his birthday of course is just one day before Giona's. 

I am so happy that I spent those first fresh new months documenting and recording the little details and idiosynchracies of being a new mother, of Giona's first new moments. 

I am tired. Giona read a couple entries today. It has been a couple days now that we have been delving into this blog and going back in time to see little baby Giona. it is fascinating how he and Hawken are alike in some ways, and so very different in others. 

Today, we had a playdate, yesterday we had a playdate, tomorrow we will have a playdate. I am exhausted. After being in our own little covid bubble this winter with a very simple life, it seems like such effort to spend so much social time. But we are blessed with good friends, good food, and a good home and family. I wouldn't change it for anything else. 

Tata for now!! 

Angela 

rise of the skiwalkerr

I am fucking pregnant!
Woo!
Well it has been a few months, and I have not been on here in over a year, but I decided writing an entry tonight was a good idea.

I'm about 14 weeks pregnant now, and I have a little under six months before the due date, June 21.

I am so happy to be carrying this little soul. I mean I know his soul isn't small but the body right now is. And growing it is! So much every day, it's incredible.

It feels very much like my body has been taken over. This little tiny thing has come in and took the captains chair. HIs needs are first and foremost and I must get used to it. Adapt. It's good practice being pregnant. Loving something that you haven't even met so much that you would do anything for him. And if that means eating bacon for breakfast and potatoes as much as possible and putting aside fresh veggies and most fruits, and just taking in all the salt and fat I want. It's all for you baby. You are getting the good packages of energy in the purest form. And I am the animal eating and growing to produce it for you. Building your body up sturdy and strong.

i"ve been home with Giona all day and yesterday and before that was Christmas so mostly that day too. Actually all week, we have sunk into our home space. It feels nice.

Unfortunately the circumstances demanded it. Giona had a fever and a day of vomiting and not holding down hardly anything, and today thankfully has been much better. Still weak and sore but gaining his strength.

I love him immensely. Being a mother breaks my heart with love so much. I wonder what my brain and body are doing when I feel it happening. It would be some beautiful pictures I'm sure.

The more I learn about how the brain and body control each other, and how the more we teach our body how to think, the more it goes into auto pilot and relives the past over and over. Unless we wake up to this fact and continue training the brain as well as the body to nourish and encourage growth, expansion and higher dimensions. It is all there stored in our bodies, stored in our cells. And every thought matters. Every thought determines what we repeat and what we do different. It's fascinating.

As well is enlightening to hear how the body has energy stores that can be sent to the brain to experience higher vibrations. I have always felt that my body had so much intelligence and that is what i think I feel, that we get energy and information from our bodies into the brain.

I'm also so happy to discover some new prenatal yoga videos and meditations. It is something I have been missing the past week, (well exercise in general, but especially yoga), and I have also been feeling like it is time to transition my normal exercise routine into some more informed for prenatal and birthing. My lower back and sacrum have felt loose and clicky, and my left hip has been super tight and creaky. My knees as well are super creaky. I think it might be due to less regular movement, with it being winter as well, and now with no Chiron monster.

Anyway, the yoga channel I found, I believe is called Kukoon Yoga, is taught in beuaitufl outdoor settings, really artistic and peaceful and the teacher is just so beautiful in how she both speaks and practices. She encourages a lot of awareness on the baby as well as giving permission for mothers to really let loose and feel into themselves and their needs.

This is something that is easy to overlook on days caring for a sick child, working, being indoors more than not, and just being in the daily life routine. My mind has become quite busy and chattery. It is nice to connect with a home practice where you can drop in and get healing right at home.

I want to fix up the upstairs bedroom nice and cozy like a little midwives office or birthing center./ office/ and yoga/meditation space.  I want to equip it with a whole home apothecary. I want to increase my supplies of home remedies. I need elderberry, to make some syrup, and tea. More ginger, more raspberry leaf. I need mint oil, and massage cream and oil. More jojoba oil. I want some good rubs for my growing belly and body. I need a new diffuser. And Charcoal bundles for all over the house!More lavender oil, because you can never have too much. Some rose oil would be nice.
Oh and lighting. This room needs better lighting. Somehting warm and ambient. I think we just need many more salt lamps around the house. Here downstairs and maybe even the basement.

Giona just did the biggest sigh.
Awwww. Like a good 5seconds. Just gave him a little water.

Well I feel I'm getting emotionally sturdier. The last month was extremely challenging for me, but I am so blessed to be supported by my jobs and bosses, my friends, by Giona, most of all, and by our family from afar. We have resources. And somehow just going to work and moving and doing what I need to do to show up with integrity gets me through tough days or weeks.

As much as I love working from home, it is also wintery and has been very cold, until recently, so it can feel a bit sedentary. But I wish to find a good flow, take more brisk walks and rides with Giona, and practice more movement at home and be nourished and replenished here instead of needing to find that replenishment outside of our home or selves. Taking baths, writing, connecting with Giona, making art- wha??, and centering.

It's funny how being in relationship for me always takes my attention out of the home. It is nice to find myself getting more nested and nestled in our home after a lot of transitions and even this month air bnbing this healing office studio where I now am sitting.

I think it's time for me to love up my home and give it the energy and love and attention it needs, along with myself, Giona, and the baby. The home is an extension of self-love.
I want to replant/resoil the house plants.

Morning Pages: Innovative ways to teach literacy

I always enjoy incorporating cultural studies into the classroom and since language is all around us, within cultural studies, there is an easy subject matter for words and language. When teaching elementary Spanish, I would bring music, and we would listen to the song a few times, after I had introduced the singer/songwriter, and perhaps it correlated with some other theme in the class like a holiday, a Spanish-speaking country, or covering a topic like the seasons or nature. Then I would use a fill in the blank style class activity, and we would listen to the song multiple times to give students the opportunity to fill in the blanks. Depending on the age of the students and the vocabulary, the words can be given to them at the bottom of the sheet, or perhaps after one try, the list of words can be available. This was always a fun activity and incorporated the learning style of auditory learning.

Another cultural studies activity that I have used is bringing in a magazine or newspaper in Spanish. I then had the class take turns reading an article.

Morning Pages: Throwing Hands Up, Throwing in the Towel with Honesty

This morning's topic for our morning pages is Failure and how we as teachers can package failure in our classroom. I think a lot of what we deal with in our life is dependent upon the package or frame that we mentally put it in. Through this packaging, we choose how we want to deal with the issue, and more than anything it is a conversation with ourselves first and foremost. Following that packaging and conversation, we have the choice to share it with the world depending on how introverted or extroverted we are. A lot of people use social media for just this. But as a teacher, when failure happens in the classroom or in our life, we have the choice and what I believe the responsibility to be vulnerable and transparent with our students by sharing with them how we deal, package and frame the moment of failure so that we can give them and ourselves an opportunity to grow together. Being a mother, I have found this tool extremely humbling, attuning and eye-opening, as well as relieving and as a creative doorway to solutions and new turns.
So, you may be thinking, well, what does that packaging look like? I like to remember as Leonardo Da Vinci has said,
 I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

I believe "teacher as lead leaner" is totally valid. We don't want to be on a pedestal where we don't make mistakes, are the experts, and create a gap between our students are ourselves. 

Foster children need more stability in their education and ESSA can help

"Still, foster care children face too much educational instability." This quote is taken from the 2014 article in the Atlantic, 

Every Time Foster Kids Move, They Lose Months of Academic Progress.  

However, according to the recently signed bill ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, there is language that includes intentions to aid in the stability of education for foster children as described in EWA's website article, Ensuring Educational Stability for Foster Kids.  ESSA intends to ensure that foster kids are able to enroll speedily when switching schools, which is on average happening once or twice a year for a foster kid. This instability leads to loss of advancing and progress in their school year. I can only imagine what moving to a new school, let alone a new family each year would feel like. It would put so much confusion and pressure that focusing on school would be difficult. ESSA includes provisions that will allow foster kids to remain in the same school even if their home is in a different district, as well as transportation, a designated counselor or "point person". It also calls for states to follow the academic progress of these groups of students to ensure their proper support. 

I feel like ESSA is a huge improvement from NCLB. It is going to take time and a whole lot of administration to implement, but I think it is definitely a huge step in the right direction. 
I feel that as a preservice teacher it will help teachers as myself better guide foster kids and other underprivileged populations in getting a more equitable education, and improving their chances of graduation and progress. 

Public Waldorf Education and Teach Unicef on educational reform strategies

"Our highest endeavor must be to develop free human beings who are able, of themselves, to impart purpose and direction to their lives."

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) 

After reading about two websites with educational reform strategies, one being the Alliance for Public Waldorf Education and another being Teach Unicef.

The Alliance for Public Waldorf Education or APWE's main reform agenda includes reforming educational curriculum to focus on Rudolf Steiner's educational methodology. One of the beliefs is that students should not be taught technological literacy in schools until sixth grade because of the need for young kids' brains to gradually develop in cognitive and socio-emotional ways that face to face relationships provide. They believe in relationship building through hands-on learning, creative play, visual and dramatic arts, music, exploration in nature, and movement. It provides teachers with materials for whole child assessment. They also are working towards implementing Waldorf programs and opening public Waldorf schools.

The Teach Unicef program is an initiative to inform educators on global learning and citizenship. It offers in class student workshops to teach them of the need for humanitarian action in the world and issues of human and child rights, while teachers receive student magazines, lesson plans, and webinars.

I support the agendas of both of these organizations because I believe in the necessity for children to form positive personal relationships in schools and classrooms off the screen, and to spend substantial time in movement, physical activity, arts learning, and time in nature. I think that children will adapt to technology just as quickly at 11 years old, as they would at 5 years old. I think there is no reason to rush this immersion. I also believe that Waldorf education would widely benefit communities, and allow children access to more holistic learning that is not currently provided in most public curriculums, while at the same time meeting national and state standards.

I also support the UNICEF program because it is so important that we raise students to be conscious, compassionate, and mindful consumers and global citizens, and learning how many of our actions and purchases affect other children and people worldwide.

Leadership Compass Self Assessment

When I took the Leadership Compass Self Assessment, I found that I most aligned with the Vision style of leadership and skills.

Some of the strengths that were mentioned for the Vision style were the ability to see the bigger picture. I think I have this ability in my everyday life, and as I get older, I feel like this skill has grown in my way of working. I think it is important as an educator to see the bigger picture, while creating building blocks or stepping stones along the way for your student's to follow while you know what the bigger goal and purpose is for them, so that they be collecting skills along the way with diverse activities and projects.

Another skill that I could relate to was the ability to problem-solve and think outside the box. This is an important skill to avoid tedium, or doing small tasks and homework that can be boring and unrelateable, but rather to make learning relevant and meaningful. I think this has served in my education because so much of what we are given can be made more fun or creative, if we make it our own, whether it is a group project, a research paper, or a paper. I think I have the ability to have a task or assignment given to me as a student and educator and really shape it with my ability to imagine and create, and allow it take on a different form. It's something I really enjoy, and I think it will serve me well with students to make learning engaging and fun, while giving them ideas, but also guiding them to hone similar skills of thinking outside the box and making ones ideas come to shape and work for them.

I also tend to take on problems as a fun challenge. I am quite adaptable in this way, and it has served me well in my life, and will most definitely serve me well as an educator. I think this is great skill to have in the classroom because students and curriculum will not always line up and problems and challenges will arise. I think the ability to face challenges is a great strength to have and be able to bounce back when they arise, and to be able to role model that behavior will be helpful.
I think areas for growth will be carrying out visions that I have, and sticking to the mission defined. I tend to have many great ideas, but to be able to stick to it through finish is my something I need to pay attention to and work on.