A selection of my ravings. Plz enjoy.

1/30/2022

Like so many today, I'm shocked to learn of the passing of a teacher from my high school, Gabe Isackson. He directed student cabinet during my time at Parkview- truth be told, I wasn't much of a student relations coordinator.

Mr. Isackson is one of those people that almost seemed like they'd go on forever, an impressive person in so many ways with such an immediacy. I admired (and try to model) his ability to shift between goof ball and totally competent serious leader - never letting one edge out the other. He was kind. Genuine.

Reading tributes to him today gives me a window to acknowledge what's true about life - the important things are almost never the beginning nor the end. Mr. Isackson's death is tragic, he was young and I know many people feel like I do, there's something particularly painful when it seems like someone is robbed of so many years (especially when they leave family behind). I keep coming back to a thought I have over the years as I've experienced life without my Dad, of just feeling a kind of deep blues at not experiencing the ebbs and flows of life without this foundational person. It is hard.

At the end, though, the point is not the end. A tragic end does not undo an amazing middle. A life spent inspiring young people, showing up for causes that matter, being a wonderful family member and person in community. I don't say it to deny anyone shock and mourning in the moments following someone's end, but just to say, the end gives us an opportunity to admire the entire thing. To lay out the blanket and see it from edge to edge, where beauty is found from the corners to the middle.

Life is fleeting. People like Mr. Isackson gives us the opportunity to see the importance of living it well. Giving something to it, being present in it and other's lives. I am grateful for his life. I'm grateful that people like him are in this world, filling it with meaning, the good stuff.

1/23/2022

People who are successful running classrooms are really amazing. I'm not sure if it's clear to everyone how hard it is, but it IS. Consider all the things standing in their way: students who may not want to be there, expectations for how content is taught, expectations for what content is taught, maybe not feeling it on a certain day, etc.

In my time in the classroom, I've had really good experiences and times when I've just been totally lost about how to do it well. I remember some of the best teachers in my past and I'm aware how much I took for granted.

Sometimes it feels like you just cannot win for trying. Sometimes you just keep searching and searching for this impossible balance of teaching what you think must be taught with teaching what students find interesting/compelling enough to want to learn. You keep trying to find the right way to deliver the material and find what works for one class is not working for another.

Teaching requires continued evolution/adaptation and sometimes you're trying to hold on to what makes you unique even when its not working. Sometimes what works feels like giving something else up. It's really fun and interesting sometimes and really hard and frustrating at other times. It also ebbs and flows with the seasons as everything does - sometimes you're less inspired and committed than you are at others. I'm not saying I'm a great teacher, but I've spent many years in classrooms and I DO understand how amazing great teachers are.

There are A LOT of teachers leaving teaching right now. It's indicative of so many problems running through society. It bums me out. Great teachers possess a suite of skills that are pretty amazing - mental toughness, flexibility, creativity, passion, etc.

Teachers are awesome. I wish we treated the good ones so much better than we do, I wish we helped teachers find space to grow into great ones.

12/30/2021

New Years resolution: Do what I can to make 2022 the best year of my life.