Skip to main content

Good Girls Turn it ALL in On Time

In my research about the differences in the ways boys and girls approach learning I have found one idea repeated often.  Some boys, it seems, produce things in school to entertain their friends.  They are not at all interested in the approval of their teachers.  If what they do in class gets a laugh or a "yeah, you're cool" nod from a peer, then they have succeeded.

Girls, on the other hand, live to please the teacher.  They want the teacher to like them and think they're great in every way possible... so some of us girls actually developed an immediate tinge of shame for late papers and incomplete assignments.

And, that's where my art-on-the-go box comes in.

I've just finished packing for a MONTH away... Georgia, Texas, and all the roads in between.  The car is full of suitcases and an ice chest, some inflatable mattresses and a pool bag.  We've got a laptop to watch videos and some iPods to listen to podcasts.  We've got snacks and water and even an empty bottle for little boys to pee in should the bathrooms disappear at an inopportune time.  But, the packing would be grossly incomplete without my art bag.  (I'd take a picture of the entire bag, but it's already packed and I'm not taking any steps backward NOW!)

Anyway, the art bag has our family travel journal (which seems to need a defibrillator to get it back on track), my own idea book, a new Somerset magazine, and the box of treasures you see above.  The box has a stamp pad, some little letter stamps, colored pens, a jar of water, water color pencils, pastels, a pencil sharpener, glue and tape.  I'm ready to go.

So, the good girl in me has had this plan that I'd go online every single day of my vacation to make sure I don't miss a day on my blog.  I wanted everyone to see how put together I am... how dedicated I am to my blog, my exploration of the collision of Life and InSpiration.  If I'd done that, I'm sure my teacher... whoever she is who grades me... would have given me an A+ for diligence and a gold star for timeliness (all things I actually didn't give a flip about until college).

But... I'm not doing it.  I'm going on vacation and I'll write if the mood strikes me, draw if the idea seems fun to explore, swim if I'm hot, and all the rest of the things that mean I'm living in the present.

I harbor no illusions that anyone is going to miss me here... but just in case you do, I'll be back in August with a treasure trove of ideas I'm sure.  Bon Voyage, Self!

Comments

  1. PamJuly 1, 2010 at 2:44 AM

    I will miss you! I miss you every day when I check in and you are not there....happy trails, safe journey, God bless...you know the drill.

    ReplyDelete
  2. LindaJuly 1, 2010 at 5:59 PM

    Me too!
    If you weren't coming to MY HOUSE, where I could see you and Tom and your art and the boys, I would miss you very much online. But I'm over-the-top excited that you are heading this way. I know I'm not your teacher, but as your momma, I give you an A plus on general principles, just because you're awesome exactly as you are--and I love you to pieces.n Drive safely and enjoy every minute of your road trip.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Don't Read This if You Don't Like the Word Pee

   Okay... so I think I nearly broke the toilet from plopping down on it so hard to go pee.  WHY did I plop instead of coming in for my usual graceful landing?  Because my best friend encouraged me to go to the gym and take her weight lifting class... and because I did it... and because she's so darn encouraging that I tried to show off how MOST people who don't go to the gym for four months would really stink their first time back... but not me!  I decided that I should prove that I am a superhero who can skip the gym for four months and come in looking fresh and fit and strong as an ox... okay, okay... an ox that can lift a 2kg dumbell.  I decided that these sleeping muscles could SURELY do just as many squats as that cute 60 year old woman in the front row whose gluteus maximus muscles look nice and bouncy. I'm just going to have to be deliberate about which chairs I go to sit in today.  Spindly antique ones are definitely NOT my best option. ...
3 comments
Read more

Undivided Self

Palmer describes two teachers, one who found joy and success in his career, and another who did not.  He attributed the joyful teacher's success to the idea that he taught "from an undivided self."  He says, "In the undivided self, every major thread of one's life experience is honored, creating a weave of such coherence and strength that it can hold students and subject as well as self."  The other teacher, on the other hand, projected his inner warfare onto his students.  The joyful teacher enjoyed craft, while the sour teacher enjoyed nothing.  The joyful teacher was "enlarged" by his teaching.  The sour teacher was diminished. As teachers we are either the joyful teacher OR the sour teacher.  We have days, maybe even weeks, of being the joyful teacher and days of being the sour one.  In my personal experience, when I am actually in the room teaching students I am the joyful one 95% of the time.  When I leave the room and enter the rest of...
1 comment
Read more

Altered Books and Journaling

We English teachers usually believe that the WORD, the combination of  letters into meaning,  is the most important tool in the box. In an effort to document my belief that it may be time to consider that  there are other tools that help students  make meaning out of their lives,  out of what they read, out of what they think... I offer this slide show. Perhaps the literacy toolbox could be expanded. I say this knowing that some kids, like my oldest son, might balk... but also knowing that other kids, like my youngest son, would sing arias of found comfort and joy. Maybe next to the words and sentences, some kids could find color  and shape and sticky-stuff...  maybe cuttings and doodles and sketches... This slide show exhibits a visual reading journal using a traditional  text entry and  a webbed entry.  It also shows some altered books.
1 comment
Read more