My One Little Word - 2022

 Principal ponderings...

Hard to believe I have lived in my new house for a year now.  Especially since I still have a room that has not really been set up/unpacked.  That room is my office/library space.  As much as I have wanted that space this year, I just haven't taken the time to get it set up.  During the break, I made myself go into the room and start slowly unpacking boxes.  It has also become the catch-all space.  Not sure where to put this?  Throw it in the library.  I started slowly and worked my way around half the room.  I have one wall where a bookshelf is filled and set up.  I have a closet that is organized now.  I have my writing desk that is cleared off and placed in front of the window with a view of my neighbor's turkeys and chickens roaming in their yard.  I have my purple upholstered rocking armchair and ottoman cleared off.  I still have several boxes and two more bookshelves to organize, but it's a step in the right direction.  I was so excited to be able to sit in my chair and read or sit at my desk and write.  

Why am I telling you all of this?  Well it's how I came up with my one little word for 2022.  As I was cleaning off and organizing my writing desk, I discovered a small dish buried under boxes and other things.  In the dish was a pile of stickers.  Emerson came in to see what I was doing and since she is all about reading everything she comes across, she started reading all of my stickers.  Here are some of the stickers she discovered...

 

Her favorite one was the "Write Now" sticker.  She liked the play on words about writing and "right now."  Over the break, I also participated in a virtual open mic night through the TeachWrite group that I am a part of.  I read a free verse poem about conversations with my mom.  There were lots of tears from the virtual audience members and myself.

So as I was thinking about my one little word...I realized that once again instead of me finding a word, my word found me.  Since my mom was a Latin teacher, I have selected a Latin word for my one little word.

Scribo is the Latin word for "I write."  When I was going through a rough patch a few weeks back, I wrote in an earlier post that... I can't not write.  This year, I know that I need writing to keep me sane, to keep me whole, to keep me...me.  We are all still dealing with this pandemic, and I know that writing will help me deal.  

I chose the Latin form of this word to honor my mom.  I also need to write for her this year.  My mom was a brilliant lady, a constant teacher, and a lover of language.  Now my mom has lost the ability to read or write, and she is quickly losing all of her language.  She is only 70.  Alzheimer's has attacked my mom's brain and is slowly...actually now it's feeling like rapidly...stealing her from me.  So I will write for her and for me.  I will write to help us both hang on.  I hope to write down our memories to keep them tangible and visible.  Since we can no longer have conversations, I will write down all the things I still need to say to her, the advice I still need to ask her, the stories I still need to tell her.  I will write down my feelings in the hopes of relieving the immense pressure pushing me down and suffocating me.  I will write so that I can breathe.

My One Little Word is Scribo.

What will yours be?

What will your students' words be?

I would love to fill the big display case (yes, the one I slept in!) with all of our words!

Currently reading:

I definitely carved out time to read during the break.  I have several books that were sent to the school and I have been working my way through the ones that I had never read.  I will explain more about these books and how they can help us with SEL in another post.  One of the books I read was a graphic novel called The Crossover.  This is a novel written in verse by the amazing Kwame Alexander and recently he published it in graphic novel format.  It's a story about basketball and family and twin brothers. 

The next book that I read almost in one day is called The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind.  This is the true story of a boy living in Africa, in a village in Malawi, who against all odds uses science to create "electric wind."  He teaches himself, survives a famine, and is able to provide electricity and opportunity to his family and his community. 

I am finishing out my break reading by starting a new verse book that I bought a while ago but never started.  It's called Red, White and Whole and it's about an Indian American girl struggling between being the only Indian American student and dealing with her family and community. 

Events this week:

Monday - Welcome back!  2 hour delay - see lunch schedule in email from Liz, test kits and KN-95 masks available in the office

Tuesday - CST meeting @ 8:00am

Thursday - Admin Superintendent Focus Group from 8:30-9:30

Friday - Motoko, Japanese Storyteller back to work with 5th grade!

Check it out:

I have a good friend who is a principal in Michigan.  I love that she started making a New Year's playlist instead of resolutions: https://allysonapsey.com/2021/12/29/what-vibe-are-you-going-for-in-2022make-a-new-years-playlist-rather-than-a-resolution/

Here's one that I would put on my list to go with my One Little Word: