A few days ago my dad text me and asked if my blog was down or if I just wasn't writing.
Ouch.
No the blog isn't down, I just haven't been writing.
When I am busy with work, the kids are in school, and I'm driving everyone from baseball practice to after school events and friend's houses I have no time to write, but in the absence of all of those things, I have time but don't have much to write about.
I started a new job at the beginning of the school year. I'm working with special education students with low to moderate needs at an "innovative" high school that emphasizes project based learning and internships. I thought by now that I would be able to clearly explain who our students are and what type of student our school is designed for. However, after 5 weeks of getting to know most of our 120 students, I am less able to explain who these kids are now than I was on day 1. It is a very different, challenging and rewarding position.
One of the assignments all of our students have to complete in order to graduate is to write an autobiography. The students are required to write at least 10 pages during year one, twenty during year two, and by the end of the four years of high school they will have written and edited 100 pages. Part of my role is to help my students with writing their autobiography. I sit down with students and read over sections of their writing, helping them add detail and transitions, correct spelling and punctuation errors and attempt to teach them proper grammar.
It is kind of fun to have the "job" to help people write about themselves. You definitely get to know someone a little more when you read about the events of their life that shaped them. It can also be challenging. Over the past few weeks I read stories of when a student started hearing voices in his head, the first memories of type 1 diabetes symptoms and diagnosis, and this week I read a passage entitled "Goodbye Mommy" in which a freshman detailed the moment when his mom had an aneurysm that eventually led to her death. Fishing for more details about a sporting event is completely different than trying to help a student add more to a story about his mother's death.
These 14-16 year-old kids haven't really been around that long and most don't have 100 pages worth of major events that shaped them, but they probably do have quite a few small events that made a big impact on their lives. In order to help them brainstorm ideas, I have spent hours asking questions and poking and prodding students to think deeply about things that have added to their character and in doing so, I've started to reflect on these questions for my own life.
What is my story? What would I include in my autobiography?
I recently decided to back-up all of our photos in an online cloud. In doing so, I realized that nearly all of my pictures from 2016-2017 (with the exception of things posted on Facebook) are simply gone. I have a back-up hard drive, I can't explain it, all I know is they seem to have disappeared.
I went through many emotions when I discovered that photos of birthdays, vacations, fall hikes, holidays, and everything in between are no longer accessible to me. I was panicked, obsessed with trying to find them, was sad, and finally I just accepted that the span of time will be mostly absent from any photo essay of our lives.
Unless I make the effort to tell my story, write my autobiography of sorts, to my children and nieces and nephews or anyone who will listen, my story will fade. It will disappear like those photos that went into the great beyond.
We all have a story of who we are, what events, words, or mere moments shaped us and if we don't tell it while we can still remember, we become a mystery to future generations.
My goal is to start telling my story here.
Ouch.
No the blog isn't down, I just haven't been writing.
When I am busy with work, the kids are in school, and I'm driving everyone from baseball practice to after school events and friend's houses I have no time to write, but in the absence of all of those things, I have time but don't have much to write about.
I started a new job at the beginning of the school year. I'm working with special education students with low to moderate needs at an "innovative" high school that emphasizes project based learning and internships. I thought by now that I would be able to clearly explain who our students are and what type of student our school is designed for. However, after 5 weeks of getting to know most of our 120 students, I am less able to explain who these kids are now than I was on day 1. It is a very different, challenging and rewarding position.
One of the assignments all of our students have to complete in order to graduate is to write an autobiography. The students are required to write at least 10 pages during year one, twenty during year two, and by the end of the four years of high school they will have written and edited 100 pages. Part of my role is to help my students with writing their autobiography. I sit down with students and read over sections of their writing, helping them add detail and transitions, correct spelling and punctuation errors and attempt to teach them proper grammar.
It is kind of fun to have the "job" to help people write about themselves. You definitely get to know someone a little more when you read about the events of their life that shaped them. It can also be challenging. Over the past few weeks I read stories of when a student started hearing voices in his head, the first memories of type 1 diabetes symptoms and diagnosis, and this week I read a passage entitled "Goodbye Mommy" in which a freshman detailed the moment when his mom had an aneurysm that eventually led to her death. Fishing for more details about a sporting event is completely different than trying to help a student add more to a story about his mother's death.
These 14-16 year-old kids haven't really been around that long and most don't have 100 pages worth of major events that shaped them, but they probably do have quite a few small events that made a big impact on their lives. In order to help them brainstorm ideas, I have spent hours asking questions and poking and prodding students to think deeply about things that have added to their character and in doing so, I've started to reflect on these questions for my own life.
What is my story? What would I include in my autobiography?
I recently decided to back-up all of our photos in an online cloud. In doing so, I realized that nearly all of my pictures from 2016-2017 (with the exception of things posted on Facebook) are simply gone. I have a back-up hard drive, I can't explain it, all I know is they seem to have disappeared.
I went through many emotions when I discovered that photos of birthdays, vacations, fall hikes, holidays, and everything in between are no longer accessible to me. I was panicked, obsessed with trying to find them, was sad, and finally I just accepted that the span of time will be mostly absent from any photo essay of our lives.
Unless I make the effort to tell my story, write my autobiography of sorts, to my children and nieces and nephews or anyone who will listen, my story will fade. It will disappear like those photos that went into the great beyond.
We all have a story of who we are, what events, words, or mere moments shaped us and if we don't tell it while we can still remember, we become a mystery to future generations.
My goal is to start telling my story here.
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