Words from the Heart

“ Things aren’t always as they appear.” A very wise woman gave me those words of caution many years ago. I was in the middle of a discussion making a judgment. I did not know the “whole” story and therefore, what I assumed was very wrong. Funny how little memories like this can just leap into your conscious from time to time. Stranger still to remember during the season of year when things are definitely not what they appear! With spring arriving, I decided it was time to get into a regular exercise regimen. I usually walk, but I wanted something a bit more aerobic. I decided to get a bike. Should be simple, however, I wanted the kind of bike from my childhood. The old-fashioned kind of English rider on which I took my first wobbly spin around my Aunt Edwina’s neighborhood with my cousin Skipper running beside me calling out encouragements like, “Watch out for that pole,” and, “There’s a wall at the end of that hill!” Now, anyone who has gone shopping for bikes of late kno...

 I was wandering around my computer, when I found this post that I wrote back in graduate school for our class blog.  As the teacher to international students learning English as a second language this post has taken on a new meaning to me. The book I was reflecting on was “You Gotta Be the Book”  by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm It is a book that grabbed my attention, took me inward into my own learning and my desire to teach and brought me to a place of determination and passion. Reflections on "You Gotta Be the Book"   The entire time I was reading this book, I kept wishing I could actually be in Wilhelm’s class...not as a teacher, but as a student! I love writing, but, had it not been for a few well-placed teachers in my life, I would have never ended up becoming a writer, let alone feeling accomplished. I struggled through school due to undiagnosed learning differences. I discovered, often by accident, tools and strategies to overcome what my brain did not seem to ge...

  Winter Garden Only five days into March and already my calendar is filled with various meetings, appointments, chores and duties!  No wonder there is the expression, March Madness! However, according to NPR's Andy Bower, the term actually came from the name of Illinois state-wide basketball tournament.  This came as a complete surprise to me.  I enjoy basketball, played it in high school and still like to bounce the ball around a court from time to time, but I NEVER knew that this was were the term, March Madness was developed. For me, March Madness is the time when the weather begins to cut us all some slack, thereby creating numerous reasons to gather together, enjoying camaraderie, celebrating various spring rituals and simply enjoying the longer days of sunshine. As we enter March, I begin to get an itch to garden.  The gardening books suddenly show up in the mail, causing me to dream of mounds of flowers and herbs coexisting in perfect harmony ju...