To Carve or To Sculpt...That is the Question.

There aren't a lot of photos in the post.  Be prepared to visualize.
Read on, let your thoughts run wild.

I have been reading a book to my class over the past several weeks.  We finished reading the book this week, and are embarking on our journey of exploring our creativity and expression of how the book can inspire us. Yesterday was wrapped with meetings, a staff meeting in the morning and a preschool parent meeting in the evening.  Both were thought provoking and an inspiration to "one up" myself and kick my teaching power up a notch.  Typically I think of "one up" as a negative, but in this case I do not.  There are times when I feel competition can be negative and just before drifting off to sleep last night my mind was spinning with thoughts, quotes, moments, little gems from the day.  I was wishing I could write them all down, but sleep won out. Ellie woke me early this morning and as I lay with her and she drifted back to sleep my mind spun again.  Not in a wild out of control chaos, but a glorious spin like a dance.  At one point Ellie burst out giggling, asleep and dreaming of something mischievous or comical, but giggling with utter joy. I lay there longer struggling between my desire to start capturing my thoughts and letting them spin joyfully like that laughter.

In the staff meeting we reflected and discussed and I left feeling inspired to enjoy the bittersweet ending of a great book.  That feeling you have as you are dying to get to the end to see it through and discover, yet the sadness that the journey has ended.  With this book, I feel that the ending has opened another door.  One student said, "Maybe there's a part 2!" For us, the "Part 2" is within us.  The book travels through the journey of a young girl finding her voice within herself.  Her path to finding the strength to speak up for what she believes, what she knows is truth, for the people she loves and cares about whole-heartedly. I can relate to this child.  One who, at times, would watch things happen around her and not know how to speak up.  My journey has not been as short as hers to finding my voice and I continue to strengthen mine and deepen my understanding of why I need to use it.

I recently heard from fellow colleagues about how they had been hearing me talk about the power of play for our students. They shared with me how they have taken that and run with it in their classrooms. This was such a gift to me.  Knowing that I made a difference, an impact in more students' lives than just those in my room was powerful.  It pushed me on, made me feel like "what more can I be doing for my own class and teaching?" Not how can I make more work for myself, but how can I bring my work to a higher level?

Last night it hit me (again) how powerful rowing was for me.  For me it was my turning point, my fork in the road for which I landed on the best route of the path.  The one where strength, passion, and the need for others is critical for you to cross the finish line in your best possible way.  Sometimes you may end up with the silver medal, but when you have rowed on through with your team's golden efforts of strength, courage, camaraderie, passion, common vision, and determination, after the initial tears of disappointment fall you stop and reflect on what you have accomplished and the power of what you have achieved is so much more than any medal can give you.  Yes, the medals are amazing and can hold a special memory or capture a feeling and give you a physical object to hold in your hands, but it is what we carry with us constantly in our hearts that endures, shares, and drives our true self. All my medals in my treasure box cannot compare to the strength and true understanding of teamwork that I won in rowing. For in a boat you must strive to make yourself your personal best, yet it isn't all about you.  You must also make yourself the best fit for your boat, your crew, your team. Having 9 talented women is not enough, they must also help each other aspire to be more than they thought they could be, each urging one another on to take the risk to reach beyond. Without competition I am not sure this could happen. I was moved to see my colleague speaking SO passionately about her students yesterday.  She spoke and tears welled up in her eyes. I began to think about her and how her little comment a couple of weeks ago to me made me work better to improve my own teaching as well, not with the intent to "one up" her, but to kick things up a notch for my students, for myself, so that we all may be inspired to carry on in this journey of living and learning and loving it along the way.

Yesterday we carved soap. Our main character in our book carves soap.  She is incredibly talented at it.  The author writes about it in such a beautiful way, saying "When the promise doesn't reveal itself early, your imagination must dictate your intentions. Then the wood, or the soap, it will become what you least expect." Some of my students had challenges with their first attempt at carving. This morning I thought about the language of it. When we think of carving, perhaps that isn't the best word. Today I will teach them how to sculpt.  How to peel back the layers.  For our true selves to be revealed, like what we hope to sculpt, we can't simply stab in and carve deep.   The risk from crumbling is too great. We must do it bit by bit, shaving away that which we don't need.  Our character, Naomi, says she imagines what's inside and takes away what she doesn't need. This is what my day wrapped in meetings was all about.  My best teaching self is within me.  I need to keep peeling away that which I don't need and it shall be revealed.