I experienced an odd dichotomy this week. The administration at my school district (where I work as an elementary band teacher; also my children’s district) is taking a hard look at our widely acclaimed, award-winning music program and making changes. I won’t go into specifics, but I spent much of my week preparing for meetings, […]
teaching
My Dumb Anxious Brain
My dumb anxious brain wakes me at 4AM worrying about the schedule for a school event that will take place three weeks from now. I tell my brain to go back to sleep. Instead, it drafts an email to the person in charge of the event, wanting details. I tell my brain that I do […]
Look How Far We’ve Come
Here in New York, winter drags on. It’s always cold. It’s usually dark (yes, even during the day– we’ve had very little sun, just a gray haze). The routine is always the same. This year, it hasn’t even been broken up by snow; we’ve had only one snow day. In midwinter, everyone in school goes […]
How To Say No When You Want To Say Yes
Hello, readers and friends! This post is excerpted from the latest edition of The Joyful Creative newsletter. Multiple subscribers asked me to post this in a more shareable way, so please, share this link! If you’re not a subscriber, give it a read, and if you learn something valuable, I’d love for you to sign […]
Covid Week
Our family’s week with Covid (well, three of us so far)
One Week In
“Did I do all of those things because I really wanted to, or because setting and achieving little goals got me through the stress?”