Abstract and Landscape
I love my job. I love doing the research to become more effective at my job teaching kids with disabilities how to access their gifts. It’s easy, however, to get absorbed by the work, Barely noticing when your feet turn to clay and your head turns to Jell-O (which is just as susceptible to gravity).I… Continue reading Get Your Head in the Clouds
A lot of people think that no good can come of checking your phone at 2 AM in the morning, but anyone who’s ever been getting ready to go into a meeting at 2 PM knows that there’s nothing like a quick glance at that glowing window to distorted reality that take your eyes off… Continue reading Pieces of 2021
I've been delivering Special Education services remotely since September. Some of my students are learning in school. Others are learning from home, but all of them are teaching the adults in their lives an inadvertent but valuable life lesson. Even if you've only accidentally clicked one news link in the last eight months, it would… Continue reading The Kids are Alright, pt 2
In my classroom there are long rows of hanging shelves containing multiple copies of different novels for my kids to read. Next to my little brown desk, however, I keep single copies of various books that I am reading with students one-on-one or, in my “free” Time at the suggestion of various students. My little… Continue reading Everyday Art
My favorite picture of the Big Guy and Thing1 doesn’t show their faces. To the casual observer, it’s a picture of them replacing the radiator on our 20 year old Volvo wagon. for me, it’s the moment when our oldest kid learned that sometimes you get the best education when you roll your sleeves up… Continue reading Self Schooling
Two years ago we were celebrating April Fool’s Day digging out from under a thick blanket of snow. We were closing out in March but had seen four major snowstorms--one each week. Our family was closing out a winter of worry marked by Weekly hospital visits and a nearly fatal flu for Thing1. Now, as… Continue reading The Absence of Sleep
I've been pretty faithful about protecting and curating the figurines my kids have made over the years. I keep them on the shelf least likely to be jumped on by the cats. In my new office I’ve added another shelf -- the one I use to display greeting cards at art fairs. Right now it's… Continue reading Gallery Management
My classroom is just across the hall from the science teacher's. We’ve become good friends because we have similar senses of humor, and I have found her to be a fountain of good ideas to make learning fun. One of my and the kids’ favorites is Fun Fact Friday which is just what it sounds… Continue reading Feline Friday
We lost an hour of sleep on Saturday night. I couldn’t fall asleep until after midnight on Sunday night, and I had to be up by 4:30 on Monday to drive to a teachers’ workshop in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. I was excited, but, for once, I wasn’t nervous. When I worked in IT,… Continue reading Ladies (and Gentlemen) of the Club
During the first week of my recovery I wrote constantly. When the second, unexpected week of incarceration began, I still wrote more than usual, but, after teaching for almost a year now, I discovered I suddenly missed being around people. Ten years of working at home once had me trained to prefer solitude, but last… Continue reading Rest for the Working
I’m a geek for historical literature. I don’t always love the language — some 19th century authors seem to go out of their way to use 25 words where 2 might suffice — but I love seeing day-to-day lifestyles through the eyes of people who lived them. I’ll happily wade through six hundred pages of… Continue reading Tell Me a Story
Thursday at 2:45 P.M. was officially the beginning of my winter break, but, before I left school, I decided to leave my kids with a little holiday cheer by using that most important of all teacher skillz, making a bulletin board. Today, of course, is Valentines Day. I don’t know about you, but I remember… Continue reading The Reason for the Season
Rachel Barlow Art 