Storytelling. Fact and fiction. One word at a time.
We are welcoming another year with intention---whether we know it or not. Are we hopeful? Are we resigning? Are we happy? What are we carrying with us and what are we dropping from our heavy or light loads of this past weird year? The simple shift from one day to the next on this fresh... Continue Reading →
Art is never finished, only abandoned.Leonardo Da Vinci My friend Emma (yeah, I named you) reached out to tell me that she was completely stressed out. Her stress maxed because she was making art for someone. For those of you who do not create things regularly making something to give as a gift is hard... Continue Reading →
I remember so vividly, at my first teaching job I had befriended an educational assistant. That was about 24 years ago and I couldn't even tell you her name, what she looked like or what classroom she worked in with me. I can, however, tell you that she wrote one of those Christmas letters about... Continue Reading →
Winter solstice 2020 in Northern Hemisphere was at 7:30 a.m. on Monday, December 21---today. The winter solstice marks the shortest day and longest night of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere, it occurs when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn. I just got all science-y. It's a special day. From this day forward until June... Continue Reading →
I am officially on Christmas holidays. I just finished up the second quint of this school year. For those of you who don't know, a quint is a mini semester, created to help teachers reduce daily contact with students. It went smashingly well. Here's why: I had an incredible intern who did her practice teaching... Continue Reading →
I've fallen in love with my commute. I walk. It's just under two kilometers. It's through a park and over a bridge. It's beautiful. Walking to work doesn't happen much anymore. We drive---mostly. Even walking to school is something that doesn't happen for the children like it did when we were young. We've created a... Continue Reading →
A boy named Alex This is the story about a boy I taught just a couple of years ago. Let's call him Alex. Let me give you some background. This kid was quiet and quirky in grade 9. He was quite talented but he was like a disco ball—His light flashing everywhere. I couldn’t seem... Continue Reading →
It was my birthday recently. The idea that I'm 52 is somehow shocking to me. Such a big number. Like, my God! I'm a middle aged woman! What the actual f---!! I recall childhood moments like they happened a month ago, so fresh in my brain with every detail and then sometimes last weekend feels... Continue Reading →
I own a beautiful necklace. It used to be a plate---a plate from a china set my mom got for me when I was in my early teens. It was important for a good Greek girl to have a fancy set of dishes. Maybe it was a financial thing. You know, people with money had... Continue Reading →
The weather was so windy, cold, grey and miserable that I thought I'd live in the past for a few moments and recall a lovely twenty-four hour road trip I took just a few weeks ago when autumn was still warm and gorgeous. The day was clear as we moved along Highway 11. No construction.... Continue Reading →
Angie Counios 