Storytelling. Fact and fiction. One word at a time.
Firsts I'm still doing firsts, and I love it—maybe even more now than I would have when I was younger. There’s something about choosing new experiences, rather than stumbling into them, that feels important. My staff organized a day at Mission Ridge to go tubing. I wasn't able to make it, but my curiosity was... Continue Reading →
Josh Johnson is a comedian, but more than that, he is a storyteller. He reminds me of a young George Carlin. He takes his time telling stories, lingering on words in a way that says, “Hey, I’m not in a hurry. I want you to listen carefully while I speak just as carefully. Listen to... Continue Reading →
I am an artist I think about the titles and roles we give ourselves—and the ones others give us. When I was 20 and in art school, my best friend Cathy would introduce me as, “my friend Angie—she’s an artist.” She meant it. I didn’t. I would never have introduced myself that way at the... Continue Reading →
What about just laying on the ground and looking up. What about not even looking up, but closing your eyes and listening. What about breathing in the smells, feeling the earth...what about those things? Where it started In a staff meeting, I brought up how successful my semester with the Grade Nine English Literature class... Continue Reading →
I brought a book up from my studio called The New Creative Artist by Nita Leland. My intention was just to leaf through it and feed my strong desire to do more visual art. I stepped away from painting for a while because writing projects took up a lot of my time—which I love. But... Continue Reading →
I’ve been feeling like my job as an educator has corralled me. Funny that it’s also the Year of the Fire Horse. I want my influence to be greater than trying to convince teens of all the amazing things in the world around them. Their brains, in so many ways, just aren’t ready yet. They’re... Continue Reading →
Last week's post (you can read about it here), where I found an envelope of photos, made me think of a time I found a purse in my hometown. The Purse I was on a trip with my sister, her husband, and their children. We were in our hometown — the town my parents were... Continue Reading →
I found the following quote cut up and taped together in one of my bins of collage materials that I’ve been curating for over three decades. A completed sentence ends with a small black dot, but that’s how epiphanies begin. A coffee bean. A tiny, good thing from the earth. But the best ones have... Continue Reading →
One of the staple rules of my class is that students are expected to leave their phones on the table near the door. I introduce this rule at the beginning of the year. In the fall, a lot of kids groan about it, buck against it. But rules are rules, and with a little nagging... Continue Reading →
*Stories that did not make it into My List, My Rules: The Year a Checklist Changed My Life *Goal #67 may be inaccurate as far as numbers of my list go. If so I'll fix that later. Goal #67Make a Drawing While Blindfolded In all my years of teaching, I’ve had a lot of unique... Continue Reading →
Angie Counios 