Leading From The Heart

by Tracy Rosen, teaching & consulting since 1996, blogging about it here since 2007. All views are my own and you should take them with a grain of salt, I do.

Tag: cold

  • Let there be light!

    Sun rising over the St Lawrence River. Picture by me, click image for source.
    Sun rising over the St Lawrence River. Picture by me, click image for source.

    I am learning how affected I am by the light. Yesterday I looked through a year’s worth of blog posts as I submitted 1 post for each month of 2008 to Blogapalooza and saw a pattern. In the depths of winter, whenever there is a lack of light, I have doubts. I am down. I am tired. I am confused. When there is an abundance of light, I am filled with hope.

    This morning I read two comments on Michael Doyle’s post November Light . Both comments invoke light through quotations and it got me to thinking of different words we can come up with to fill us with light during this cold, dark period.

    “Open the second shutter so that more light may come in.” Goethe, quoted by Michael

    “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” Albert Camus, quoted by Kate Tabor

    I needed the reminder that it’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness (Chinese Proverb).

    I’d like to start a collection of words, sayings, quotations about light. Do you know any good ones?

  • Cherishing the quiet moments

    A day with similar temperatures, about 2 years ago. It was frigid, as it is today. So cold smoke froze in the air. Click image for source.
    A day with similar temperatures, about 2 years ago. It was frigid, as it is today. So cold smoke froze in the air. Click image for source.

    When I went to bed last night it was -1 degree Celsius outside. This morning Montreal woke to a temperature of -23 with a wind chill factor of -36 and the news that it will stay that way, maybe even getting colder, until Monday. Cold as all get out.

    It wasn’t easy getting started this morning, but now I’m in my classroom alone at my desk with a warm cup of green tea steaming in front of me. My students are about to start a Science exam in another room – it’s needed to graduate and all of the kids have failed it at least once already, some up to 4 times. But I didn’t teach them Science this year, so their Science teacher is with them while I have a few precious hours to myself in my classroom. Wow. That hasn’t happened since … hmmm … last term maybe?

    So I am cherishing this time I have to clean my desk, organize my papers, and even update this blog during the day. Wow!

    I teach Grade 10 English and Grade 11 English, so I have two sets of different written productions to go through and assess. I also teach Grade 11 Student in Society and I have their end of term written reflections to read and assess.

    And of course, I need to prepare for the final History tutorial that will take place at 2:30 today because tomorrow morning Collin will have his precious classroom time while I invigilate a History exam that the students are all writing for at least the 2nd time, some for the 3rd, 4th, or more time. Not to mention begin preparing the Economics course that replaces the History course once the exam is written.

    Is it end of term for you as well? How is it going for you?