teacher
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Be Where You Are – Raised Catholic episode 37
The following is a transcript from the Raised Catholic podcast. To listen to the podcast, click here. Today is episode 37: Be Where You Are Well, hello there, friends. Around here, we’ve hit that part of the summer when we feel some things coming to an end at the very same time that we gear up…
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Namaste
I was putting my strawberries and avocados on the checkout counter at the farm stand when I saw him. A baby boy just old enough to sit in the front of the cart with a tiny Red Sox cap on his little head. He was looking at me before I saw him, and I got…
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Late
I was in second grade, and it was nearing the end of the school day when Ms. Giovanangelo asked if I would bring a paper to the office. Kids were putting on coats all around me, and it was clear the bell would ring at any minute. And though I was a high-achieving, compliant, rule-following…
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Frozen
I went for a run on a freezing day and I was surrounded by ghosts. Surprisingly, I can run longer when the air is cold and the sun is bright, and it was a day just like that, so I took myself down the road past my kids’ old elementary school. The school is closed…
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Red
If you ask any of my former preschool-aged music students what they remember about my classes, they may sing one of two phrases back at you. The first is ‘sticks on your shoulders’, which is sung to an annoying, but memorable tune. It’s a reminder to the kids to keep their wooden rhythm sticks on…
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Teacher
In my Facebook feed, there was a prompt to see if you could remember all of your teachers from kindergarten through grade six, in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week. I sat at the kitchen table and struggled to bring forth a couple of names and faces, while others came easily with a wave of memories.…
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Sorry
One by one, my students were telling me about the pretend flowers they grew in music class, and what they planned to do with them. “I grew a red rose and I’m going to keep it in my room so I can look at it.” “I grew a yellow flower and I’m going to give…
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Around
Today I taught music in the preschool my children attended, and that completes a circle for me. Over the years, in my role as an early childhood music educator, I have led programs in most of the places where my kids had their first playgroups, their library story-times, their kindergarten classrooms. All of the places…
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Wink
Someone winked at me yesterday and it was awesome. It doesn’t matter the source…old man, tiny girl, or anyone in between, a wink signifies a shared knowing without the need for words, and it cannot be denied. A wink says, “we’re on the same page” or “this will all work out just fine, don’t you…
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Round
When I heard the news that my first music teacher had died, I thought what most of her thousands of students probably did: Ta ta ti ti ta ti ti ti ti ta ta It was a sweet way to teach basic sight-reading. On a huge, poster size flip board were illustrations and simple syllables…