These days of tears
yields a freedom
to fly
in a poncho in May
walk in a field
of bluebirds on a
cold and windy day
This living isn’t big
but really really small
The big barely matters at all
Euphoria on the open
road no one sees
but they know
its in a face with that glow
Bristly grass on
the green meadow
Joy doesn’t look like
jumping around in a frenzied sort of glee
joy is something very quiet
something inside me
May 2008
June 2020
I live in New Hope in a little nest of an apartment situated on the bank of the Aquetong creek. I have been alone here in quarantine since March 13th- at least that was the last time I went down to the pub and had any contact with anyone. A guy shook my hand at the bar and I twisted up at night thinking and worrying about that simple interaction for two weeks.
As a teacher, we had started our Spring Break a few days early to comply with the Governor shut down of schools. It was a rough winter run, with one of my students losing her father to cancer and a class that was constantly out sick. I even came down with shingles in early March. As any teacher will tell you, Spring Break always comes at the right time. I was exhausted and ready for some quiet. We were hopeful two or three weeks would do the trick, kill the virus and we’d be back without missing much.
If I was ready for quiet, well, it got quiet like I’ve never heard. Living right in town, you grow accustomed to the sounds of town life: tourists cars honking, endless construction noises that vexed me, rowdy dudes shouting at each other on their way home from the bars. But suddenly, New Hope had gone completely and utterly SILENT. While my parent’s suburban neighborhood reportedly had all the neighbors out walking, barely a soul passed down my street- and believe me I would have noticed as I soon became like an eager dog looking out the windows to see what was there. When Farley’s Bookshop put brown paper in their windows, I knew it was going to be a long haul.
Days turned into weeks and living along the creek, I was treated to a daily vibrant wildlife scene. Of course there were always the nuthatches, finches, your standard robins, but during the silence, all of their songs and ways became more vibrant, more vocal and more present. *I* became more present, watching the world be THEIR world for hours, marveling at how self absorbed humans can be that so much of town walks right by and misses the wood duck with her new brood or the turtles sunning themselves on the log. I watched as a family of gigantic pileated woodpeckers hammered away at the trees in the last of the town’s lush overgrown wild area right across from me. A cute little waddly groundhog made his way along the bank and a deer wandered into the wild area, wondering where everyone had gone. One night I heard the strangest sound in the trees- what could it be? I looked out and thought: monkeys? In New Hope?? No, impossible! Are those cats? No, it was a little family of raccoons and the babies made the funniest sound as they played in the trees by the wild area. While quarantine was lonely and devoid of humans, the town was lush and bustling with the creatures we take for granted that are part of our world.
Life had stretched into June and I had made it through teaching my class of second graders remotely through the computer, the pivot had put me behind schedule for writing the book that was due in December for publication. I was excited to get going. I opened my laptop the morning of June 18th, 2020, eager to write when I heard a strange noise. It wasn’t a pileated woodpecker or a raccoon or even a drunk guy heading home from a night in town. It was a machine they called a “bobcat” and it spent the morning shredding every single last tree, bush and bit of greenery in that luscious wild space where the birds were nested and the bullfrog sang. The bobcat took apart all that wildlife along the Aquetong that rainy morning. It was the grinding, awful signal that humans were back; the miraculous pause of quarantine was over.
Monk,
“Here’s how every love letter can be summarized,” says Russell Dillon in his poem “Past-Perfect-Impersonal”
“What is it you’re unable to surrender and please may I have that?”
H
Sent to Members of the City Council of Trenton via email:
Dear Members of the Trenton City Council,
I wish to express my extreme concern and sadness over the planned closure of Stokes Early Childhood Center and the laying off of paraprofessionals, teachers and support staff. While I realize the reality of budgets and finances, it is extremely distressing that you are allowing these cuts to both the city’s most vulnerable children and some of the city’s most dedicated, caring professionals.
As a seasoned Early Childhood educator, I can assure you that some of the most talented people in the profession of education are those working in the field of special needs and young children. The City of Trenton should be the most loyal, caring and protective of special needs children and the families and workers who support them versus closing their schools and cutting their jobs.
While Trenton has continued budget woes from years of mishandled funds and continued investment in charter schools that have no accountability and drain funding from schools like Stokes Early Childhood Center, it is irresponsible to continue on the course you are setting for the education of the youth in Trenton. I implore you to find a way to keep this treasured school alive.
By closing Stokes Early Childhood Center, you are acting against virtually all educational research, as well as the national movement to invest in the youngest children.
There are both valid and invalid reasons why Trenton has such a poor reputation locally and nationally. I was among the first Kindergarten classes at the then newly build Joyce Kilmer Elementary School. I treasure my years as a young student in Trenton and am always saddened by the reputation Trenton has created and maintained for itself over the years. That reputation is in your hands as leaders of the community.
I sincerely hope you consider your youngest residents and the talented professionals who support them as worthy of your time, careful consideration and most importantly, investment.
Thank you for your kind attention,
Heidi Echternacht
I keep going over to @joe_bower website today and just looking at the revolvermap of hits on his blog
Here you can see just the revolver map of hits to Joe Bower’s blog or scroll down about halfway to see it live on his blog
I love that tracking spinning globe. Joe Bower’s death is reminding me we really are a global village and how wonderful what we are doing is
Sometimes I wonder if it’s wonderful. Maybe it’s all just a giant puff up that’s making us more egotistical as some articles humbly point out. And then I say no way, just look at this picture of Joe that Chris Wejr shared with us and just think of the way we do the loud, hard work of working quietly, silently, invisibly with kids every day.
This beautiful image of @joe_bower, captured by a close friend, brings tears but shows what meant the most to him.
— Chris Wejr (@ChrisWejr) January 4, 2016
I hope his kids know how much his Dad was admired for his work.
It’s hard to keep doing this job. Not only the teaching but being here every Monday 2xs a day for 5yrs. The writing, the work, the reflections. That kind of extra dedication.
That often gets us nowhere or does anything for us IRL. Seeing all those blog hits and thinking about the real connections here-
Of course, it all did get Joe somewhere. His book, his blog, the incredible connections he made online. Everyone knew him, from the famous to the friend:
Mourning the loss of gifted progressive education advocate, Joe Bower of Alberta, Canada – dead at age 37 (https://t.co/OwQDxgPgFb)
— Alfie Kohn (@alfiekohn) January 4, 2016
How proud am I to have had a best friend so noble. RIP @joe_bower
— kelly aleman (@flamesstamp) January 4, 2016
And knowing that even small interactions leave lasting impacts on people. We leave them with each other.
And yes, things have changed and are always changing. It’s the natural movement of things. And there’s so much stupid stuff out there but
For the Love of Learning
we really ARE working together. Just look at the spinning world ball of teachers honouring Joe. https://t.co/tXOrWOIaP0
— Heidi Echternacht (@hechternacht) January 4, 2016
One of the advantages to being a teacher is that elusive, tantalizing promise of summer vacation. A vacation filled with lots of time for free roaming head space and adventure after a brutal race to the finish of the school year. One of the disadvantages to being a teacher is that, while you’ve got the time, you don’t have the money to venture very far for very long, unless you are dedicated and skilled at living even closer to the bone during the year.
So this year, I decided to take a virtual vacation. No, I’m not wearing a headset and entering massive multi-player game networks, rather, I’m going old school and just using my imagination to take a wonderful summer vacation. 🙂
Yes, I know, of course I could enjoy my days off without engaging the imagination, but let me tell you folks, it really makes a difference! And it’s free! No cost, low risk and I think you can probably take out travelers insurance on your flight if you like! So what’s the difference between regular summer vacation and a virtual vacation?
I decided on a little imaginary town in France as my target location.
The first thing I had to do was to get my hotel. I bought a new blanket for my bed, making it a bit more “hotel-ish” and just worked on getting my house in working order. (side note I just moved house 4 months ago- the hotel idea got me motivated bc it was frankly, a somewhat traumatic move in that it was sudden, unexpected and I had fallen in love with the crumbly “Secret Garden”) So, once the hotel was in reasonable order, I was ready to plan my trip!
I decided that if I really were in France, I would rarely, if ever, have a car. Off I went to buy some new clothes for my trip- a summer selection of wardrobe that could fit in a carry-on. That was the last time I drove (barring a few short overnight trips and visits to family). I arranged for grocery delivery every 4 or so weeks for the big things and then have been riding my bike to the farmer’s market a few times a week for local, fresh vegetables and fruits. I put a nice big basket on my bike a few years ago- works perfectly for shopping!
I can’t tell you how freeing the no driving is- I really do feel like I’m on vacation! And free from the idea that I’m not doing that great thing you always think is out there- I’m limited to what’s in my town, walkable or bike rideable.
Now that I’m here :), I go to places I might not normally go, change my routine, eat and cook more in my fabulous flat- stare up at the stars at night and imagine I’m not at home- or that I am. I even bought an actual book of fiction- (that takes place in France, oc) And I’m going to dust off my good camera and start taking photographs again.
I must say, I do live in a gorgeous, fun place, so my imagination doesn’t have to work all that hard. The weather is great and the language barrier is no problem. Except when my good natured friends ask, “How’s France?” and I burst out giggling.
I love it here. 🙂
xo friends,
Happy Summer Vacation
Note: I was double inspired to write this post after a plastic product marketed to students to help them attach sticks together crossed my path. One of the many great questions that emerged during this project was “is it fair game to use non-native materials?”
My colleagues and I were challenged to create a Project Based Learning experience for students K-4 the last week of school. Since we were low on materials (all the classrooms were already packed up- long story), we decided to spend the week outside, with our guiding question being, “What do we need to live outside for the week?” What emerged was passionate and personal learning while experiencing the out-of-doors in a new way for everyone.
First off, Monday morning, it was raining, so we began with watching some clips of this Forest School video to help us gain some perspective over what was possible. It really helped that the children in the video were waaaaay younger than us. If they could do it, so could we. (There was NOT ONE COMPLAINT- not one!- and we spent three days out in the rain!)
So then we went about talking about what we needed. What struck me the most was that just about every kid raised her hand and said words like “teamwork!” and “collaboration”! They answered as if it was all settled- we’d go out into the woods and do the collaboration and some teamwork and BAM! we’d have food to eat. It seemed that that was the answer they had deemed correct at some point and so kept repeating it, without really digging into what that actually meant.
“But teamwork to do WHAT?” I kept pressing. Finally some realists piped up, “shelters!, food!, fire!, the rules- the rules of what we should do!” Ok, now we were getting somewhere.
After brainstorming and discussing it a bit more, we decided to divide ourselves into five groups:
Finally, we were ready! Out in the rain we went. Each group quickly got to work. The teachers texted each other throughout the experience, sharing photographs and videos with each other, while helping to guide the students and focus their thinking and questions.
Our final presentation of the project was giving a self-guided tour of the centers- the majority of the kids were still seriously focused on perfecting their projects. While some did put on the “Presentation Polish”, most were so busy STILL ENGAGED with the work, they barely noticed the tours!
Outdoor MakerSpace from Heidi Echternacht on Vimeo.
We had a fabulous week together and each student and teacher really LEARNED and LOVED something new while working together in new ways- it was a blast!
Teachers on this project:
This session focuses on developing STEM skills in an Early Childhood setting. Special focus will be on room design, developing the engineering thinking process and lines of inquiry, and specific paper crafting design techniques and challenges. Videos will be provided to help further illustrate and demonstrate projects in the Early Childhood setting. Additional focus is placed on developing PLN’s to continue individual teachers’ professional development and networking.
Room design
Documentation
Collaboration vs Competition and Process over Product
heidi echternacht 