Let It Go (Part 1)

I've been inspired to start blogging again.  It is has been almost 2 years since I've posted anything.
Here are some reasons why I am starting again now:

• My sister has started blogging (workingonparadise.blogspot.com)
• I've loved following my friend's blog about teaching in El Salvador (mellamojen.blogspot.com)
• I enjoy journaling about my life experiences & life epiphanies

Therefore, I have decided to start posting again.  (We will see how long this good intention lasts).

SO, I don't know if you have heard of the Disney movie, Frozen, that came out last fall, but they say it is good (I haven't seen it).  In fact, it recently won the Oscar for the Best Animated Feature.  Even though I haven't seen the movie, I am very familiar with the original song "Let It Go" (which also won the Oscar).  It has a catchy melody and many people on youtube are singing or lip-synching to this song.  But I'm more interested in the message. 

Let It Go
To start (hence Part 1), I will be moving soon into a smaller place.  There are going to be many things that I will have to let go.  I've started thinking about going through things and weeding out what I don't need.  What I have started with is my movie collection.

There is something about a good movie.  I love one that is entertaining with a happy ending, a good family movie.  I use to watch more movies, but it is sometimes hard to find quality movies.  My collection has grown over the years.  Mainly because I love to share movies with people.  I would buy movies and share them before I even watched them myself.  That is how I ended up owning 41 movies that I have never seen.  Can you believe it?  Those are the ones that I haven't seen, imagine the movies I own that I have seen.  They pretty much covered my living room floor when I pulled them out of the TV stand and bookshelf and bedroom, etc.  It is a little excessive, I know.

It caused me to think - Why should I own so many movies?  I really don't need them.  "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal." (Matthew 6:19)  If I feel like watching a movie, I can go the library and get one.  I don' t need to own it.  Now don't get me wrong, I will be keeping some of my favorites.
So how many romantic comedies should one keep?  Action films? Disney movies?
I went through the "initial sort" making 2 piles - keep and not keep.  I'm happy to say both piles looked very similar is size.  I do want to go back through and sort out more.  This is just the start of a long process.  I'm hoping it gets easier as it goes on. 

But like the song says, I'm learning to Let Go.

One Year Later????

It has been over a year since I lasted posted on my blog.  I can't believe how much has happened in a year.  I have enjoyed expanding my Personal Learning Community by reading many amazingly talented teachers' blogs.  I've also discovered a great resource in the Teachers Pay Teachers website.  Maybe someday I will have my own creative resources to share.  For now, I am trying to enjoy my summer and prepare for the next school year.  Hopefully, I will post again before another year passes!

Graduation Address - LIFE

Well, yesterday's graduation ceremony was a great joy.  There are 11 more people ready to take on the world.  I was honored to get the chance to speak to them.  The following is the speech I gave - of course there was some ad libbing, but this is most of it.

                                                                     LIFE

As you may or may not know, I teach first grade.  I invite you to think back to when you were in 1^st grade.  The excitement of going to school, the joy of having recess every day, the fun of coloring, cutting, and gluing.  Can you see it?

You learn many things in first grade.  You learn how to stand in a single file line.  It’s harder than it looks.  You learn how to make it through the school day without a nap.  Sometimes this skill needs to be relearned in high school.  You learn that eating glue is not a good choice.  And you learn some ways to be a good friend.

You also learn “school stuff” – reading, writing, math, science.  At the beginning of the year, I ask my students to tell me what they want to learn in first grade.  Many of their answers include, “I want to learn how to read.”  In first grade, you do learn how to read more words – bigger words – and how to spell those big words.  Today I have a big word for you – LIFE. Four letter L-I-F-E.  It doesn’t seem so big, until you start to spell it.  The letters take on their own meanings.  I’m going to share with you what each letter means to me.

First letter L – Live your life to the fullest.  I’m sure you’ve heard this quote before.  But I’ve learned that the meaning changes when you emphasize different words in the phrase.  For example, LIVE your life to the fullest.  You need to live your life – experience it.  Don’t lay around waiting for life to come to you – you need to go out and live.  Now if you said Live your life to the FULLEST – then you live with no regrets.  Don’t let fear take over your life.  You take opportunities when they are offered to you.  But if you said Live YOUR LIFE to the fullest then the meaning changes once again.  It’s YOUR LIFE – that means you can’t compare it to someone else’s life.  Your life is unique to you.  What is right for someone else is not necessarily right for you.  So don’t try to live someone else’s life – Live YOUR life to the fullest.

The next letter in LIFE is I – To me, I stands for integrity.  That is doing what you say you are going to do.  Keeping your promises.  So it is important that you don’t give promises too easily.  A synonym for integrity is honesty.  Now it is just good practice to be honest with people.  But often overlooked is the fact that you need to be honest with yourself.  Give yourself the respect you deserve – don’t try to fool you.  Live with integrity.

We have an L, we have an I.  Next comes F – To me, F is faith.  You need to have faith in your skills and abilities – No one can take those away from you.  You have so many skills – some you’ve learned at school, some at home, and some from friends.  Just because you aren’t in high school any more doesn’t mean that those skills and abilities suddenly disappear.  I know one ability you all have.  I believe it is the most important ability and I know you have it because you’ve made it this far – It is the ability to learn.  You can learn a new skill and you can learn about yourself.  You are going to use this ability for the rest of your life.  So have faith in your abilities and live your life with faith.

The last letter in LIFE is E.  E is a silent letter, but it has an important job.  Just think if it wasn’t at the end of the word life, it would change the word completely.

E stands for Expect.  Now, expect is kind of tricky because you can expect things to happen that don’t happen AND things can happen that you don’t expect to happen.

So I have a list of The Do’s and Don’ts of Expectations:

·        Don’t expect life to be fair – Do expect to be happy with what you have

·        Don’t expect to automatically get everything you want – Do expect to be satisfied after you have worked to earn something

·        Don’t expect life to be easy – Do expect to have people in your life to love and support you

·        Don’t expect to be paid back for everything - Do expect to feel joy when you show someone a random act of kindness

When you have these kinds of expectations, you have hope.  Hope is what gets you through life’s struggles – hope that things will get better, hope that your dreams will come true.

That’s it – four simple letters L-I-F-E to spell a big word – LIFE.  So remember first grade and all the things you’ve learned about life since then.  LIFE will take on a whole new meaning in the weeks and years to come.

So live your life to the fullest

Live your life with integrity

Live your life with faith

And Live your life expecting hope

The Real World

In 8 days, I have the honor of speaking at a high school graduation.  I was asked a month ago and have had thoughts flying through my head of what I want to say.  "Today you join the real world" - typical graduation phrase, not one I want to use.  I don't think it makes sense.  Most seniors live in the real world.  They've already had life experiences that have been full of joy and sorrow.  It is hard for me to stand in front of people and tell them that the world that they've known thus far hasn't been real - that they've been in a bubble and protected from all the "really bad" things.  No my thoughts went in another direction - HOPE. 

HOPE
This word is repeated in my head every time I think of what I want to say to these graduating seniors- Hope, Hope, Hope.  I want them to have hope for their futures.  To be able to look ahead, especially on graduation day, and see a life full of possibilities.  A life that can go any direction and do anything, a life that hasn't been lived yet.  I want them to have hope themselves, in their uniqueness.  Each one of them is a blend of backgrounds and experiences - yes, some are shared (school events, PROM) but no two are the same.  They will each continue adding to their uniqueness after graduation.  I want them to see the hope in that and not long for high school again.

Mostly, I hope that I can deliver a graduation address that is every thing that they need - short, simple, yet meaningful.  Well, 8 days and counting.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Wrap Up

What a wonderful experience!  I enjoyed getting to explore all that the SD State Library site has to offer.  I finally know how to use some of the resources on the site.
My biggest discovery is the World Book Online.  I have already used it with my students and am going to be using it again this week.  Actually, they are going to use it - not me.  I think it is a great resource and know I will use it over and over at school
Personally, I loved Ancestry Library & Heritage Quest.  As I was exploring these two resources, I was asking questions of my parents.  This prompted them to find the information already gathered about my ancestors - family books that were made, history that was typed up, family trees printed off, and photos to show me.  It was fun to see all of the work that my relatives already did.
I will do my best to share my knowledge about these great resources with my colleagues.  The best thing that I can do is to share by word of mouth & to back up the librarian when she shares these great resources.

Searching History

AncestryLibrary:
I did not find any info about me on AncestryLibrary.  I did find a marriage license for a woman with my same name in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 
There is a lot of information on my grandparents.  I learned that I would have to do some research because my grandparents and great grandparents have family names.  Most of my relatives on my dad's side were named John, but I know them by there middle names.  So I was unsure of whose census information I was actually looking at.  I would have to ask my parents for more information to know for sure.  I found out that when my maternal grandfather was 10, there was a hired hand living with them from Wisconsin who was included on the census.  I also learned that my grandpa lived in Illinois before his family moved to South Dakota.
I love looking at old photos because it reveals so much history.  My favorite photo was Gathering fuel on South Dakota Homestead, 1880's.  It shows a woman collecting buffalo chips to burn to keep warm.  I think the photo shares a glimpse into what it was like to homestead in South Dakota.  It was challenging, but the settlers did all that they could to survive and create a home for their families.

HeritageQuest:
I searched under Places for Edgemont, South Dakota.  There were several hits, but I chose to look closer at History of Dakota Territory by George W. Kingsbury with a date of 1915.
There were 7 hits in this book for Edgemont, SD.  The book listed biographies of men in the Dakota Territory.  I enjoyed reading about people who used to live and work in Edgemont.  There were names and businesses that I recognized.  Yet there were many things that I learned.  I was born and raised in Edgemont and my great-grandparents homesteaded outside of town 100 years ago.  So it was interesting to read about some of the people that were around at the same time as them.

Sanborn Maps:
I looked at maps of Hot Springs, SD in May of 1923.  I found Evans Plunge, the County Court House, the Braun Bath House and Hotel, and the South Dakota State Soldier's Home.  I looked at the August 1891 map and found one of the buildings for the Soldier's Home.  It was fun to look at the different maps and compare them.

ArchiveGrid

I've often wondered how Sitting Bull could be part of Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show if he was being chased by US forces.  I learned that he became part of the show after being captured.

I wasn't sure what to search, so I looked on the ArchiveGrid homepage.  I noticed that it listed one of the contributors was the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.  So I searched Errol Flynn and was given 56 results.  There were a number of papers, interviews, and autograph albums listed.  They can be found in libraries and universities in New York, Chicago, San Diego, and at Standford University to name a few.  I chose to look into "The Adventures of Robin Hood excerpt from Warner Bros. Pictures".  I was surprised to find that this clip was found at the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, Wisconsin.  So I clicked on the link to the Wisconsin Historical Society.  I explored the website and eventually found the Archives Division.  I searched for "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and found not only an excerpt, but also 3 film reels of the movie.  In my searching at other parts of the website, I also found a picture taken in front of the Majestic Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin.  The theater marquee announces Errol Flynn in "Robin Hood" in August of 1948.  This just fanned the flame of my curiosity, so I searched the Majestic Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin and learned that it was built in 1906.  I read the history of the theater and found that it is currently open and has performances from an eclectic array of musical guests, comedic performers, and also shows a few movies now and then.