Copy Room Conversations

The short season in August set aside for a book to help us get back into the thinking and doing of school continues with a story from Nothing's Missing and the chapter, Wildflowers Don't Grow in Rows. Each story was chosen because it offers some reflection on the chapter theme I think will serve you well as you head back to school in the coming days. This one explores what a life might be like without "should" but, instead, grounded in our instincts. Sometimes I think we, as teachers, have lost the ability to trust our instincts under the weight of what it is to be in our profession in recent years. What might you do if you truly trusted yourself and allowed yourself to make decisions not based on someone else's "should" but on what you know for sure to be right and true?

The short season in August set aside for a book to help us get back into the thinking and doing of school continues with a story from Nothing's Missing and the chapter, Feel the Fear and Walk on Through. Each story was chosen because it offers some reflection on the chapter theme I think will serve you well as you head back to school in the coming days. This one is a deeply personal leap brought on by finally, after a decade, trusting my instincts to do what was right for me even though it was so scary. Sometimes I think we, as teachers, have lost the ability to trust our instincts under the weight of what it is to be in our profession in recent years. What might you do if you truly trusted yourself, even if it was super scary?

The short season in August set aside for a book to help us get back into the thinking and doing of school continues with a story from Nothing's Missing and the chapter, Take Responsibility. Each story was chosen because it offers some reflection on the chapter theme I think will serve you well as you head back to school in the coming days. 

The short season in August set aside for a book to help us get back into the thinking and doing of school continues with a story from Nothing's Missing and the chapter, Set Your Intention. Each story was chosen because it offers some reflection on the chapter theme I think will serve you well as you head back to school in the coming days. 

Each August we'll read a book and the episodes for the short summer season with excerpts from the book as well as solo episodes about the theme of that book. This year, we're reading a book I wrote, Nothing's Missing: A Year of Reckoning, Release, and Remembering who I am. Episode two features from a story from the chapter "Hear the Call," which offers a window into why I became a teacher and how the lesson offered to me in the 4th grade is one I still struggle to learn. 

We're interrupting the typical Copy Room Conversations with several short episodes released on Wednesdays and Sundays this August as we transition back into the thinking and doing of school. Each August we'll read a book and the episodes for the short summer season with excerpts from the book as well as solo episodes about the theme of that book. This year, we're reading a book I wrote, Nothing's Missing: A Year of Reckoning, Release, and Remembering who I am. Episode one features the introduction to the book, a call to action for anyone sick and tired of perfectionism and the tyranny of "should."

We're interrupting the typical Copy Room Conversations with several short episodes released on Wednesdays and Sundays this August as we transition back into the thinking and doing of school. Each August we'll read a book and the episodes for the short summer season with excerpts from the book as well as solo episodes about the theme of that book. This year, we're reading a book I wrote, Nothing's Missing: A Year of Reckoning, Release, and Remembering who I am. 

The last episode for our season on paying it forward drops on Sunday with my new friend, Mary Chai. I’ve long believed teaching to be a spiritual practice, one that stretches us as much as it saves us, one where we use every ounce of who we are in service to our kids, even the kids (especially the kids) who we wish some days were absent. Mary is the first guest I haven’t known and loved for years; in fact, the first day we met was the day we recorded this episode. Interestingly enough, this may be the most episode vulnerable thus far because the way we think about our kids and teaching? Mary and I just might be soul sisters.

In the last of our episodes featuring both the inspired and the inspiring, we listen in on Julie and Briana talk about teaching, friendship, and paying it forward. They belong to one another, and something tells me Julie will always be Briana's teacher, no matter how old we all get.

In our second of three duos this season, we meet Lisa and Ana. Ana was Lisa's student and, with Lisa, she found her voice. Now she uses that voice to do the same for her students. This conversation is a testament to what it means to be a teacher.