Sincere thanks to Leah Mermelstein for nominating me for The Sunshine Award. I greatly appreciate the recognition from such a respected educational professional – and the inspiration to get my blogging game back on! Each New Year, I write myself a letter that I seal until the following New Year. In it, I record whatever most resonates with me as I reflect on my year and set a focus for the upcoming year. The Sunshine Award comes at the perfect time as I focus on writing for 2014.
The Sunshine Award is a lovely way for bloggers to recognize and celebrate each other, spreading sunshine from blog to blog.
The Sunshine Award was started by Matt Renwick, an elementary principal in Wisconsin (@readbyexample). Here are the rules Matt lists in his post:
1. Acknowledge the nominating blogger.
2. Share 11 random facts about yourself.
3. Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you.
4. List 11 bloggers. They should be bloggers you believe deserve some recognition and a little blogging love!
5. Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer.
6. Let all the bloggers know they have been nominated. (You cannot nominate the blogger who nominated you.)
My random 11 (Warning: I seem to have opted for 11 topics, but many more details!):
1. I was born in England, but moved to Michigan with my family when I was six years old. I will always see myself as bi-cultural as a result of growing up in a British household in the U.S. We survived on Marmite sandwiches in a land filled with peanut butter and jelly, learning to code- switch through experience. I’m never quite sure where home is, but am beginning to understand that home can be a place within me instead of a physical location in the world.
2. When my brother, Ben, was born, I was convinced that he would be a girl. Naturally, I named him Sarah and dressed him in girl`s clothes, despite all evidence pointing to the contrary. We spread our wings in different directions, but now both live in Seattle.
3. My first teaching job was in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. I broke my two-year contract after the first year, recognizing that the school`s traditional philosophy did not create the environment I needed as a novice educator. Incidentally, I was one of seven teachers who broke contracts that year, including the high school principal and his wife. That says something, eh?!
4. A sampling of my extra-curricular activities of yesteryear: varsity synchronized swimming (high school) and Michigan State University`s Spartan Marching Band (college).
5. I have a strange affinity for spiders. I was the runner-up for the role of Charlotte in Charlotte’s Web in fourth grade and played the role of Arachne in The Hobbit in eighth grade. Unless they’re ridiculously large and hairy, arachnids do not bother me in the least.
6. I absolutely love, love, love to travel, having explored over 30 states and 20 countries. Traveling helps me keep a balanced view of myself and the world.
7. I met my husband, Dan, through Facebook in 2007 when I was living in England once again. Our first date was at the Tate Modern, followed by coffee and cake at a nearby cafe. Coffee shops have remained our main mode of exploring cities ever since – but NOT Starbucks.
8. We have an amazing little boy named Keats who arrived six weeks early in May 2012. I love the thought that once you have a child, you will always wear your heart outside your body. My heart is indeed forever with Keats.
9. I’ve never felt more connected to the natural world than during pregnancy, and I’m thrilled to be sharing this experience with Baby #2, who will join us in July. I’m so grateful to have the experience of pregnancy and love/loved absolutely every moment of it. Really. Every moment. Even the nausea this time around and labor last time.
10. Over the years, my pets have included dogs, cats, hamsters, guinea pigs, mice, rabbits, fish, a hedgehog, and a dwarf African clawed frog. I received my frog, Noodle, when she was a 12-day old tadpole, and she lived to be 17 years old.
11. I’m still trying to decide what to do when I grow up. I love many, many aspects of being an educator, but am not convinced that it`s the only path for me. My current dream is to become a stay-at-home-mama-slash-writer, but I’ve also considered becoming a mentor for novice teachers…or continuing to refine my skill to grow from a good instructional coach to a great one…or to return to the classroom…or to pursue a Ph.D….or to find a hippie commune school somewhere…The list goes on and on!
Here are the 11 questions Leah asked me, in addition to my responses:
1. What inspires you to blog?
I have always, always wanted to see myself as a writer. I wrote prolifically as a child, but less so in my 20s as my life and career took over. Last year, I completed a Certificate in Memoir at the University of Washington to get myself back on track. I took the class with the goal of publishing a memoir this year, but soon realized that I need smaller, more manageable goals. Although I do want to publish a book down the road, my more immediate focus is on submitting pieces to literary journals and magazines, in addition to blogging. Blogging enables me to write for an audience and helps me hold myself accountable to write (somewhat) regularly.
2. What is the hardest/most frustrating thing about blogging?
The most challenging aspect for me is carving out regular time to blog. Many of the guest writers who spoke to my memoir class emphasized the need to write daily, but I find this extremely challenging to do in conjunction with holding a full-time job and raising a toddler. Case in point: It’s taken me attempts on four different days to complete this post!
3. Can you share a defining moment you’ve had in the field of education?
The first defining moment I had was as a student teacher in 2001-2002. I was one of two student teachers in the third grade, and we had many opportunities to team teach. One of our college professors, Dr. Jan Alleman, asked us if she could bring her undergraduate cohort to watch us teach a lesson from the integrated culture studies unit we had created. It was an absolute honor to have 20 pre-service teachers in the audience. Partly as a result of Jan`s support, I entered the profession confident in my ability to create meaningful learning experiences for children.
4. Can you share your funniest moment in the field of education?
A series of moments that inspired the most laughter was during my second year teaching fourth grade in Michigan. Without a cafeteria, students ate lunch in the classroom. One of my boys started to tell jokes during lunch one day, and this somehow morphed into a half-hour improv session that became a regular occurrence in the classroom. My students were able to showcase comedy and dance moves that let them shine beyond their academic strengths. It helped build community – and helped me manage lunchtime because the performances engaged all students while they munched on their sandwiches and carrot sticks.
5. What do you hope for in the coming year?
The best advice I received (Thanks, Erin!) when anticipating returning to work after maternity leave was to keep my heart where my feet are. The work-life balance has become increasingly important to me in recent years, never more so than in my 20 months of being a mama. This year, I hope to continue embracing this advice, being the best educator I can during the school day and the best mum and wife I can at home. As I continue to navigate parenthood at home, I also hope to continue to refine my ability to balance family time and me time. I’m quite certain that my life is going to veer down the writing path more significantly, and this is my year to move in the right (write?) direction to make that happen.
6. How does blogging help your teaching?
Blogging helps my teaching indirectly. I’ve always found writing to be cathartic, providing me with an outlet for my thoughts. Whenever I can steal time for myself and get lost in my thoughts – writing, running, reading, etc. – I rejuvenate myself…something that can’t help but impact my teaching. Blogging also helps my teaching more directly by giving me authentic writing to share with students. When students realize that their teacher views herself as a writer, it can open their minds and subsequently help them define themselves as writers.
7. How does teaching help your blogging?
The current subheading of my blog is Tales of travel, teaching, and Tanners by an Americanized Brit. Given that teaching is named in one of the three focus areas, it clearly helps me by providing material (…or will do so once I begin blogging with any regularity whatsoever!).
8. What advice would you give to someone about writing?
Writing is magic. A writer has an extraordinary privilege of being able to create something from nothing. A blank page can transform into a scene that pulls the reader in or to a poem that projects a lingering image from nothing. Love the gift that you’ve been given and enjoy the journey on which it takes you. There will always be writers’ blocks; they, too, shall pass, and the magic will return.
9. What advice would you give to someone about teaching?
Advice #1: The greatest paradox of teaching I’ve discovered is that one has to be simultaneously as prepared and as flexible as possible. Advice #2: Give yourself a break; you’re doing a better job at your job than you give yourself credit for. Of course, the latter is advice I rarely take myself…
10. What is your favorite thing to do to relax?
I love nothing more than to curl up with a fantastically engaging novel, uninterrupted for hours at a time. Bubble baths are also a favorite! Oh, and sipping a latte in a local coffee shop while catching up in my much-neglected journal (or blogging, as I am now at Zoka in Greenlake while the rest of Seattle watches the Seahawks game). I spend so much of the day with others that I’m able to relax most easily when I have time and space for myself and my thoughts.
11. Are there any responses to your blog that have really stood out? What were they and why did they stand out?
I’ve only just dipped my toe into the blogging waters, so I have few responses from which to choose. So far, the response that stood out the most was from a colleague who mentioned my post Labor Day when I crossed paths with her in the staff room. I felt honored to know that she had taken the time to read the thoughts I`d shared and that my words had resonated with her (Thanks, Leslie!).
I would like to nominate:
Julie Funke
Loni Huston-Eizenga
Sarah Burns
Cameron Holliday
Abigail Fine
My lovely blogger friends, you each inspire me through your dedication to your respective passions. I hope that this spreads a little sunshine to you today, and I look forward to reading your posts if you get a chance to interrupt your usual content with the Sunshine Award. Here are the eleven questions I have for you:
1. What initially inspired you to begin your blog?
2. How has your blog evolved over time?
3. Please name a writer or two whom you admire. What is it about his/her/their writing that you admire?
4. Besides blogging, what other types of writing do you like to do?
5. How did your school experience (any level) impact your interest in writing or shape the way you define yourself as a writer?
6. Has any response you’ve received to your blog made a significant impression on you? (Please elaborate, if you feel comfortable doing so.)
7. What kind of future do you envision for your blog?
8. What have you learned about yourself from blogging?
9. How does your current life experience mirror the expectations you had when you were younger?
10. How does your current life experience look different from the expectations you had when you were younger?
11. When are you most likely going to manage a return trip to Seattle to visit the most fantastic Americanized Brit you know? (Sarah, you can skip this one!)
This post is a little rebel who has clearly protested against my usual intent of keeping my thoughts concise and readable. If you’ve made it to the end, then I greatly appreciate your stamina! All the best to you, readers!
To Palimpsest 
Hi Katie! I've read all your blogs and have really enjoyed them! Reading this, I just learned that you're expecting baby #2. SO happy for you! Congrats! BTW: for some reason, I could always see you as a writer or an artist. You are just a creative sort of person. Follow your dream! XO Wendy
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Thank you so much for the feedback (and the congratulations!), Wendy. A little bit of encouragement from friends goes a long way! xx
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