I don’t quite “get” it. What one thing would I do for free for the rest of my life? I realize where this prompt is trying to lead me. I’m supposed to say something along these lines, “Well, I love cars and have always tinkered with them, so I would work on cars for free for the rest of my life.” Where I get fuzzy is the whole question of whether I would be doing this thing, whatever it is, for myself or for others. For example, would I be restoring a ’64 Corvette for myself, or giving all of my friends and neighbors free oils changes?

Now don’t get all indignant on me. “It shouldn’t matter,” I hear you say. But really, it does. When we’re talking about the things we would do for free, I think we need to make this distinction. We do things for ourselves for free all the time. I enjoy quilting. I don’t get paid to make quilts for myself, whether to give them as gifts or contribute them to charity, or even keep them to snuggle with on the couch. I have made quilts for clients, though, and for those I was compensated. Do I feel badly about that? No, I do not. There is a great deal of time, effort, and expense that goes into making a quilt. I enjoy it and am glad to do it, but I would not make quilts for others for free for the rest of my life, at least not unless it was on my terms.

As I said earlier, I make charity quilts. I do them at my pace, with nobody telling me how to do it. I don’t have an inspection at the end and I don’t have to make sure that I keep a customer satisfied. Do I plan on continuing this activity? Certainly, as long as I continue to gain satisfaction from the process. If that changes, I will give myself permission to stop doing it.

Sometimes giving of ourselves too freely devalues what we have to offer. There are many things I do for free that I will continue to do for free, but I feel like the spirit of the question has more to do with what I would do for free for the benefit of others. This distinction doesn’t come from a place of greed. It’s an important distinction, because the car enthusiast, while they love working on cars, has the right to be compensated for their time, experience, and craftsmanship.

That being said, I believe I will always teach for free in some capacity. Yes, I’m a professional teacher. I do get compensated for teaching (as I should, and no, I’m not overcompensated, just in case you were wondering). Natural Born Teachers (NBT’s, read more about them here) start teaching early in life, and really don’t ever stop teaching, even after retirement. In fact just yesterday, one of my retired colleagues, an NBT, came to school to work with kids, for free, on an art lesson. She came, she taught, she left. No lesson plans to turn in, no meetings, no irate parents, no observations or evaluations, no assessments, no discipline challenges, no report card grades, no sweat. To any full time teacher, that arrangement sounds like heaven. We teach because we love teaching, but it’s a hard job.

My colleague is still teaching. She comes to school on her terms, teaches what she loves, and then calls it a day. She is looking forward to hopefully becoming a grandmother, someday in the not too distant future. She will be that grandmother who reads endless stories with her grandchildren. She will lead them on nature walks and they will examine ant trails. She will sit them at the kitchen table and mix paints with them. She will bake cookies with them and talk about how the various measurements relate to one another. I will do all those things too, someday. Once a teacher, always a teacher.

September 18, 2013
by BulgingButtons Leave a comment

Daily Passion Prompt 14: A Tale of Talent

TODAY’S QUESTION

What are you naturally talented at doing?

Talent. We’re obsessed with it. We watch television shows like America’s Got Talent, The X Factor, and The Voice. American Idol has been a huge hit for years, and it’s companion shows have loyal followers around the globe, I’m sure. I’m pretty sure we’re so fixated on talent because so many of us feel like we don’t have any. I beg to differ. I think we all have talent, but some of us simply haven’t discovered ours yet.

I have a few talents that I have been developing over time. I have a knack for combining colors and patterns, which helps me create dynamic quilts and eye pleasing scrapbook layouts. I bake fabulous brownies (with or without nuts), and I’m a good driver. I generally have a good eye for editing (I’ll be mortified if I miss something here), and I usually write fairly well. All of these things are great, but they aren’t my real talent.

The true talent I own is that of a natural born teacher. Yes, it is my profession, and I have been trained in the field. I hold an advanced degree (whippty-doo for me) and I have read numerous articles, texts, and manuals over the years. I have received trainings, attended seminars, and taken classes. I spend hours online researching methods and teaching ideas to help my students understand and practice new concepts, and to help inspire them to love learning. There isn’t a teacher I know who can’t say the same. Some people, however, are naturally born teachers. I fall into this category.

These NBT’s (Natural Born Teachers-we love using letters for things) began their careers with a group of stuffed animals and dolls. Younger siblings and neighbor kids were fair game, too, as they cut their teeth. The typical NBT spends several years in the babysitting trenches, followed by experiences at camps/pools/community centers/daycares/etc. They are the ones who check out volumes of dinosaur, ballet, or Harry Potter books from the library when their young niece or nephew is due to visit. They may fight it, but eventually they realize they were made to teach. They have been doing it all along.

I’m one of those. I can turn almost anything into a lesson, and most of the time I can do it in a way that makes sense to students, whether they are seven-year-olds learning to tell time. or seventy-seven year olds learning a new quilting technique. At school I often extend lessons in ways that I hadn’t anticipated. Sometimes it’s a matter of asking the right question at the right time. Other times. it’s allowing students to struggle with a new concept in order to develop their understanding and problem solving skills. I use a lot of story telling and analogies as I teach. I find that making connections to the familiar is very helpful for anyone with is learning something new.

I may not be able to carry a tune, dance a foxtrot, or play anything other than the right hard part of The Entertainer on the piano, but I’ve got talent. The kind of talent I have helps to improve lives. You can keep your trophies and monetary awards (or still give them to me, that’s okay too). I can rest at night knowing that my fourth graders can explain relationships between different mathematical operations, and they can find evidence of a character’s motivation in a play. They can discuss the similarities and differences of wind and water erosion and they can determine whether certain resources are renewable or nonrenewable. They can walk into one of their multitude of tests with their heads held high, and show their stuff. I feel good taking at least a little credit for that, after all, I’m their teacher.

September 17, 2013
by BulgingButtons 4 Comments

Daily Passion Prompt 13: Monthly Magazine Mess

TODAY’S QUESTION

Day 13: What are your favorite magazines, or publications? What’s the common theme amongst them?

I’m a magazine hoarder, at least according to my sweetheart. It’s true that there are quite a few under my roof. There’s a stack on the side table, a few on my night table, and three or four more still in the mail pile. Then there are the dozens and dozens of stored publications.

I get teaching magazines, housewife magazines (my name for them, although I think housewives no longer exist), and quilting magazines. The teaching magazines are useful for inspiration and resources. I keep these filed away if there’s something I will use in them, but I’ve become far more selective about what I keep. I’ve cut back on the number of these publications I receive, and I keep fewer and fewer of them, since so many excellent resources are available on the internet.

The “housewife” magazines are fun while they last. I don’t pay much for these (I always seems to be getting a free promotion for some reason), and for the price, they are entertaining. I use their recipes, skim their articles, and scoff at their version of “everywoman” fashions. They come into my house, sit around for a while, then are flipped through and recycled.

Finally, there are quilting magazines. These are the ones I keep. I love picking up the latest issue to see what trends are in vogue, and to get inspiration for my own creative endeavors. I’ve been quilting since the late 1980’s and its fun to see how trends have changed, but classic quilts never go out of style. I have learned so much from decades of different designers and teachers. I’ve viewed thousands of quilts on their pages, and I’ve created dozens of my own, using their patterns and ideas as a catalyst for my own creativity. Dozens of them are neatly stored in magazine boxes, and I pull them out to look through them every now and then.

I’m trying to simplify my life, at least a little, and I know I should keep new magazines out of the house, but I just can’t quite kick the habit. The feel of a magazine in my hands, the clean graphics and engaging text, and especially the photos keep me coming back. You would think a pinterest affecianado like me would be so enamored of the internet that an old fashioned paper magazine couldn’t compare, but the fact is, I love the look, feel, and content of magazines, and I will keep subscribing for many years to come.