Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Last Night was the 2022 Celebration of Teachers and Teaching and I Couldn't Be More Proud of Having Jessica Baldizon Back to Campus to Share Wisdom

It was 2014 when I first met Jessica Baldizon. She was assigned to my teaching writing course and she represented writers of a 2nd language and of course I was drawn to her. That summer, I offered an internship to pilot Ubuntu Academy, and the rest is history. Soon, Little Lab for Big Imaginations was born. 

As a winner of the 2022 BPEF Outstanding Teacher Inspiration Award, it seemed like a no-brainer to have her speak with our 41 graduates who just completed student teaching, We wanted her expertise to be shared with supervisors, cooperating teachers, and our student teachers. She was AMAZING. We all reflected after her talk on how natural she is while moving a crowd.

Phew, I was out at the stores at 6 a.m. getting tissue paper, clips, and baggies, because the gift bags  weren't going to build themselves. Each student got a content-specific children's or young adult literature text, as well as gladiolas to plan in their yard (the perennial of July/August). It's a ritual - a celebration of the educators we are putting out into the world.

I got home late last night and said to myself, "I wish I knew how to sleep and nap, because I'm ready to zonk out for several weeks now."

Jessica Baldizon was amazing, as I guess she would be, and we're all very proud of the student teachers who just completed their semester. This was the first face-to-face event we've had in a few years and it felt good to return to what was once normal.

Teach from the heart

Eat it up...all the joy of the class

A game, always

Community matters

Hope is central.

Experiment/Explore

Rest intentionally.

TEACHER, according to Jessica. Loved how she framed this.