Mango Minds

Endless Time

Rabindranath Tagore

Time is endless in thy hands, my lord.

There is none to count thy minutes.

Days and nights pass and ages bloom and fade like flowers.

Thou knowest how to wait.

Thy centuries follow each other perfecting a small wild flower.

We have no time to lose,

and having no time we must scramble for a chance.

We are too poor to be late.

And thus it is that time goes by

while I give it to every querulous man who claims it,

and thine altar is empty of all offerings to the last.

At the end of the day I hasten in fear lest thy gate be shut;

but I find that yet there is time.

Comments

May 5, 2011: Balboa Announces Its New Location

Long days make for short weeks and even shorter years. Such could not better describe these past weeks here at BA. Since last sitting down to write to you, we successfully completed our accreditation process and our Board of Trustees announced to our school community that our future location has been finalized: Costa Sur. Both of these achievements are BIG for any school, and that they occur simultaneously, it makes it, well, HUGE. I am proud of all of the work that my colleagues have achieved over these past weeks, because not only has each been involved in a systemic review of our effectiveness as well as anticipating news of the next phase of our school, they have continued to maintain their priorities where we all want them to be: as educators for our children. And so, if you might oblige me, I would like to openly and publicly say to our Elementary teachers, support staff, custodians, and office personnel: THANK YOU. As I write this, outside my window our Boys SUB 10 s...

January 2011: Keep Reaching for the Sky

When I returned to work last week and began to go through my email, I had the pleasure of receiving this message from Miriam, my dear friend and a fellow teacher; it was a perfect back-to-work message and Miriam gave me the go-ahead to share it with you: I'm helping a 9 year old girl who has very low muscle tone all along her right side, and it affects her eye-sight as well. She works very slowly but efficiently with this side of her body. We are in art class. They are painting birds on butcher paper, and now the main forms are finished and they are learning how to outline their images with fine paintbrushes. I ask her and her table partner if they have traced the birds or if they drew them free hand. They answer that they painted them free-hand. They are really quite good, and I say, "Wow, that is really impressive. I don't think I could have done so well." The little girl I'm helping looks up at me, and says, "You know, just because you are an adult, do...

Oct. 2011: Parent Teacher Conferences

When I began teaching in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, we conducted home- visit conferences with all students and families as our initial parent-teacher conference. I went to each of the 28 homes of my homeroom students to meet the families and talk about how the child was doing in school. “La teacher is HEEEEERE!” shouted one father when he opened the door to find me standing there. It was an aggressive approach towards establishing more collaborative relationships between teachers and parents, in some cases helping teachers to better understand the whole child and in others, it was a way to insist that parents become more involved in their child’s education. The main premise: parents and teachers need to talk and work together. Next week, we will hold our parent-teacher conferences here at school; we will not be visiting your homes. Though we do not visit your home, our purpose is the same: collaborative relationships be...