The Luckiest No Matter What!

I'm sitting at the desk in my classroom... it's 4:43pm. My students have left and I am alone here, preparing for tomorrow, reflecting on today. Teachers are always looking forward and looking back. It's the little dance we do on a daily basis- did they get what I was trying to teach today? Do I need to give more time tomorrow? How does my storyline of yesterday help me know how to move forward today? There is always so much on the mind of a teacher as they take care of minds and hearts simultaneously all day long. But, as I sit here in my thoughts, I cannot shake the school shooting at Oxford that happened yesterday. 'Teaching the Days After' Teaching on the days after is a term so many educators use when you have to scrap what you planned because another big event has happened that you need to make space for in your classroom community. There have been way too many 'Teaching the Days After' kind of days in the last several years. Students need to process th...

The school year has begun. This particular year has, yet again, brought quite a few changes into our house. Last year, we were heading into our basement school to start online learning. Carter was starting kindergarten. This year, I have three boys in school full time. After not having that for over a year, it's been a B.I.G. adjustment. Preston is starting daycare. We've never done that before. I'm back to work- still teaching part time, but going in five days a week instead of two. How's it all been going, you ask? Everything has been A LOT. A lot of feelings, worries, nervousness, and work. Daycare and Back to School for P Preston's transition to daycare has been very difficult. He's refusing to eat there, isn't sleeping much, and has had epic cry sessions and breakdowns at drop off. I have walked away from him grabbing for me and crying. It doesn't help that the daycare is next to my school. I have exactly one minute to pull myself together before ne...

Throughout this pandemic, I lost myself.  I lost my personal interests and my personal identify. It was a gradual process. I began to notice, through the spring shutdown, that the things that helped me balance out my role as mom were not allowed or closed. Seeing friends was off limits, going out to eat or drinks or dessert with adults was not an option, writing curriculum while I was taking a break from teaching was put on hold. Not having these things in my life, suddenly, made me really, really sad. As time went on and the weeks became months, I began to also notice the other things that helped full me up and provide respite were also taken away from me. Having time to myself to do ANYTHING like reading, writing, working out, or working on creative projects was non existent. One day, in early summer, I realized that anything I did or was interested in or spent time doing that was just for me was gone. Anything that helped make me who I was ripped from me.  Kicking and Screa...

My kids have been learning remotely since March. There is no end in sight for us. I am working my tail off, the kids are working their tails off, their teachers are working their tails off. We've had ebbs and flows of things going pretty smooth and going like a goat rodeo, but one blessing (and curse) at this point is that we know the drill.  I know N and J will have zoom calls from 8:30-11:45 with a 15 minute break at 10:15. I know they will do literacy first and then math. I know what their asynchronous work looks like and about how long it takes. I know C will write about his weekend every Monday morning. I know he does Freckle on Friday. I know when he sees his new sight words. It is all predictable and known at this point.  I called this kind of monotony a blessing because consistency is important, routines are important. My young children can show a lot of independence when things are predictable. I also put that it is a curse in perenthesis because knowing exactly what'...

For many years, my favorite part of teaching has been doing Genius Hour with my students. Genius Hour is based on companies like Google or 3M who give time to their employees to work on passion projects. They allow for the time, choice, and space for people to use innovation to create. As teachers, we spend so much time with students on things we HAVE to do- genius hour gives some of their school time back to them to do with what they WANT. Giving freedom to my students is the best part of teaching for me.  Now that my own children are at home with me doing distance learning, I was trying to figure out a way to allow them some voice and choice within our own school constraints. Nolan was my first guinea pig in bringing genius hour into our home. Genius Hour At-Home My whole family has been super into Hamilton since we saw it on Disney + over the summer. The soundtrack is on repeat and #hundtboysx4 dressed as Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Aaron Burr, and King George for Hal...

Thursday September 17th, 2020- that is the day this pandemic broke me.  I laid on the floor next to my bed sobbing- the kind of crying where the tears are coming so fast you can't catch your breath. It was hard enough to make my way upstairs so that I didn't worry my sons, but I couldn't even make it to the actual bed. I collapsed right next to it. My husband rubbed my back as he sat beside me. I could tell by the look on his face, with his eyebrows pushed together and his mouth in a straight line, he was worried about me. He should've been- I was worried about me too.  I Can't Do This... It's Every Day He asked what was wrong and I didn't even know how to answer. It was nothing, it was everything all at the same time. I can't remember what sent me over the edge. It was probably something small.  I kept repeating "I can't do this... it's every day" over and over and over. Even though those were only seven words, they had so much more be...

 In January 2020, I finally made the phone call I knew had been coming.  Preston was doing very little talking. At his 18 month appointment, his pediatrician wasn't terribly concerned yet, but did warn me he had some things against him: he's a sibling meaning that his older brothers would likely do a lot of the talking for him, he's a boy, and he wasn't in daycare. Because I was home with him, I knew what he wanted most of the time so he didn't NEED to work on his verbal skills. Here we were, a few months later, with little to no progress in his speech development since that appointment. I felt like it was time to get EarlyOn involved and get him some help and us some tools.  Speech Development Preston had a very small handful of words- a mama and dada here or there, a couple animal noises and that was basically it. The thing that was interesting about him was he was ZERO percent frustrated. It never bothered him if we didn't know what he was trying to communica...

Cities are near and dear to our hearts. Some of our favorite travels ever are visiting Toronto and NYC, for example. We love big buildings, the endless yummy food options, the hustle and bustle. We love cities so much that we bring four little kids to them even though cities are not always large-family friendly.  This pandemic has brought a pivot for the Hundt family. Where we'd normally research a tip to Boston, Washington DC, Charleston, or Madison. We are now looking for teeny tiny towns and a lot of land to roam free and away from people.  The need for social distance and being able to wander around together isolated and safe is what sprung our trip to Montana where we stayed in a town of less than 300 people. It was one of my favorite trips we've ever taken. A hustle/bustle travel gal always on the go go go is slowly becoming a hiker who takes her time ;) Landing on Maine Learning from home and working from home has brought a silver lining in this pandemic of having freed...

My name is Kristin- I am a teacher, a learner, and a global citizen. I have four sons going through this public school system. I thought I might enlighten you to what a day looks like for one of my sons.... He wakes up over two hours before school starts. This gives him enough time to take care of regular routines like getting dressed, making his bed, and eating breakfast. This early morning start allows him to spend a bit of time relaxing and gives him some much needed time to work on homework. When you get 6-8 pages of math homework per week, the expectation of reading every night, and spelling/vocabulary work, sometimes you need the mornings AND the evenings to stay caught up. The school day starts. My son is in school for more than four hours before he eats lunch. During this 4+ hours he is experiencing a very long literacy block. He needs to sit still, he needs to listen, he needs to work fast. My son does not work fast- he has always taken his time. I love that about ...

Dear Sparrow Pediatric Inpatient Unit, A few weeks ago, my son Carter was admitted to your unit for a little over 24 hours with extremely low platelets, which was later diagnosed as Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura.  From the second we arrived, we were overwhelmed with the level of care and kindness shown throughout our stay. We were greeted and welcomed and as we checked into our room, I noticed right away the fleece blanket on the bed. What a nice touch for kids to feel a bit more snuggly in their hospital bed! Then, we were shocked to see a tub of toys in the room. My son had a coloring book, Legos, transformers, and several cars to be able to play with. Carter, of course, got busy with those right away.  Our family was able to plan and pack to come to you- we knew several hours in advance that a hospital stay was imminent so we were able to bring Carter's blanket, stuffed animal, and some games and toys to be able to keep him busy. I can imagine a lot of fam...

Friday we took Carter to see our pediatrician. He was covered in bruises.  If you know my son, you'd think that bruises were very much a part of his daily life and you'd be absolutely right. There is no one else I know that runs into more things, falls down, and just generally plays with more gusto than he does. Some of his first and most often-used words are: "I'm okay!" as he gets up from yet another wipe out.  Needless to say, it took us a bit of time to realize that this current bruising might be abnormal. It happened slowly... Carter was unable to articulate how bruises had gotten on parts of his body. We would touch the bruises and they didn't hurt at all, which struck me as strange. He was also bruising in situations where I thought most people wouldn't.  Cater leg bruising- these were also all over his arms The last straw that had me making an appointment with our pediatrician was when my mom, the nurse, said, "hmmmmmmmm" when sh...