By the time Saturday rolls around I am ready to do nothing, or at least just what is necessary. During this very unusual school year, I have been working extra hard to make use of my time to get as much schoolwork done as I can each weekday, so I don’t have to bring much home on the weekends. Teachers know though there is no such thing as no schoolwork on the weekends.
Last night I remembered that I had signed up for PD through my Writing Project site – PAWLP. I was feeling so tired, and the thoughts of getting up and showered and ready for a 9:00 Zoom meeting did not excite me. However,, I am not a quiter. When I make a committment, I follow through unless there is an important reason I can’t. I am so glad that I didn’t skip out on the event.
Today’s theme was Decolonizing the Classroom, and the keynote speaker was Tiana Silvas. Tiana’s presentation was very thought-provoking and left me with many questions to consider as I take a critical look at my teaching practices. She spoke about the importance of multiple perspectives, the barriers facing teachers who have been teaching from a white-centered perspective, and call to critically think about our Euro-centric practices.
I also attended a breakout session entitled, Building Your Bookshelf facilitated by Dana Kramaroff and Alison Green-Meyers. They shared five picture books with us that can be paired with other readings to help students better understand the worlds of people who are different from themselves. The books were beautifully written and illustrated, and are now on my shopping wishlist. To top off the morning, I won books as a raffle prize, and another writing project colleague offered to pick them up for me at the university and deliver them to my home! What a wonderful way to “work” on the weekend.
But Saturday really has become a day for me to recoup physically from the grueling work week. I do manage to do a few things around the house, but if things don’t get done, I don’t beat myself up. So to that end, after I finished my PD, I ran one errand, spoke to my daughter via video chat, had lunch, and took a LONG nap. All in all, I think I employed my time well, so now it is off to read. Hope you had a wonderful Saturday.
I am participating in the Slice of Life Story Challenge for the month of March. I will be posting every day this month. It is sponsored by twowritingteachers.org
Rita DiCarne 
For me those days are Sundays — my day to be lazy before having to return to work the next day. So I can really relate to this idea of “Do I have to do this?” that you captured in your blog. Still, I’m glad that the PD ended up being so engaging and educational for you and it sounds like you got a lot of it!
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Your Slice showed me that we are very alike in some ways…little to no work on the weekends, get most of it done during the week, keep my commitments, and always glad we showed up. I hope you are enjoying your Sunday as much as your Saturday Rita.
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Thank you. Unfortunately since it is the end of the grading period, I am doing schoolwork today.
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My weekends are now precious time off from work. Teaching will take up all the time we give it, and I am finally FINALLY learning to set some boundaries around when I work. I have skipped several Saturday PDs that I really wanted to do but knew that I needed the rest and time away from thinking about work even more. I was glad to read the book list that was shared. I especially love those titles from Traci Sorrell!
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What a great seminar, Rita! Your students are lucky to have you. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
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That sounds like such a productive Saturday with that PD meeting and all that you learnt, as well as finding time for yourself!
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Saturdays are the best days for recharging the batteries from the long work week. Sounds like day was full of recharging in a different way. I would love the titles of those books.
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Unspeakable The Tulsa Race Massacre- Carole Boston Weatherford
Evelyn Del Rey is Moving Away – Meg Medina
We Are Still Here! – Traci Sorell
We Are Grateful -Traci Sorell
In My Mosque – M.O. Yuksel
America My Love America My Heart – Daria Peoples-Riley
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I’m so glad you fixed the link and even happier I read your post. I’d livestock’s know the book titles. Decolonizing the classroom is vital work. Congratulations on winning the raffle!
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Unspeakable The Tulsa Race Massacre- Carole Boston Weatherford
Evelyn Del Rey is Moving Away – Meg Medina
We Are Still Here! – Traci Sorell
We Are Grateful -Traci Sorell
In My Mosque – M.O. Yuksel
America My Love America My Heart – Daria Peoples-Riley
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I typically spend my Saturdays working on school stuff. In the last few weeks I’ve made the decision to not do anything school-related on the weekends. It has made the following week a tad bit hectic in order to finish lesson plans on time, but I feel more energized than before!
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My Saturdays are precious, also. However, I have a huge presentation I have to make the next two Wednesdays so I spent my entire day preparing the first video. It’s not quite done, but it’s close. Like you said, there is no such thing as no schoolwork on the weekends. I’m glad you were able to attend a workshop that was so rewarding. Especially because you STILL got in a nap. Win, win!!
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Good luck with your presentation. I am sure it will be wonderful!
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That sounds amazing and hard. The work is never done.
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