sChooL dAys, siCk dAys-- in SWINE FLU SEASON...

Swine Flu. It's the virus on every one's lips-- literally to a frightening degree. If you've been even casually keeping up with the national news, you'll know that California is facing something verging on a crisis, especially within the schools, in the area. Though many cases of sickness in schools haven't been confirmed necessarily as the virus itself, the number of students (and TEACHERS) absent, even at our little school-- is astronomical! Further, half of the second graders who actually were there today(about a third of the class was absent) felt ill and queasy and feverish...I hadn't really begun to freak out at all about it-- in spite of many teacher absences and many more student ones-- until today, but it's getting to be too difficult to ignore. I note went home to the parents and out through the community list-serve telling everyone to "take precautions and remain calm." I am hoping it blows over quickly before it creeps into my body-- cannot afford to be sick right now, besides the fact that I, as you all know probably, hate being nauseous and vomiting more than pretty much anything...Keep your fingers crossed for the piggies to move on...

Apart from the bout of illness this week, school was relatively uneventful and flew by quickly. I can hardly believe how the days dissolve! I find some dimension of delight in each of them, some stress to breathe through, some challenge, some disappointment, but overall a sense of flow and purpose and peace. I have rhythms with my classes and am enjoying working with them although it feels not quite as much like "work" as I sometimes might like-- I know that this sounds a little crazy, and I'm not quite sure how to articulate it but I guess sometimes I would like to feel as though what I was doing with these kids in our two-times fifty minutes with one another each week was something lasting-- not that they won't take our experiences with them and not that what I'm doing with them I'm not putting thought and effort and heart and vigor into-- but they are probably, at least some of them, teaching me how to play more than I teach them-- they remind about how we all used to experience the world through spontaneous movement free from fear or pain and through imagination (at least the little ones do)...and interestingly enough, it is from the younger students that I relearn this each day and am able to bring it to my older students who are starting to forget. So this is important I suppose. But I think they learn just as much on the playground during recesses as they do from me often-- it's all about providing the space in which this can happen I guess, and less about me-- in English, it was more about a transfer of knowledge to a degree. Why do I crave this? Well, at least I am getting it in doses through tutoring, and when I teach new skills in Games. But more importantly, perhaps, I am learning to let go of this need, at least to loosen my grip on it and to just enjoy the world around me and my position in it with integrity and spirit, and simply model this for my students. These days in the sun are doing wonders for me, and my challenges in meeting the needs of my wide range of kids are teaching me a flexibility and creativity of which I might not have thought myself capable.

I am grateful for the weekend, in spite of the fact that Alex will be away. I will be immersed in training-- which will, and has continued, to be wonderful and inspiring and so damn hard. Three more weeks until its conclusion-- so hard to believe! Most excitingly-- DARYA IS VISITING from Sunday into Monday and coming into my classes on Monday to talk about IMPACT and do some demos...