giveeverydayachance.com

There are moments in education that feel less like career moves and more like coming home. As I prepare for the 2026–2027 school year, I am filled with excitement and gratitude for a new chapter: moving from teaching kindergarten to teaching second grade — and even more meaningful, the opportunity to teach some of my very own former kindergarten students again.

As a mom, former principal, author of Educate the Heart, and now an MLL kindergarten teacher, I often hear the same question from parents each spring and summer:

“Never hurry and never worry.”— Charlotte's Web

In a kindergarten classroom, it’s easy to get swept up in the materials—the bins of math manipulatives, the carefully leveled books, the glue sticks that somehow always run out too quickly. But this week, as we prepared for Mother’s Day, I was reminded of a simple truth: “The best things in life are not things.”

“Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.” — Rumi

“Every now and then, I'm lucky enough to teach a kindergarten or first-grade class. Many of these children are natural-born scientists.” — Carl Sagan

There’s something deliciously rebellious about reading a book just for fun—no sticky notes, no standards alignment, no “what’s the learning target?” hovering in the background. This weekend, I traded data analysis and lesson plans for pure joy, and Prime Time Romance delivered exactly that.

“[Kids] don't remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.”— Jim Henson, It's Not Easy Being Green: And Other Things to Consider

“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.”— C.S. Lewis

“Learning is a result of listening, which in turn leads to even better listening and attentiveness to the other person. In other words, to learn from the child, we must have empathy, and empathy grows as we learn.” — Alice Miller

Albert Einstein once said, “Creativity is intelligence having fun.”This week in my kindergarten classroom, that quote didn’t just hang on the wall—it danced around the room.

“The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.”— Sydney J. Harris