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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

In the middle of a busy kindergarten day—between phonics lessons, math centers, gym class, and learning how to share the blue crayon—something magical happened in our classroom this week.

Some books entertain us.Others form us.

As I bring this series to a close, I find myself reflecting not on milestones or achievements, but on moments—the ordinary, often unnoticed moments that quietly shape a life in education. After decades in classrooms and leadership, rise has ultimately come to mean legacy.