Friends, this last month has been a lot. Heck, this school year has been a lot. I mean, my students are amazing. I work with fabulous colleagues and administrators. My community is one of my favorite places. That being said, phew, this year. Here’s the thing, when teachers say it’s a lot right now, it’s hard to pinpoint why it’s a lot. I mean, off the top of my head, this is what is running through my brain: The last normal year of school for my seventh graders was fourth grade. We’re teaching kids that didn’t have a typical start to middle school, so they’re lacking a lot of knowledge ..read more

Friday was our twenty-second day of school. Twenty-two school days. Somehow that seems like not enough and too much at the same time. This school year is like no other. Like last year, the pandemic casts a long shadow. Also like last year, there are moments every day of normalcy that take my breath away. But we’re in school for full days, unlike last year. We also have all activities back, unlike last year. We’re masked, vaccines are here, and each day we learn more about a virus that I wish I’d never heard of. It’s a lot. However, I’m choosing not to focus on the things I cannot change. I’m ..read more

  I wrote a letter to myself today. That sounds a little strange, but I was in a professional development workshop. We were to think of one or two people who had taken a chance on us both professionally and personally and send them a note stating, “Thanks for taking a chance on me.” That’s it. No explanation.  Both of the people who I thought of professionally - Brad and Karen, for the record - are people I have no easy way to contact. No emails. We’re not Facebook friends. I don’t have their cell number. So, I picked myself, kind of. I picked my writing email - Kat Ryan. I than ..read more

It’s July 23rd and I should be sitting at this desk and furiously working to finish my novella that is due to my editor in seventeen days. *cue panicked rocking* However, school begins in twenty-six days and my brain turned to the school year as it’s wont to do at this time of year.  AHHHHHHH. And so I found myself at my desk wondering if I should ignore the impending school year or if I should type out this blog in the hopes that once I do, I’ll be able to focus on getting my novella written for the rest of the day. You can clearly see that’s where I landed. We’ll see how it works ..read more

We have a variety of cheerleaders in our lives: our spouse, parents, siblings, friends, teachers, etc. I lost one of mine at the beginning of the month and have been reflecting on her role in my life ever since. My grandma grew up never far from her sister. Ag and GG were well known in the area I live. In fact, when I was growing up my sister called them “Grandma and the other one.” Mainly because the two were so similar, you could call them both Grandma and it would effectively call them both over.  While I remember the two of them that way for my entire childhood, it began long be ..read more

Our oldest son Luke graduates from High School today. This is for him.  Don’t blink, they say As you take your baby home Driving so slow Worried about how safe he is in a car seat. How can you be trusted To raise this little one Into the adult they’re meant to be. Don’t blink, they say As your toddler cries at home Frustrated that his body can’t yet Do what his mind dreams up. You wonder if you’re doing This whole parenting thing correctly It doesn’t come with a manual and answers after all. Don’t blink, they say As Nerf wars go on And on, and on. Years melting away as little boys b ..read more

A good friend of mine is retiring at the end of this month after thirty-seven years of teaching. Mary Lee Hahn has made the difference in countless lives of students. There is no way to pay tribute to the impact of a teacher like Mary Lee, but I wanted to honor her nonetheless. To know Mary Lee is to know of her love of poetry. And while I bow to her ability with the written word, I thought I’d write a poem and share it on my blog today. For Mary Lee. For My son, Luke, who graduates this weekend. For the students who’ve shown up and done the work, day in, day out, during the most bizarre sc ..read more

My love affair with romance books has taken many twists and turns over the years, as has my love affair with running. Both loves require some attention, some care, and sometimes those relationships have lie dormant for years. However, it just so happens that I have a healthy relationship with both at the moment. So, on my long run today (which isn’t long at all when looking at my youngests eleven mile run yesterday), I thought about romance books and what they mean to me. As a middle school student, I was obsessed. Always a lover of series books, my mom bought me the first book in the Coup ..read more

At shortly before ten this morning, teachers in my district got the email we’d been wondering if we’d ever get. Our schools were switching from the hybrid model to 100% remote learning for the next two and a half weeks. I stood in front of my students who were reading quietly as I read the email and I wondered how to tell them. Some would be ecstatic, but some would not. School is a safe place for many kids. I wasn’t sure how this would go. As it turned out, I got to wait a bit until the next group arrived, my homeroom. They spend a lot of time with me in this weird COVID year. I have them ..read more

 It's been a moment or two since I've written here. A lot has happened since May. That might be the biggest understatement I’ve ever uttered. Well, like so much right now, I suppose it is what it is. At the end of July our oldest, Luke, came home from Cross Country practice to tell us he had decided to quit the team. As a parent, I’m not sure there is anything harder than watching your children struggle. We knew he was having a hard time. He had already decided not to run in college a few months back, and that was huge. But for him to quit a team he loved, a sport he loved, was concernin ..read more