15 Comments
User's avatar
Ben's avatar

I don’t want to brag, but I’m resting right now lol

TheHonestEducator's avatar

I believe I’ve finally found the questions I’ve been yearning for. I also love how it feels like we’re at coffee together and having a conversation as I read this piece. Happy New Year!

Ruth Poulsen's avatar

Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment! 😊

Adrian Neibauer's avatar

There are so many great things in this post that I’m taking with me into the new year! I love the questions and the different types of rest. Thank you for sharing the story of your dad doing his winter reflection. Regenerative farming is such an apt metaphor for education.

Ruth Poulsen's avatar

Thanks for the encouragement; I’m glad these ideas were helpful! 😊

Jenny  Eveland's avatar

I am going to share this with my team! So much to reflect on. Thank you!

Ruth Poulsen's avatar

Miss you, Jenny! Hope you're getting some good hikes with friends in-- those cover physical, social, and sensory rest all in one!

Birgitta Car's avatar

Love this approach, we are doing something similar in Learning Pioneers to kick off the new year! HNY to you Ruth and thanks for the excellent reading in 2025! Looking forward to engaging more this year!

The Language Lab's avatar

What a beautiful piece! Thank you for this reflection and reminder, and may we all make the time for intentional living in 2026!

Jtlevitt's avatar

Those walking meetings!!! Love these questions, Ruth. ❤️

Ruth Poulsen's avatar

Happy memories. Walking and reflecting with someone with whom you feel totally safe can be such a bright spot in an otherwise tough week. These are the habits we need to stay in this profession for the long haul.

Jim Hutchins's avatar

I realized as I read your insightful words that I have been doing this practice.

For 25 years now, I've been engaged in curriculum design. For the last 5 of those, I've been creating Open Educational Resources (OER) and implementing its offspring, open pedagogy (or in my case, androgogy).

Now thanks to neoliberal "austerity" (a strange word for silencing academics), I am a Rōnin, working my garden alone but contented.

I've got open garden plots you can work alongside me, if anyone (especially in math and science) wants to learn the ropes and implement your beautiful keep/cut/create strategy in their own lives.

As with all my "intellectual" "property", this shiz is CC BY-SA.

This I Believe: https://colorado.pressbooks.pub/neuroscience/front-matter/on-becoming-a-neuroscientist/

Ruth Poulsen's avatar

Yes, these 3 questions are very important to curriculum design, for sure! Thanks for reading. :)

Katie Cubano's avatar

Thank you for this fabulous post! I will be borrowing—and crediting—ideas from this for a monthly meeting of literacy leaders later this month. If you’re interested in joining us and happen to already be an NCTE member, I invite you to join us! (Winter dates will update asap—they are just going through final approval!) https://ncte.org/groups/cel/virtual-events/

Ruth Poulsen's avatar

Wow! I would love to join but I'm not a member. I was an English teacher for 10 years before I went into school leadership, so your work is close to my heart. Thanks for sharing in your meeting; I would love to have more of my English teacher comrades participating in the conversations here. :)