Celebrating Wonder!

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“The world is full of magic things, 

patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” 

-W.B. Yeats

When I pause to notice the beauty of the world, I am inspired to wonder. This process of noticing life, ignites further wondering from which digital creations often follow. This fall, I will notice autumn's changes on Long Island to enjoy the richness of the season. 

While autumn on Long Island does not yet look like what is shown below, my colleagues' photos for my upcoming gallery accumulate and cause me to reflect on what is to come. 

To celebrate the wonder of fall, I sent out an invitation through social media sites.  I invite you to wonder alongside me this fall and create. You can access the invitation to my global gallery of artistic expressions, Autumn Ablaze, here.

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What else has caused me to wonder professionally and personally this past week?

• Travel to Tuscon for the National Center for Families Learning 2017 Conference-Learning was a series of "wonder-filled" moments. Inspiration flowed like water. Amazing speakers like Deborah Phelps, Billy Mays, Magic Johnson, and so many more uplifted our spirits each day as we discussed family literacy. My Wonderopolis Wonder Bunch team provided a lens to stimulate child-like wonder for all. At a roundtable presentation, we showcased Wonderopolis, the free educational site where the wonders of learning never cease. 

• Professional writing-I was asked by Evan and Laura Robb to write a guest post on The Robb Review. The post, Professional Wonder, was published on October 14th. You can access that here. I created the following #digitalsinspirations to accompany the post. 

• #EdCampLI-It is always a pleasure to be among a gathering of connected educators sharing the passion of learning outside of school hours. Over 800 educators on Long Island registered for this annual event. From the networking time to the sessions, conversations were filled with rich wonderings and new learnings. 

• #grandbaby love-I am extremely happy to be a new grandmother. The opportunity to view photos of my grandbaby, Sierra Kathryn and/or visit with her on Google Hangout are my moments to reflect on being a grandmother. Today, was my opportunity to do so.

The world is full of magical happenings.
I celebrate the wonder that never ceases to fill
my senses with the spirit of inspired living.
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I now join Ruth Ayres at Celebrate This Week to celebrate the positives of the week with the community of writers. 

If you want to feel peaceful while you wonder about life, access the instrumental music via the video "Autumn Leaves" by Tim Janis here. 

Professional Wonder

As the school year nears closing, educators continue to find resources and avenues to explore their professional wonder. I am impressed by the hundreds of educators who aspire to seek knowledge and grow as learners each day on Twitter. Twitter chats provide excellent soil to plant seeds, share growth, and cultivate new gardens of thought. 

While not being able to join #G2Great on May 4th, I was fortunate to read the archived transcript and Dr. Mary Howard's Literacy Lenses post reviewing last week's educational chat with Cornelius Minor and Courtney Kinney.  You can access Mary's post here. I was intrigued by the way Mary synthesized the information from the #G2Great Twitter conversation, focusing on the theme of building a tapestry. She deftly wove her post together, providing the reader with a backward look on the chat and a forward plan to finish the year strong. 

For those who enjoy the journey of professional wondering like me, I hope you cultivate gardens of thought as you network and learn from other educators. By becoming a voice on Twitter, you can gather seeds of knowledge to support your journey and build your own Wonder Wall of quotes that extend your knowledge and assist you in helping your learners become unique voices in a diverse world of thought. 

From Mary's post and the thoughts garnered from Cornelius' and Courtney's nuggets of wisdom, I created a commitment statement that I will share with other educators as I continue to walk my journey as a wonderologist.

Educators: 
Stand on the precipice of change.
Hand in hand, lift thoughts while
cultivating gardens of unique blossoms,
places of wonder-filled opportunities
where individual seeds root and grow.

With passion, cultivate and care-tend

your garden, recording each growth. 

Step back in faith, vigilant harvesters. 
Watch the fruits of your patient labor:  
each blossom spreading and standing 
tall in harmony with many others. 

Reflect within your garden quadrants.
Find the inspiration to start afresh
With yet another garden bearing blossoms.
You are the tillers of the soil of knowledge.
You are the cultivators of immense learning.
You are educators who finish the year strong!
©CV, 2017

I offer this to post to #DigiLitSunday where the topic is professional wonder. This topic stems from last week's #WonderChat where Dr. Mary Howard was the guest host discussing Instilling a Sense of Professional Wonder.