With two major holidays, November and December strike me as more family-oriented months, which began my thinking as I decided on next week's "Mr. Stick Metaphor of the Week." We also had our first freeze this last week (so long, cherry tomatoes and basil plants!), and--add to all that--my wife is undergoing some pretty serious back surgery on Tuesday, which is going to make us both really reliant on both our mothers' care and attention as we recover from this over the next three or four weeks.
As I weighed these three influences Friday afternoon, our classroom metaphor of the week just kind of fell into place without much help. It was almost odd; I just kind of started writing it on the white board without thinking about what exactly I was writing. As I started sketching the picture, one of my students in the last period of the day on Friday (which is when I usually change the metaphor) said, "Oh, that's a really good one, Mr. Harrison."
And it is...Hats off to metaphors that just fall into place without much effort.
Here's hoping your family serves as a "warm blanket" in your lives between now and the end of 2011.
--Corbett
November 1, 2011 at 1:05 PM
This metaphor goes SO WELL with Patricia Polacco's story "The Keeping Quilt" which my third grade class has been reading.