Author: daniellekuhl

Dear fellow Layman, or rather, Laypeople, First, some gentle clarification.  I am not using the terms layman/laypeople as a means to put down or degrade your humanity. I too am a layperson in more facets and ways in my life than I am not. I too know far, far less than I actually do know…

Once upon a time a little girl was born.  Time passed, life happened, the little girl “grew up” and became a woman.  Along the way a story was created, one that the woman carries deep inside of her, and it goes like this: A child sits with her back to a wall. Her crisscrossed form…

At this point it has become cliché to say that New Years and the oft accompanying resolutions are cliché as well – perhaps even acknowledging this is cliché – and yet… here we are. As someone who has spent her life making and chasing one resolution after the next, I have deep and conflicting feelings…

Most days, for me at least, teaching feels manageable, doable, and yes, even in this climate, hopeful.  And then there are days like Tuesday…  Days where you look around and everything and everyone feels miserable and impossible. When the true insanity of what we, as educators, are being asked to do really sinks in and…

Last Monday, in my 7th grade ELA class, I introduced a weekly creative writing practice that I decided to call “Nourishing Notes.” We have done many small writing prompts before, but they tend to be inconsistent and constantly “pushed” to accommodate the other million and one things we are asked to do with our kids…

Beat down by imposter syndrome and perfectionism I haven’t posted anything on my blog in close to a year. As part of intentional healing I am making a promise to myself to get back into the flow of writing and posting it regardless of whether it is “polished” or not – whether it is what…

We tried.Oh, how we tried. Plans put on hold. Social circle weanedto us, plus two, sometimes plus four. We learned to live in this new world.  We tried.At first we doubted and disbelieved.And then we raged. Learning to trustand mistrust, fissures fused or formed.We sought solace in those we knew were our own.  We tried. Getting back into our work. Exhausted…

__________ I have, not so much a memory, but a series of sensory images from when I was very young, maybe two years old, of riding on my Dad’s back. I am in one of those 80’s blue canvas and steel backpacks, looking out over his right shoulder at a large body of water. It…

My Uncle Brian passed away a couple of days ago. I wrote this piece to be read at his funeral. Wanted to share. All we have is now sweet friends. __________ When someone we know and love passes on, we are called into a season of remembering.  Remembering who they were, the life they led,…

It started like this: There are times in life when you make decisions that lead to consequences so significant, so impactful, so enormous that they change who you are and what you know to be true at the most basic and fundamental levels.  I wanted to go from there and reveal what I had done…