At that point, I still didn't fully comprehend what I had learned. The whole idea of self-care was outside my frame of reference. I thought taking care of yourself meant getting enough sleep and eating your veggies, and that I knew those things—at least intellectually. It took some time to realize I had also learned emotionally and physically, changing the way I react to student stories and behaviors. In this report I hope to show how this happened and why this kind of learning was a key to improving our literacy program.

My Learning Process

At the beginning of my project, I was going on faith—faith in the VALTA Project facilitators' belief that I was "on to something" even if I didn't know what it was. I had no idea what the final product would be, or what was expected from the facilitators. (A rather scary way to go, I admit.) I felt I was fumbling my way to a finish line I couldn't see.

Over the next six months I read and experimented with creative activities. I began yoga, learned crafts and taught them to pre-teens, and designed and sewed a very fancy denim book bag with mirror decoration, appliqué and machine-stitched embroidery (freehand—on a 1974 machine) for my granddaughter. I sang, began learning to read music, and did Brain Gym exercises. Books pertinent to my learning seemed to appear when I was ready for them. There was a collection of research articles from the course at my disposal. More were available through Internet sources. Through these activities, I engaged in learning that was mental, physical, emotional and spiritual.²⁹