A light hearted break...

I am attempting to scour my apartment...and I am beginning to hate everything I own...clothes, etc. there's just too much of it!

So I was cleaning out a box, and I found this article that I had ripped out of a Real Simple, who knows how long ago it was...it's called "my year in haiku" by Kathryn Higgins. Here are some highlights...I shall attempt my own later today, perhaps cleaning will inspire me!

Daylight saving time.
Oblivious, I go to
church an hour late.

The spring comes again;
it's time to file taxes-
lots of money gone.

Frozen food again.
No time to cook a good meal-
no complaining please!

Fall is here at last!
My neighbors' leaf blowers roar
while I rake and rake.

A soccer mom bends
to tie her son's shoelaces.
What's that? A thong? Ugh!

Decorate the tree.
Cook and bake and clean a lot,
then take down the tree.

I awaken with
clear head; unfortunately
it's also empty.


Creative little idea don't you think? I think I shall try to write a haiku for each month and keep it somewhere, or maybe have my students write haiku's each month and put them in a book...can 2nd graders write haiku's?? We'll see!

Summer is here!

I shall start with a hearkening to the summer days of yore...the yore of 2009: here's to many more reenacting sculptures, beach trips, and sinfully delicious apple muffins!

I am sitting in my living room...watching Gilmore Girls...reading my Real Simple...drinking very strong coffee with unsweetened soy milk, the amount I like...and eating a very chocolaty chip cookie (thanks Dad!)...And I'm also perusing online...what a lovely past time. All this to say yes...I am done! My 4th and 5th graders happily walked (read ran so fast some got stuck in the doorway) out the door, and down the hall to their summer (obviously someone hadn't told the weather). Then Thursday we did our final meetings and the Crystal Apple Awards...which is exactly like the Oscars for teachers, entertaining only if you know and love the people present, which I do. Then onto the meetings, oh the never-ending meetings, though I was allowed to traipse my way to Mabel Rush and rejoin my lovely family for some final meetings and planning for next year. Where we ironically were quite productive...K-3rd met together (a feat in itself) and not only managed to stay on topic, but got through an entire science curriculum planning K through 3rd...I'm completely shocked that we were actually productive, and excited that we have some thought behind what we're doing. Novel concept, having a plan, based on the standards, and then actually teaching it...shocking! :) Then onto boxing up the stuff. My wonderful and very studly significant other brought me many boxes and helped pack things up. Then Friday I was complete! Checked out, move request in (little known fact: the district will move your boxes for you, you don't have to do it yourself. They only make you think you do so that they don't have to move them, but I have caught onto their plan...made a very large mountain of boxes and will now sit back and enjoy my summer NOT moving boxes...really it's the least they can do for me after the disaster of budget cuts from last year...I don't ask for much, but this is one less thing on my plate!) And now I am free...until July 14th (summer school). I have a list a million miles long...but for today I am going to eat the cookie, drink the coffee, and watch the Gilmore Girls. There is a large part of me that feels bad for not being productive...but I took that part hostage and offered it cookies and coffee to shut up. Then while gallivanting through stranger's blogs (not like stalking...like window shopping) I found a challenge...and well I am most definitely up for a challenge, it is summer after all...and it is a GREAT challenge...a FABULOUS challenge...a Narnia Challenge! And in the spirit of summer and the fact that I not only adore Narnia, but truly believe that perhaps CS Lewis really is my long lost great grandfather, I shall take this challenge! What a lovely way to spend July...getting lost in Narnia...

Thoughts on our world...

I often try to live in a bubble. I appear not to, but I try to live in a place where I don't have to think about all the crap that is happening in our world. If I truly take the time to think about all of this my heart begins to break...but thanks to the new car :) I've been listening to the radio. There's only so much of 105.1 I can take and so I have switched to NPR...I know it makes me sound like a Portlandite, but it's good news! And so my eyes have been reopened to something other than the MAX hitting people in downtown Portland.

I have been trying recently to come to terms with Christianity in this world, how far do I draw the line for myself in what I choose to accept or not accept. My bookgroup has really been delving into these topics a lot, through books like: Things Seen and Unseen by Nora Gallagher and An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor. What should I believe? What do I believe? What am I called to believe? I don't know a lot of the time. Here is something I came across on hulu today and it has stopped me in my tracks: http://www.hulu.com/watch/150328/vanguard-missionaries-of-hate . I have been thinking about this topic a lot recently. I don't remember Jesus condemning people to death all throughout the gospels...yet I still don't understand the stance that Christians should have. I don't even want to be lumped in with Christians most of the time...I want to see as God sees, but so often I don't know what He sees. There is so much out there telling me what to believe, what to think, I would like to just sit down with Jesus and ask him some questions. I do know that this video, this topic goes against the grain of love...don't get me wrong we have a wrathful God, he doesn't just sit back and only love people, but I'm pretty sure it breaks his heart as much as mine when we alienate, imprison and kill those that we don't agree with.

Then on the homefront I got this in our Monday Memo from my superintendent...

BILL CALLS FOR JAILING PARENTS OF TRUANTS

Nathan Roedel sent me a news clipping regarding a new bill in California. The state of California would hold parents responsible if their children regularly skip school, under a bill passed by the state Senate. The measure would let prosecutors charge parents of chronic truants with misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. The measure now goes to the state Assembly.

Our culture is slowly falling apart.

I see it everyday with my students, it's appalling to me what they know, what they have to deal with, and what they believe. I try to give them a picture of what has come before us, to teach them history, the shoulders that we stand upon...but they don't hear me. They believe that war is cool, that it's fun, it should happen all the time, and that killing others is completely acceptable. I knew I was fighting a loosing battle last week when I heard one of my students say: "It was a holocaust...it was awesome dude!". How do you fight that? I've never heard the holocaust used as an adjective, but I can tell you it chills our heart to hear it out of the mouths of 10 year olds. The idea of responsibility of actions is gone, and the student's parents will fight for them time and time again to avoid all responsibility of everything.


This is a grim post, and it's not that I don't have hope. There are bright spots in my class, but I am worried about the generation that is coming behind my own. My generation is sure that they are the informed people, that we will be the ones to change the problems...but my generation is a generation of bandwagons. They care for a time, but we've forgotten the history. Sometimes because we don't know it, and sometimes because we weren't taught it...but it's our responsibility to find out, and it's my responsibility as an educator to teach it. We stand on the shoulders of mistakes and glories of those who have come before us...and they didn't want us to make the same mistakes...knowledge is power- that's what I learned in AP English, that and "absolute power corrupts absolutely"- thank you Mr. Dolmatz for trying to teach us to think for ourselves, and to gain that power of knowledge.

What does the future hold? I don't know.