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.

Relaxing on Sunday

After several months of insanity and go go go on weekends, there was finally a break on the horizon.

There are mornings when you wake up and everything is right. Oh to wake as I did this morning, every morning!

Church= fabulous! I am constantly surprised by the commitment to God, truth and others that this place exudes. I am thankful to have found a place to call a church home.

On the way home from church we have this new tradition that I love...over to the Hawthorne Powell's to either pick up preordered books or to simply browse and revel in the immensity of the written word available to my eager fingers. Then next door to the closest I will come to an Italian market this side of Italy. Josh fell in love with it because he adores pasta, and they have homemade pasta with the most delicious sauces...today's pick was an interesting one: tomatoes, onions, pine nuts, currants, vinegar, chocolate (no really), and some other things. While we browse for lunch I get Italian espresso and on our way home singing loudly seems to be a theme. A glass of wine, pasta, Josh and an episode of FlashForward...perfection!

I did nothing for school this weekend, and after lunch I watched Josh finish the tree at his house, took a nap, ate pizza and literally left the couch maybe 3 times tops...perfection again. I don't often understand life or how it comes to be, but I'm exceptionally thankful.

Thoughts today courtesy of the great mind of Madeline L'Engle:

As we move into Advent we are called to listen, something we seldom take time to
in this frenetic world of over-activity. But waiting for birth, waiting for death-
these are the listening times, when the normal distractions of life have lost their
power to take away from God's call to center in Christ.

Once again, as happened during the past nearly two thousand years, predictions are
being made of the time of this Second Coming, which, Jesus emphasized, "even the
in heaven do not know." But we as human creatures, who are "a little lower than the
angels" too frequently try to set ourselves above them with our predictions and our
arrogant assumption of knowledge with God hid even from the angels.

Advent is not a time to declare, but to listen, to listen
to whatever God may want to tell us through the singing
of the stars, the quickening of a baby, the gallantry
of a dying man.

Listen. Quietly. Humbly. Without arrogance.

Advent Season

Advent is here! I used to roll my eyes when my dad started talking about advent every year...but now, it has changed (as so many things have).

My church does advent which I truly appreciate. The kids are involved and they are the ones that light the candles. You never realize how much you like something until it's gone. We went to church with some friends last week as were in Seattle. I loved their church, especially their pastor. he clearly had a heart for the Lord, he was passionate and real. But there was something missing...the 2nd sunday of advent!!

Last year in hopes that I would be full of the advent spirit, I purchased a book called: A Simply Wonderful Christmas- A Literary Advent Calendar. I of course just found it while cleaning today...December 11th...but never fear, I shall plunge on ahead and just catch up a bit. Tonight's rendition: The Spirit of Christmas.
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I went to the George Fox Christmas concert tonight. I think it might have been one of the best preparations for this season. I went into it not expecting too much...but I can honestly say that the reason for the season was apparent and I found myself tearfully joyful: Good christian men rejoice, with heart and soul and voice! Give ye heed of what we say! News! News! Jesus Christ is born today!

This years theme was: All is calm, all is bright!

The last song that they sang started with a single bagpipe walking from the back, then the choir started in and the band and orchestra. At the end the bagpipe and snare drum join in. I have never heard such beautiful sounds before...honestly I think it was a glimpse of what heaven will sound like. I closed my eyes and wondered, is this what the angels sounded like when that babe was born? The hope of all mankind came to the earth and the angels REJOICED!

Home has changed. I don't know how, or really when the switch happened...but tonight it became incredibly apparent that it has shifted.

That's a fairly earth-shattering conclusion to come to before a Monday morning.

Miss Stacey, Paperbackswap

If I could be like anyone I have to say I'd be honored to be Miss Stacey. While watching Anne of Green Gables again today I'm reminded what a remarkable woman she is, and how ahead of her time. Something about education always makes me think that everyone in the past was crazy and didn't do it correctly...just not the case. I was looking up things about Miss Stacey and someone mentioned that she was in the style of Charlotte Mason...I read up a bit on her and it turns out in the early 1900's they weren't completely insane. Then I got super excited about all the theory I read in college, and I was reminded again of John Dewey, Lev Vygotsky and the others that I fell in love with and "pilfered" their methods and styles to shape my own. There are modern influences as well: Raffe Esquith, Esme Raji Codell, Johnathan Kozol, and so many others. Jo Robinson came to the Newberg School distrct last week to give a workshop about reading, etc. She was incredible, but one things she said in particular stood out to me. "We stand on the shoulders of those who have come before us." It's funny I so often can only see right where I am, and that nothing else in education or life really, has every been different than right here and now. But the fact is there are giants that have come before me, with the same struggles, same love and passion and same crazy students. It's encouraging really, but also overwhelmling...that many teachers over the years, and we haven't perfected anything yet.

Paperbackswap is a fabulous organization. You post books that you don't want anymore online and people decide they want them and send for them. Then you get "credits" and you order books from other people that you want. And so it goes, back and forth...the epitomy of recylcing in one of the best ways possible...reaching out to others with literature! What could be better? I'm quite sure that the 7 people recieving books from me this week will think that I'm slightly insane as I've included notes in each package. It's just so exciting, sending a book to a stranger. Someone across the continent is going to open the book full of possibilities and with different experiences and thoughts and feelings read a book that has been pivitol for me in my life. I just think it's thrilling! What a fabulous idea, and thank you to the creator whoever he/they may be...I'm quite content to recycle my books!