The Usual Chaos

Dear #NCTE15,  Thank you--- for belly laughs and seeping tears for strategies, insights, and new plans for authors who sign books! for considering me "your people" and "your tribe" for celebrating the new and the risk and the innovative for justice and advocacy for fun! I return home--- fulfilled renewed relaxed excited inspired motivated overjoyed. I was a #firsttimer. I attended on the kindness of the North Texas council and my administrators, not really knowing what I would find but thrilled by the opportunity. I had no idea what sort of incredible chaos I was in for! Amazingly intelligent people shared their genius. Taylor Mali made me laugh until I cried! Lois Lowry moved me. Deeply. Shanna Peeples smiled and hugged me. And Laurie Halse Anderson signed and giggled and was utterly kind! Jeff Anderson was everywhere I was, chatting me up as I laughed uncontrollably. I finally heard Carol Jago. Wow. Penny Kittle made me want to be her all over ...

It's been an odd week. A short week. A sometimes frustrating week. It's that time of the year - the conclusion of the first grading period when I question if I've done enough and worry that I haven't. Doubt crept in. The to-do list of grading and planning lengthened. The boss came to observe. Let's just say that Friday was a more-than-usual welcome! In such a week, all of my insecurities floated to the top. The voices questioning the rigor in my class and the philosophy of my style shouted louder than my students and my heart. I let it get to me. I felt down, bummed, like I do when the fall days get shorter and the darkness stretches. Oh, wait. Guess the universe and my brain are in cahoots. Rats. Thus, the personal pep talk was summoned. See Friday morning's tweet. And then, something cool happened. First period made me laugh - A LOT! Second period wrote strong, insightful thesis statements. Third period brought an academic and strategic conver...

I've been asking my English three students to blog about their reading. In fact, if you are here, then you can see their blogs to the right! --> I'm feeling rather proud of them! They are risking public reaction (and possible teen-age humiliation) to write their thoughts about their reading choices, and they are getting into it! Our goal is to write every Friday about our reads. We've focused on narrators and the ideas we learn from our reading. We'll keep pondering various parts of our reading choices each week in hopes of improving our writing skills and advertising our reading choices! It's a fun new challenge. Because I asked them to do this, then I should play along as well, right? It's only fair! The book I'm currently in is called The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time  by Mark Haddon. It's been on my list for a long while now, and then Mr. Thompson, our theater director, approached me with an exciting opportunity. You see, we ma...

That first week back is always tough. Screeching alarm clocks we'd rather punt. Hair that just won't cooperate. Outfits that looked better in our minds than in reality. Mazes of hallways with no numbers. Strange teachers and peers, books and papers, classes and seats. But we made it! As I reflect this morning at the conclusion of our first week together, I smile. Yeah, it was a frazzled and hectic week. Yeah, we were anxious and exhausted. Yet it was fun! Seeing your smiling faces always makes it fun. Learning your quirks and smirks and passions is forever one of my favorite things. YOU are why I do this job... and why I love it.  In our early time together, I have giggled and winked and joked, all in the effort not just to get you to relax but to convince you to read. To show you what wonderful benefits reading can bring. To remind you of the joy of reading you may have lost somewhere back in your elementary days. To rekindle that desire for story. It's a challenging...

This summer, I kicked off heat-filled, sweaty days with tutoring. For eight days, I chilled in the AC with some cool teens to give them a little more practice. A little more writing. A little more reading. A little more love. They were fun! They were quirky and spunky. They handled my caffeinated goofiness with ease. They tried what I asked them to try. I really had a good time. In the midst of workshopping and revising, I did what every good teacher does - I had one of those "when I was in high school" moments! Just can't seem to help myself... I don't even recall what we were talking about or how we got there. Anyway, somewhere in my high school conversation, the students asked what my class rank was back then, and I avoided the question. I told them it wasn't relevant. I explained how what I learned about teaching and myself in college was so much more valuable. Yet they persisted. Finally, I told them. Their reaction? "Why aren't you doing somet...

My seventh grade math teacher told me to wear all black the first day of school, even the first week.   To tie my hair into a high, severe knot. She advised me to invest in faux librarian glasses – the ones with the pointy corners - to make me look more serious. I was not to laugh or smile. I was to be stern. I could do it. I don’t think she knew me very well!   Or, she saw already that I have absolutely no poker face and am prone to constant smiling, boisterous laughter, and snark. There was no hope for me to be serious. Fortunately, not only am I not able to be that bland and monochromatic for a day or a week, but I also realize that I shouldn’t be. I don’t want students to see me as a robot or machine or ice queen. They should see me as real. Because that’s the way I see them. Real. Honest (sometimes frighteningly so). Kind. Hilarious. Struggling. Depressed. Mine. High school students are people first. And, they are growing people. There is a prevalent atti...

Dear English III, Thank you for your recent letters.  I cannot express how much I enjoy reading your honesty, your kindness, and your requests.  I sincerely appreciate that you were willing to share your thoughts and ideas with me.  Thank you. To begin, I am thrilled by the number of you who are ready to read!  Some of you are regular readers, some relieved to return to reading, others highly reluctant.  Either way, you seem happy to have the daily moment to indulge and pick up some of that "free homework" stuff I've been telling you about.  Not only does this make my teacher heart happy, but it makes me excited about all the stories we can share and styles we can learn from this semester!  It also reminds me to read faster so I can get to your suggestions! Additionally, I am impressed by your revisions.  You used some strong, interesting words to begin with.  Then, when it seemed it couldn't improve, you crossed your first thought out ...

A few days ago, I walked into a conversation between my 9 year old, Ian, and my 6 year old, Emily.   "School is EPIC, Ian!" "Emily, I know that.  That's not what I'm talking about!" I also do not know what they were talking about, but I was astounded by how it was not even questioned that school is an incredible place to be!  They were so casual, and it was obvious that school could be nothing other than cool. They do go to a remarkable school, Degan Elementary.  They can't wait for Eagle Shuffle and Club Fridays, and they adore their teachers.  Adore them. So what happens when they advance to high school?  Will my babies lose that love?  Will school decline in epicness?  The thought makes me sad.  But I see it.  I see it in my juniors who are distracted by the drama of life - the real kind like working to help the family survive or caring for an ill parent or worrying about their own health.  I see my tutoring kids who fe...

I've seen it today.  The noses buried in pages of a fantasy land, an adventurous journey, or a love-struck moment.  The pens spewing ink and words and life so fast that clocks seem to skip.  The heads, sideways-cocked, thinking.  And thinking.  And thinking.  The wheels really are turning. It's been workshop week in English III.  Students are revising an argumentative research essay over - of course- censorship and books!  They asked interesting questions and searched for answers.  Passion grew in them as if almost cancerous, consuming. Secondly, students are writing from their hearts.  The additional writing piece is a personal one.  They are free to select their intended emotion they want to convey.  They are free to select the angle - one book, all books, censorship in general, themselves as readers.  And, they are free to select the form.  Thus far, we have letters, speeches, narratives, editorials, poems, Twitt...

I've been writing since summer 2014.  Again.  I wrote in late high school, bits of college, and remnants of early adulthood.  Then, alas, life happened.  Really, mostly, kids.  It was the game changer they said it would be.  Then, I heard Penny Kittle.  Another game changer.  She spoke to my soul and articulated all the ideas and emotions and convictions floating helplessly in my head and heart for so long.  Now, because of her, I write again. Since, there have been countless times when I am struck by the urge to put words down.  To somehow describe the indescribable.  Occasionally, I have written something I kinda liked!  Other pieces I have repeatedly returned to with despair.  Trying to write the words fitting for the love of my life, for example, has not yet worked out.  More tears than words seem to flow, especially when combined with thoughts of our children.  Those words are stuck in the revision process...