I have a writer and journalist, Leslie, coming to work with my students after school once a week. They love it, having a “real writer” come and talk to them. Sarah, who writes long stories about invented hybrid animals, shows her a new piece of writing every week. The all have their hands in the [...]
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
First childhood memory
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged childhood, Memory, School, teaching on November 21, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Pro-life, except for the people I shame on Facebook
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged church, friends, moral dilemmas on November 13, 2009 | 4 Comments »
I read the most disturbing thing yesterday in a friend’s LiveJournal post.
(Actually, the _most_ disturbing thing I read yesterday was that one half of all children in this country will at some point in their lives be on food stamps.)
But then, I was reading my friend’s LJ entry, and he described the following scenario:
He has [...]
30 Poems
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Green World, School, time, writing on November 3, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I never did write a good poem. When I was in fourth grade, I got into a haiku phase, and wrote a notebook full of them. My beloved Mrs. Johnson inked red praise in every margin.
In college, I finally took a poetry writing class with David Clewell, our poet, and fine teacher. I had gotten [...]
Draft/timeline
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged kids, School, writing on November 2, 2009 | 1 Comment »
E. cannot sit still. He cannot stay quiet. After my first two hours teaching him, I was sure he had some form of verbal and physical Tourette’s. Some stimulus (which I’m unable to predict mostly) will send him leaping from his seat, across the room, or table shaking, or in and out of closet darting.
He [...]
Small thankful
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged kids, School, Shakespeare, thankful on October 19, 2009 | 2 Comments »
I’ve been traveling a lot, and have a terrible sore throat, and am Monday-of-Progress Reports tired. But, I wanted to say that I am thankful, because today the kids gave me goosebumps again.
We’ve begun reading the scene between Hermia, Lysander, and Helena. Lysander and Hermia first talk about their love, and needing to leave the [...]
School days
Posted in Uncategorized on October 3, 2009 | 4 Comments »
I went from worrying that I wouldn’t have a job at all, to teaching full time and returning to the mad-dash schedule of teaching. Early to bed, early to rise, extra time given to finding amazing short stories and grading raggedy notebooks full of poems and protestations (“Miss, why did you move my seat today…).
It’s [...]
Oh, Joseph K.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged frustration, School, teaching, the City on September 4, 2009 | 3 Comments »
I wrote my undergraduate thesis on physicality in Kafak– and read, for a sweaty, corner-cramped year, all of his works. (Except for _Amerika_. I’m saving that.) Oh, the bureaucracy in Kafka, the endless hallways, forms, doorways, misdirections, and missed directions his narrators have to endure.
Today was a Kafka day for me.
There is a “hiring freeze” [...]
the Royal Trees of Riverside Park
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Books, kids, story, the City on September 3, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Yesterday, I babysat Louisa, one of the little girls from my Sunday school class–I’ve been teaching her in Sunday school for three years now, since she was three. I babysit only occasionally, when my work schedule allows.
We did lots and lots and lots, but in the afternoon, she wanted to play soccer in Riverside Park. [...]
Hagia
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Religion, saints, the City on August 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
St. Lucy, outside of an elementary parish school in the Bronx. Interestingly, she has her eyes here; often, she’s shown holding her own eyes on a platter, referring to her martyrdom.
St. Francis of Assissi, across the doorway from St. Lucy. I’m not sure why they’re flanking the same entrance, as Clare is the bosom friend [...]
