::sigh::

I am so tired of my middle school students that I don't even know what to do. It's a damn good thing that they are going home this afternoon, that's for sure.

and now...for some football

In less than three hours, the Bears will face the Saints in a rather important game. I'm, of course, cheering for the Bears at the usual place - Union Pub, home to all Bears' fans in the DC area. The bar will be awash in orange and blue and let's hope we're toasting victory with our final drink and not mourning defeat.

In parting, let me share two things I had sent to me to get my spirits up:

First, a photo from NYE, Chicago:

And a prayer, appropos since this is, after all, the Christian Sabbath:

Go Bears!

BIG announcement!

I need to take a moment to offer up CONGRATULATIONS to my sister Lindsey, who is the newest production assistant for the touring production of The Color Purple. A flippin' Broadway musical! At the Cadillac Palace Theater! How awesome is THAT?! Exactly.

Congratulations, Lindsey! Put quite simply, you rock.

No unifying theme

For a short week, this one sure has been really long. Today, after second period (a little after 10am), I walked into the hall and was overwhelmed by the feeling that it HAD to be later than it was. Sadly, it was not and the day continued to drag on. Tomorrow is a half day, which is nice, but it also the day in which we cram into the conference room and spend the entire afternoon grading free response interim assessments (given every six weeks in language arts and math, interim assessments measure the progress of our students and give them practice with standardized tests before the big test in spring - meaning they include multiple choice and free response questions). I don't usually mind it (DATA! RUBRICS!), but given how tired I have been this week, I am a little nervous about the whole scenario. Must remember to bring a Diet Coke...

Yesterday, I was walking to the local coffee shop, crossing 7th Street, when this rather effeminate African American man came running (shuffling?) across the intersection crying "I am never running in $700 shoes again!" I held it in for a minute, but as soon as he was out of earshot, I burst out laughing. I mean, really! It was like something from a movie. Or a bad Saturday Night Live skit. ::sigh::

Today, I was in 7th period (like a large advisory or homeroom) with about 15 of our 25 boys (the rest were finishing interim assessments or in targeted tutorial) and they started talking about last weekend's football games. Mostly they were bemoaning the Ravens' loss, but they also discussed other games. I chimed in now and again, but it was only when I started talking about Hester's failed touchdown return in the 4th quarter of the Bears/Seahwks game that I realized it had grown nearly silent in the classroom. When I stuttered to a stop, almost half of the class was staring at me. I looked at my coteacher and he whispered, "Total admiration." I laughed out loud. How could I do anything else? My interests have definitely changed some since taking on a teaching load that includes primarily middle school boys. I think it's cool, but if I ever start to find loud, bodily noises amusing, please take me out back and beat me. And then make me read Chaucer or something.

Next Saturday (nine days from day), I am participating in my first (and possibly last) Polar Bear Plunge. Kara and Chris convinced me to do it, although it didn't take much more than an invitation on their part. It raises money for Special Olympics Maryland (a worthy cause) and the event swag (free food, a sweatshirt, etc) is pretty sweet. PLUS, hello! Talk about a story! Of course, it's been near 70 degrees most weekends this month and the day after I signed up, the temperature dropped into the 40s and is not expected to rebound from that anytime soon. Sweet.

Time to get going. I told you this would have no theme. Have a good weekend!

Musings about growing up...

I came into work this morning to plan my two-week unit on Citizenship and maybe, just maybe, get started on my Economics curriculum map (second semester starts early February, so I need to get in gear on this), but instead, I sent some emails, browsed the web and, now, feel the need to post something I've been mulling over for a bit. Guess I'll do that prep work after my dentist appointment, not before. Flexibility people, it's all about flexibility.

Moving on...

On Friday, I stopped at Starbucks - normally, I try to frequent the local coffeeshops, but I have yet to find a local shop that makes chai better than Starbucks - and took notice of the quote on my cup. It was said by a singer-songwriter that I have never heard of, but her questions gave me pause.

Have I resigned myself to having less and less resolute opinions because: A) I don't want to be disliked?; B) I'm in therapy?; C) I've grown up?

It makes me wonder. I have never been especially radical in my beliefs. That is not to say that I don't have some radical beliefs, but rather that I have never been prone to preaching my beliefs to others or arguing with others until they see things my way (this was very probably cause for both my political success and failure in college). That being said, I have noticed recently that I have become even more reticent (sp?) about offering my opinions as certainties. As this woman says, my opinions seem to have become less resolute. So, I have to ask - is that because, as I have gotten older, I have come to recognize and appreciate the many shades of gray that create our world? Or, is it that I am simply too tired and too busy to still have such resolution in my opinions? Or, perhaps worst of all, is it because, like this woman says, I fear being disliked or, more suitable to me, entering into conflict with someone? I have no answer to these questions, but I am okay with that. I think continuing to question such things is a good sign.

Also, I went to church on Sunday (part of my 2007 plan for a more balanced life) and found myself with so many people and things to pray for. All of my religious dabblings aside, I was born and raised a Catholic, and I remember my mom getting us to church early, kneeling quietly in the pew and, I suppose, offering up her prayers before mass started. As a kid, like all kids, I would emulate my mom, but I usually ran out of things to pray over in a minute or so. This didn't change much as I got older, although, to be fair, I stopped going to church that often and prayed only when asked to. So, this Sunday, I get to church as it is starting and wait until the moment when the priest asks us to offer up our own silent prayers. That moment comes and I am not even halfway through when we are moving on! It's not like I only pray in church or anything, but it still struck me that, at this point in my life, I have so much more to pray for than I ever have before. That is an interesting realization - one that caused me to stop and take stock of my life and all that is going on for those around me. Mind you, not all of my prayers revolve around sad or unpleasant things (for instance, it is nice to pray for friends planning their wedding, etc), but still...

All part of growing up, I suppose.

100 Hours - yeah!

Just had to celebrate the news that the House voted to raise minimum wage to $7.25/hour. If the increase makes it through, it will be the first increase since 1997! (For perspective and reference, that was back when I was still making minimum wage and was all kinds of pumped for $5.15/hour!) I don't know what will come of this new Congress, but I tell you this: I am still optimistic. And this is a step in the right direction.

(My happy, political self is choosing to ignore Bush's call for a troop "surge" at the moment. I'm entitled to a few hours of pride in my government, right? ::sigh::)

Thank you VERY much

Last night a friend asked me if UW is experiencing a sports resurgence and as much as I'd like to say that we're always this good, it is certainly shaping up to be a good year. I mean, did you all see that game last night? Badgers win Big Ten showdown (that's Fox's headline, not mine)!

Mixed bag of smiles

To help pay for college, I worked every summer as a nanny in one of the North Shore suburbs of Chicago. When I started, the three kids were five, three and eighteen months and my last summer they were nine, seven and five. This winter I reconnected with them via holiday cards and was shocked to see how grown up they are looking (they are now 13 (!), 11 and 9). Today I got an email from the oldest and can I just say that the fact that she is now in the seventh grade completely blows my mind! Also, seventh grade girls are all alike. The email is full of "OMG" and words with lots of extra letters "sooooooooooooooooo" when really "so" would suffice. And the text is pink on an aqua background (hard for my aging eyes, let me tell you). BUT her favorite class is social studies (of course) and she sounds a lot like the energetic, intelligent girl I once knew.

Also, my "son" stopped by school again today to say hi and show me the tattoo he got this summer. (For those not in the know, I had a student last year who pretty much adopted me as his mother and, much like my HS nickname, talked about it so much that the label just stuck.) He's looking more and more like a grown up each time I see him and it kind of freak me out. But mostly it is just really good to see him. :)

Spelling bee practice tonight was awesome. Not that the kids nailed all of the words, but still - they are getting so much better. On average, when they do get a word wrong, they miss it by one or two letters. At the start of this whole process, we were lucky if one or two letters were correct! The bee is next Wednesday, so here's hoping it is a success!

I promised my seniors that I would grade all of their papers tonight. This is a huge undertaking for me, but it is long overdue - I have been carting this folder full of papers around for weeks (in fact, it traveled with me to Chicago and back)! Time for a trip to Cosi for lots of Diet Coke, no internet connection and maybe a sandwich (yum...).

Imagery

One skill I work on with my students is analyzing political cartoons. Earlier this week, after learning about the 19th amendment, we looked at this cartoon from the 1900s:

It is hard to see, but the woman is wrapped in bindings on which a number of injustices are written (voteless, inequality before the law, etc) and the man represents government. He is asking the woman to help improve society, but she can't help because she is bound by her lack of rights. After we figure this out (which takes some time), I ask the students to write down one thing that could be done to change things so the woman could participate. I usually get a variation of the right answer (give her her rights, give her the rights listed on the tape, let women vote, etc) or the wrong answer (cut the tape, etc). This year, T. had this to say, "Find the scissors of justice and use them to set her free." How fabulous is that?!

::smile::

I left work in a weird mood and then it got strangely funky, so I decided to take myself, my laptop and my work reading (Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?) to the coffeeshop. So I'm walking down the street and I run across a van from school. Inside were two of my favorite LSCs and about 15 seventh grade boys. It was hilarious - the boys were freaking out...pounding on the windows, crawling into the front seat, waving through the windows, sticking their hands out the windows.... Let me point out that the windows are pretty much blacked out and, other than the two front windows, the windows swing out, opening only a small amount at the bottom. I finally said good bye and walked away only to hear them all shouting, "See you tomorrow Ms Miller!" and "Bye Ms. Miller!" as I crossed the street. People turned to look. I honestly felt pretty damn cool. And, when I got far enough away I burst out laughing. I may have had to track seven seventh graders down this morning for not listening to my instructions in the hall and sometimes those boys may front like the baddest, toughest people you know, but the truth is that they are all just boys looking for attention and love. And they get that from me and they know it. And relish it. Just like I do. This coffeeshop idea turned out to be much better than I originally thought. (PLUS, they have Johnny Cash on tonight, which is awesome.)

New beginnings and lessons learned

My G-d am I glad that 2006 is over with! Before we move fully into 2007, let me share with you the lessons I learned from 2006:

• Have faith in something. Multiple things, if possible. For me it is: my family, my friends, G-d and myself (the order varies on any given day) and those have gotten me through far more than I thought I could handle. Believe. Trust. Good things.
  
• All those tests your doctors tell you to get regularly when you get older? Mammograms, colonoscopies, etc? Yeah. Get them. On time. Every year. For real people - it can save so much pain and heartache. Not to mention your life. I mean, I know they are uncomfortanle and inconvenient, but so is dying. Only infinitely more so. Really...just get it done.
  
• Insure everything and insure it well. G-d bless my car insurance is all I can say about April 2006.
  
• Call a doctor if taking a five minute shower forces you to take a fifteen minute nap. Same is true if your temperature exceeds 110 degrees. In fact, at that point, call a cab and get your ass to the hospital. I don't care how strong or Midwestern you are, you need some medicine.
  
• Find humor in all that you can. This was not the best year for me or for a lot of people close to me, but life offers so many chances to laugh and enjoy and I'm glad I didn't lose sight of that this year.

Okay, so thoughts for 2007...

• Prioritize family and friends. I'm not promising phone calls every week (or even at all), but more letters and emails and reminders of how often I think of them. Because it's a lot more than I probably let on.
  
• MUST. TAKE. THE. GRE. Don't know why I haven't. This will be the year. It's silly that I don't have a master's yet. And that I haven't even started.
  
• I've gotten so much better about finding balance in my life. My work hours are way down (although still high, I know) and I'm making smarter lifestyle choices, but there is still much to be done in the way of improvement here: more time at the gym; less pizza; etc.
  
• I'd like this to be the year that I start taking steps towards some financial stability. I am 26 years old and still often living paycheck to paycheck, with little more than a few hundred dollars saved. This is not okay, but a miracle answer will not be found in twelve months. Still, foundations can be put down this year.

Hope y'all had a wonderful time ringing in the New Year! Enjoy the remainder of your time off and all that jazz.