the day before

After I took Chaucer for his walk (I took this picture of the bumblebee there. They tend to cling to flowers at night and wait until the dew dries to fly around again) I went to school today. The kids didn't, but the day before they come is usually filled with meetings and information and general getting ready. Its also my most nerve wracking day. My mind usually races with what my students might be like this year. How will I have to bend in order to help them all, to meet all of their needs? Its a struggle. My student load has been going up, non-stop for five years. Teaching, if its done right, is super complicated.... a massive game of chess. Where do I position myself, and for how long, in order to make the greatest impact for the greatest amount of kids. It's kind of crazy really. But I love it.

I have these crazy writing prompts that I throw at my students. They are completely off their radar and purposefully so. My whole goal is to get them out of the ruts that naturally form from being so long in school. Writing, whether it be poetry or prose, really starts to shine when it illuminates things from a strong, and new point of view. That's what the goal is, to get them thinking and not just recirculating easily remembered information. So, I throw them into strange places, and force them to swim around in there for 10 minutes in the beginning of my classes. That writing is never graded ( I want them to feel safe enough to take risks in what they are writing) and I never force them to read it out loud. Its become a tradition of sorts for me to start with one particular writing prompt. "Here is an orange. Take a full ten minutes of non-stop writing and describe the thing. Take chances. Use all of your senses. Think about simile and other ways of describing the thing. And, you can never use the word "orange" in your writing.

I got three, pungent, fiery-red, sour, plump and juicy oranges today.

Newburyport

The McRell's invited us to the beach today. Well, not the actual beach, but as close to it as a I got this year. I can't really remember a year when I didn't go to the beach. We did have a great time though. It was after church, so we actually got there around 3:30 or 4:00. Not tons of time, but enough to get a taste for Newburyport. What a beautiful little town. The whole thing is made of brick. Its like being surrounded by what you wish Harvard looked like. Very beautiful. We had fun exploring all the little nooks a crannies. A little book shop here, a dragon-themed, kids toy store there. While the girls looked through a few vintage clothing stores, Kevin and I let the boys explore there way around the narrow alleyways near some "mysterious" old buildings.  It was nice to spontaneously spend the last little bit of freedom I had with friends, somewhere beautiful.

I love uur kids friendship with the McRell kids. Henry and Nora completely love them, and think of them as their closest friends. (I also love that Henry is still young enough to want to hold Carter's hand as they walked together. It was perfect weather to be by the sea and a perfect way to end my vacation.

not good underground

Well... my root garden this year has kind of been a flop so far. My herbs are doing well, but the others, not so much. These, although beautiful, were really really bitter. Sad.

Triathlete

Jenny has been training all summer for this triathlon, and today was the day! She was pretty nervous.. as in only slept three hours last night and had the uncontrollable shakes this morning before the race type of nervous. Honestly, I am really proud of her. She made a truly decent showing at the race. She came in 23 out of over 100 or so racers. Jenny is nothing if she isn't consistent in effort. If she decides to do something, she generally gives everything she has to do it right, like for example, when she decides to hound me to the point of death to get my haircut, or the entire time she was in college and never got a "B." She has always been like this. If I dislike something, like say.... trying to build the front steps.... sometimes I put it off or sometimes drop the thing entirely. If Jen decides she is going to do it, she works hard... and does it. I wasn't surprised by her effort. She practiced consistently throughout the summer. She actually physically changed because of it... huge ripped shoulders!!! Well, maybe not huge, but definitely defined. She hated biking in the beginning of the summer. I actually teased her because she would constantly ride the break..."Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" here comes Jenny. At the race today, I think it was her strongest leg. She was somewhere in the front half of the middle at the end of swimming, but by the end of the biking leg, she was right there near the front, despite knocking over everyone else's bike while trying to get on her's and taking the time to set them all up right again before leaving.

Its inspiring really. To see her start something she's never done before, train... hard, and then find success. One of the reasons I went to college is because of watching her work hard for her success. It something that I take with me to my class... "It has very little to do with how smart you are, and really everything to do with how much you want to do well and what you are willing to sacrifice for that goal." Jen is smart, no doubt, but it is her will that really pushes her over the top and leads to the success she finds. The picture to the right is her finishing at a respectable 1:16:35. Jenny has shown me in a deep and really life altering way that the decision to do a thing the right way is a powerful thing, but the real place where the change is made is in the grinding determination to see a thing through. She should be very proud, I know that I am.

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Just a bit more...

Today was my last vacation day. I have the weekend of course, but I always have those. The kids don't go in until Tuesday, but I go in for meetings and such on Monday. I asked them what they wanted to do with me today, the last bit of the summer, and they said...... Wooberry. I think the fact that they get to choose all of their own toppings or something, I don't know.... they love the place! Nora got Strawberry yogurt with M&M's and Gummy bears. I got original yogurt with salted peanuts and Orange Boba, and Henry, true to form, got crazy flavors: Peanut butter yogurt, Passionfruit Boba, and Pieces of Lychee Fruit. ha ha. He loves eating things like that. He's amazing. He would take a good salad over chicken fingers any day of the week. I love him.

Jenny's triathlon is tomorrow. She's nervous. It will be fun to take pictures of her crossing the finish line. I will have to get Nora up to get to Comet Pond for 8:30 in the morning, which might be something equal to Jen's triathlon.

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lantana

I went to Bemis Farm Nursery in Spencer to pick up a couple of plants for my class. Bemis Nursery is a great place. I actually don't really go many other places for plants. Spencer itself seems to me to be an agrarian, pleasant little town. I know some people feel otherwise (especially those couple friends I have who live there) but I love the place. Its hilly and farmy, St. Joseph's abbey is in there... they have a Dairy Queen... I mean come on. That's a lot going for a place.

While I was at Yankee Candle in Deerfield with the Nymans this summer I asked Amy about this pretty little plant that had varying yellow and red flowers, and she told me it was Lantana. They had a small one there for under 10 bucks so I went ahead and bought it. The next morning this little guy showed up. Love that.

I am working my way through a few of Thoreau's works right now. I can't believe how much I am relating to his philosophies. Honestly, I think I am verging on being a Transcendentalist. I wish I had read through more of his works while I was younger. It may have changed things for me a bit.

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About to go

Have you ever been in a fight? Or, how about had major surgery? There is this time that exists before something like that happens that drives you crazy. Even if what you are waiting for is essentially awful, the time before it hits can be worse. Its like that with school right now. Not that that is awful, its just .... coming. And I am waiting. I have my ducks mostly in a row, a couple are still waddling off here and there, but they are quick to fix. I made a new site for my class... in fact, here is a link. I am very happy with it this year. I made it from scratch, which I always do, but I tried for more of an apple mentality then a pc this year. Simple, clean, meaningful. 

Maybe that should be my mantra this school year. Simple. Clean. Meaningful. I have been in my class a few times now. The plants are back in place, with a few new additions. The tables are in groups, the books are alphabetized. I restocked the paper. My computer is in shambles though. In fact, its on the hallway floor outside of my classroom. They gave me a new one. (this could be bad) I have a lot of things that I have collected through the years on that old one. Things like online timers and templates for all sorts of things. It will be ok... say it with me.... it will be ok. 

Henry came with me on my walk this morning. He keeps talking about how things would sound if they could talk. Bugs this time. I planted that seed in his head a couple of months ago. He was nervous about something or other and I could see him pacing and rehearsing in his head. So I asked him what the trees would sound like if they could talk. We went on about it forever, mimicking the big fat oak and the spindly birch trees. Things like that stay with Henry, and with me as well I guess, they are like safety blankets. A nice place to put your mind when it wants to run away from you. Maybe Henry is nervous about school this year as well. In fact, I am sure he is. He does the same trick that I do when I am nervous about something: bury your head in the sand and never acknowledge that it exists. He hasn't wanted to get school supplies. Its coming big boy... you can't stop it. You can only embrace the thing and bend with it as it goes. As we were walking today I heard the muffled whoosh of a helicopter above us. It was cool one though... one that sounded like it was being silenced in some way (like those black ones that come at night ;) ) I zoomed way in on it and found that it was a state police copter. Cool! If you can zoom the picture in you can see its printed on the side. At any rate... what were we talking about? School or some such nonsense. I guess that its starting soon or something...

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