Showing my underbelly.

They say that 80% of what you teach is who you are. Tomorrow, I am sharing some of my poetry with my students. Over the weekend, I assigned them the task of writing a fifteen line poem based on something they've read thus far in Othello. They need to pick out a line from Act IV, Scene 2 that was particularly striking to them, write a poem based on it, and write a few sentences that explain why they chose that line...and tie their poem to the themes presented in the play.

I know some of my students are reluctant writers, particularly with anything creative. To make them more comfortable, I wrote my own poem. I'm pretty proud of this one, even though it took me ten minutes to write and still needs to be tweaked.

For those of you that know me, you know that showing anyone my personal writing is kind of a big deal. I want my students to know that they are part of a trusting environment...part of establishing that type of classroom requires me to trust them back. So I am taking the first step tomorrow...we'll see how this goes.

The Dance of Envy

"Let me see your eyes. Look in my face." (Line 30)
She raises her head,
The lights of innocence, purity, those bright lights of fidelity,
Jump across the blackness of her despairing pupils,
To bridge the gap,
Between what she knows,
And the crushing whiteness that is yet to come.

He looks but does not see,
She looks,
But does not find.

Shadows of doubt and jealousy,
Two-step across his mind,
Slamming his soul up against and straight through,
The opened cage of his unleashed emotions.
5, 6, 7, 8. Fall.

There is an inherent irony to Othello's request to see Desdemona's eyes, to look into the windows to her soul. I was immediately struck by Othello's cold reaction to his weeping, pleading wife. The mental assurance of a fake reality is enough to cloud acknowledgment and acceptance of the truth.

Alive...

...and thriving...somehow.

Teaching is going well. I love my students, even if they don't always love me back.

I love my winter guard kids, and hopefully, they love me back.

I am pretty happy with where I'm at right now. No drama. Just stress. But that can be managed fairly easily.

It almost makes me worry that something big is about to go down soon...because my life hasn't been this fluid for this long in TOO long.

I am bracing myself.

Friday Five: A Hodge-Podge

1. What activity can you not believe you survived in your childhood?

Definitely playing football in "Death Valley"--comprised of two big hills in my parents' neighborhood. Try running up a steep incline with four or five teenage boys coming after you. Yep, deadly.

1. What activity can you not believe kids get away with today?

Something I've noticed a lot in my classroom...the Wake and Bake. I'll leave it at that.

1. If you could be anyone else in the world live or dead, who would you choose to be?

This is a hard question. I like who I am, although it would be fun to be some sort of touring musician. Anyone who can play the guitar and sing at the same time. Michelle Branch. Yes. I'd like to be her.

1. A lot of people think they've been in love at 15 or 16 years old, do you think you now look back and think you were a stupid kid or do you believe that you were old enough to know what love is?

I wouldn't say I was a stupid kid. There were definitely strong feelings there...but I didn't really feel love until 18 or 19. I just don't think kids that young have the capacity to fully grasp the concept of it.

1. Do you think it is possible to remain in love with someone you once loved, but haven't seen in a year?

Yes. Real, actual love is really hard to get rid of, no matter how much you know you should move on from it.