For all to see and hold me accountable for ( Read more... )

     When I was a child, I took pride in being “from here”, the girl who had never moved houses or towns, the child immune to the Great Suburban Diaspora that seemed to blow the characters in my books about like paper dolls (funny how we take pride in things that really have nothing to do with us at all).  As I grew into the internal storm of ( Read more... )

You are faced with an opportunity that you are probably unqualified for.

Do you:

A.) Apply anyway, because you are awesome, because you believe in yourself, because Obama would do it (maybe)?

Or

B.) Focus on other, more attainable goals in your limited time?

C.) Become mired in an internal debate about limits in general, wondering if all limits are only ( Read more... )

This is one of my favorite poems.  Listening to music, seeing the beauty of the world concentrated in the prism of another person's words-- these are the things that comfort me.  And everyone needs to be comforted every now and then ( Read more... )

Lately, I've felt so deeply entrenched in my school (which right now is synonymous with the words job and life) that I literally cannot think of anything else.  I am utterly consumed, soaked through, in over my head-- choose your favorite metaphor.  Riding back to Georgia on Amtrak this week, I should have been as deep as ever ( Read more... )

I am going fucking crazy.  To prove it, I’m posting a poem.  My personal code states that my poetry is private unless I: a) wrote it when I was 17 and am no longer accountable for the melodramatic tone, or b) am going fucking nuts. Thus:

I see their minds burn away to ash

Day by day behind the desks

What in the hell am I teaching them?

“Shut ( Read more... )

       Last year, in my first year of teaching, the National Geographic Channel decided that our school was sufficiently dramatic to warrant filming a documentary there.  This documentary will air on Sunday, October 26, and will largely feature my best friend Julie Murphy and her students.  I think I'm in it too.  Here is the teaser from the ( Read more... )

Since school began on August 18, three students at my school have been shot in the block surrounding our school.  While none of the shots have been fatal to my students, an 18-year old girl from a nearby magnet school died as a result of the most recent shooting on Sunday. The children who were shot in these incidents are not angels- but they are ( Read more... )

In an effort to convince my students that I'm crazy (and that they should thus fear me), I've recently told them ( Read more... )

There isn't enough dancing in my life at this very moment.  List one song you would play for a virtual LJ dance party.  Then shake your ass a little bit (space permitting).

I'm going to start us off with tracks 3-6 from Girl Talk's new album, Night Ripper.
http://www.myspace.com/girltalkmusic