A Patchwork Life

Like many teachers, I am not taking the summer off from working!  I just got back from a school trip which was wonderful, but was certainly work, and I have a fair amount of work for the next school year to tackle this summer.  I have several books to read that I’ll be teaching for the first time this fall/year, some I’ve never read and one that I haven’t read in years, and I need to go back through my teaching materials.  I think most teachers do this periodically, and the summer is a good time: revising lesson plans that almost worked but didn’t, polishing lesson plans that did shine already, rejecting ones that fell flat, and doing the same with major assignments.

I also have writing plans, including a one-day workshop on submitting to literary journals, another poetry workshop at the art museum (this one involving the permanent collection and a chance to have our poems included in the museum’s audio tour), and joining a new organization of women writers mentoring girl writers here in Baltimore.  It’s pretty exciting, and dovetails nicely with one of my stated writing goals for this year, which was to find a way to be part of a literary community here in my city and also to take steps to further myself as a poet.