Random Bullets of Updates
27 May 2009 Leave a Comment
in all about me, media mentions
I don’t remember where I first saw that phrase– Phantom Scribbler, probably? But it’s a great way to cram a bunch of tidbits into one post, so here goes:
* The girls’ birthday party was a smash hit, which you know if you saw the 50-plus pictures I uploaded on Facebook this weekend! They made cat mummies and sarcophagi, toured the museum, ate grapes, strawberries, Funfetti cupcakes and brownies, and generally had a blast.
* My girls are now officially bikers! They got their first bikes and have already really enjoyed wheeling around– it’s made me a bit nervous though, because urban biking is very different from the rural/suburban biking I did as a kid.
* Saturday, my sister and I tagged along with a middle-school field trip my sister chaperones every year and we got to see the current revival of West Side Story. My mother had seen the original production on Broadway in 1961, but I’d only seen the movie, and this production was fantastic.
* We took a very smooth bus ride to NYC, so I got to finish a book I’d been reading, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
* I’m excited about Sotomayor’s nomination– as a replacement for Souter, I think she’s a good choice, and I’d be more surprised if Obama had picked the uber-liberal some people seemed to have wished he’d chosen. He’s not an uber-liberal himself, so I didn’t expect him to nominate one, and she seems eminently qualified and certainly intriguing.
* I’ve been tinkering with the blog some, which you may have noticed if you read the site itself, but for those of you who use a feed-reader, I’ll be posting about it soon. I’ll also be posting some newish career news soon, which may turn into a string of related posts. I know that kind of sucked as a cliffhanger, but that’s all I got 
.
* I’m really liking this new PJ Harvey collaboration, which is funny because PJ hasn’t been on my radar since high school probably, since I really liked this song and that whole album. My time with PJ began, of course, with 50 ft Queenie, so it’s been nice to see her evolve and stay fascinating.
* On a lighter note, I’ve also really been liking this song and re-obsessing over Band of Horses in preparation for seeing BoH live in a week or so!
Rambling Rose
26 May 2009 Leave a Comment
in all about me, photos
We had a lovely holiday weekend, and I hope you did too!
My “Little” Brother No More
21 May 2009 6 Comments
in all about me
Today my younger brother graduates from college. There is a nine-year age gap between us, so he has always seemed almost impossibly young to me, but now, he is moving into adulthood, not my “little” brother anymore. He’ll be getting jobs, making a home for himself, and generally growing up.
It’s funny to think now that all of my parents’ children are adults. None of us will live at home anymore, and now my parents will be moving into the next stage of their lives, a stage that seems incredibly far away for me, the “empty nest” or “golden” years of retirement and grandparents.
I’m very proud of my brother– school was never his favorite way to spend his time, but I think he surprised himself at college and found new strengths and skills he wouldn’t have suspected he had. I think fully assuming a newfound independence might be a bit tricky, especially financially, especially in this economy, but I think he will dig deep and find the persistence he will need.
All in all, I’m proud of him, and I think we children have made a good showing for all of our parents. All of our parents were the first in their families to go to college, and now they have safely seen us through earning our first degrees. I don’t know if this is the end of schooling for my brother, but either way, he has a solid achievement. Now it’s up to us to finish the job of adulthood.
Lucky Number: Seven
17 May 2009 10 Comments
in all about me
This Friday, my girls turn seven.
Since they turned four, I’ve been saying that each age is my favorite age, and this age is no different. I’ve always wanted to write funny, clever and heartfelt essays about my darling girls, but I seem to have trouble writing about my girls in any interesting way– something about watching them develop as personalities, like photographs in a darkroom, leaves me completely inarticulate. Today I thought I’d try some quick snapshots though, just so I won’t feel too neglectful. Expect more details about the birthday festivities as the week unfurls.
At seven, Lucy is meticulous and conscientious, loves art and music, is still the pickiest eater I’ve ever known. She tolerates no ambiguities, is truly a tough cookie, but has a wonderfully endearing way of rubbing her head against you like a cat who wants a cuddle but won’t beg for it. Her precision and sense of color in her artwork is distinctive– I always know which painting is hers in a room full of children’s work. If she loves you, you know it– when you enter a room, her sense will alert her, and she will barrel towards you, launching into an embrace that has literally knocked me off my feet.
At seven, Sophie is dramatic, hilarious, brash but tender-hearted. She plunges forward bravely, then falls back with welling tears, then plunges forward again. Her quicksilver curiosity keeps me guessing, and her powers of perception often stop me in my tracks. She has the same aptitude for delicious silliness that her father has, and watching the two of them bounce off each other is a delight. She has an incredible ear for music but is most often dancing to her own tune.
What surprises me the most is how much of this was evident in their babyhood, but still manages to jump out at me from time to time like light from a hidden mirror. What frightens me the most is that the more they grow and unstretch their hidden selves, the weaker my powers of protection become, and the more I have to trust that I’m doing a good job at this mothering thing after all.
Interred With Their Bones
14 May 2009 2 Comments
My father-in-law always has a book or two for me when I visit their house, like we did for Mother’s Day– he likes historical biographies, historical fiction, and historical thrillers (noticing a trend?). This is but one of the many ways in which I lucked out in the in-law lottery, and I hope you all had a lovely Mother’s Day yourself. The last few books have featured Adam Smith and the Transcendentalists– not at the same time, though wouldn’t that be quite a thriller?
Anyway, this weekend’s pick was Interred with Their Bones
Carrell is a respected and credentialed scholar far beyond many first-time authors– she thanks Marjorie Garber in her acknowledgments, who is a legendary modern scholar of Shakespeare, and Carrell’s erudition on the subject is evident on almost every page of Bones. Her writing is not as dense as you might expect from a scholar of her caliber, which is another point in her favor, but I’m not sure she does as well as Brown does with teaching the reader about the subject in the midst of all the thrills and chills. I think you could fairly argue that she has a much harder job though– I’m an English teacher, and I still have to prepare myself to enter Shakespearean thickets, even though I know by now there are treasures within. I learned a fair amount of Shakespeare myself as the novel tackles the eternal question of who really wrote Shakespeare’s plays as the protagonists attempt to find a legendary lost manuscript.
If that description intrigues you, you’d probably enjoy the book– I think it would be a better plane book than a beach book, if that makes sense, and could be an excellent sunporch read or hammock book. If you’re a Shakespeare buff, I bet you’ll enjoy it– I definitely did.
Macbeth Set Free
11 May 2009 2 Comments
in book reviews, teaching
This year marks the second year I have taught Macbeth, also known as “the Scottish play” if you are theatrical and/or superstitious. I really enjoyed teaching it last year, but knew that I was not doing the most comprehensive job I could have, and since it is a core text for our curriculum, I really wanted to do the job better next year.
So far, I think the unit is going well, though already I think it will go even better next year, when we’ve allotted for more time for it, but the major factor in the improvement has definitely been Shakespeare Set Free: Teaching A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth
Even if you only teach one of the texts in this volume, I highly recommend it. The lesson plans included are well-considered, interesting, comprehensive plans that address the play from many different angles, focusing on a scene or two at a time to really highlight a character or climactic plot point. Some of the lessons are built around comparing filmed versions and include great suggestions for the students should be watching for, and others describe some amazing performance-based activities, all of which my students have really enjoyed. The students look at the play as audience members, actors, director, and scholars, and employ critical reading and response in a variety of different ways in each lesson. Also included are handouts and exam questions, ready for photocopying. My students has “tossed lines,” directed staged readings, compared film versions, written critiques and journal entries, and edited selected scenes to determine essential lines and images. Next year, I’m hoping to incorporate even more of the lessons from this text in my unit.
Probably the best recommendation for the book is that not only am I going to continue to use it for the Macbeth unit, but that I am going to order Shakespeare Set Free: Teaching Hamlet and Henry IV Part I 
For the Mothers
08 May 2009 Leave a Comment
in poetry
[Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome]
by Christina Rossetti
Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome
Has many sonnets: so here now shall be
One sonnet more, a love sonnet, from me
To her whose heart is my heart’s quiet home,
To my first Love, my Mother, on whose knee
I learnt love-lore that is not troublesome;
Whose service is my special dignity,
And she my loadstar while I go and come
And so because you love me, and because
I love you, Mother, I have woven a wreath
Of rhymes wherewith to crown your honored name:
In you not fourscore years can dim the flame
Of love, whose blessed glow transcends the laws
Of time and change and mortal life and death.
Hope you enjoy the weekend! I’ll be spending it with my mother and mother-in-law and thinking fondly of all the amazing mothers I know.
College, Life, and Life After College
06 May 2009 Leave a Comment
in all about me, conversations
My younger brother graduates from college in a few weeks, my sister-in-law graduates from law school shortly afterward, I’m working with a lot of about-to-be-grads in my college course right now, and next week, I begin teaching my juniors about writing the college essay. So I think it’s safe to say that college is on my mind these days.
I’ll probably end up posting more than once about all this, but my first tip for students is to read or hear some great commencement speeches. One of my personal favorites is Steve Jobs’ Stanford Speech in 2005, which must have been amazing to watch. I love how he talks about the impact of that one calligraphy class at Reed, and I love how he talks most about what he’s learned from his losses and “failures,” like dropping out of college or how after he got fired from Apple, the company he helped found, he met his wife and started Pixar.
In the same year (what are the odds?), David Foster Wallace gave another legendary commencement speech at Kenyon College. Two very different schools, speakers, and speeches for sure, but what I love about DFW’s is his elegant and funny way of talking about the importance of choice, consciousness, and awareness, about living a deliberate life and how difficult and essential that can be.
Last, some words from another great writer and cultural figure: Judy Blume! Here’s what she said on an online message board recently:
“Life after college? I wish I could tell you. Life evolves. It never turns out to be what you expected. It’s full of surprises. It’s good to have goals as long as there’s plenty of room to change your mind — and when things don’t go your way, to be strong enough to get through it.”
For me, that little blurb is ripe with absolute truth. Goals are great, but so is strength, and surprises, and the ability to surmount any challenge that comes your way.
So that’s the first step for me– it’s not about your major, or your job, or your student debt, though those are very real and tangible concerns. What you’re facing now is taking your own future into you hands, and figuring out what you want from it, and how you’ll manage the journey ahead. It’s exhilarating and terrifying at the same time, isn’t it?
Evaluation Notes, Part One
05 May 2009 3 Comments
in all about me, personal goals, teaching
Because I often feel like a poster child for Imposter Syndrome, I had worried that my evaluation process at Girls’ School would uncover some nasty mess of faults and flaws that I’d succeeded in keeping secret until my eval committee unmasked them. Why yes, that is the first question on the diagnostic quiz. It’s a treat to be in my brain sometimes.
Instead, what happened was a series of thoughtful comments, helpful suggestions, and repeated remarks on my strengths as a teacher and colleague, which was both useful and delightful. One of the surprises was that my committee remarked that one of my strengths is that I am very aware of my weaknesses, and in my awareness of them, am better able to work towards improving those areas. My mentor-teacher noted that I told him upfront that I had little previous experience in the formal teaching of grammar, for example, and that since then I have worked with another teacher on our ninth grade grammar curriculum and attended a workshop on grammar given by our schools’ association.
In my eyes, what I had been doing was trying to address my flaws so that my department wouldn’t be disappointed in their new hire, and so that my students wouldn’t be shortchanged. Of course, both of those ideas were at work in my subconscious already, instead of assuming that I would be good at my job and that everyone would recognize my abilities. But my committee helped me see that actually, my “imposters syndrome” mindset motivated me to recognize my shortcomings and take steps to remedy them, instead of ignoring them, overcompensating in other directions, or pretending that they were insignificant.
My evaluation process isn’t over yet, but so far, I’m trying to take it as a chance to reflect and improve– it would be nice to be able to go to these meetings and be calm and collected, but I’m not shooting for the stars just yet.
On Happiness (one post of many)
05 May 2009 Leave a Comment
in Blogroll Spotlight, all about me, conversations
“It is essential to happiness that our way of living should spring from our own deep impulses and not from the accidental tastes and desires of those who happen to be our neighbors, or even our relations.”
–Bertrand Russell
This is sometime a struggle for me, so an excellent reminder to have for myself, and maybe you too.
Hat tip, Gretchen
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