Let’s rewind to December for a moment.  The last week in school before our Christmas vacation, my principal at the middle school (remember – I was moved from elementary school to a nearby middle school after the elementary Spanish program was cut) came to me with information about a possible change I could be involved in if I wanted to.  Throughout the fall, I was essentially the school’s global teacher.  I’d applied for this at the end of the 2010-2011 school year and was asked to be a part of a group of teachers helping come up with resources, information and doing staff development to help widen the global perspective in classrooms and school subjects.  I had an office off of the media center.  No, I wasn’t teaching Spanish, but it was ok.  There wasn’t necessarily a classroom for me to have taught in anyway.

I REALLY enjoyed the ability to do research, create helpful documents, lesson ideas and work with other teachers to come up with projects, resources, etc.  I’ve done a few staff development sessions with other global teachers and led a couple tech sessions as well.  It’s been interesting to try and figure my way through something that isn’t as concrete as an everyday, in the classroom teaching position.

Back to what was going on at school in December.  A fellow related arts teacher was going to be going to a high school position at the end of the first semester to teach a drafting class.  The current multimedia teacher was going to take over his classes and if I wanted to, I could take the multimedia classes for the rest of this year knowing that if things worked out, I could have THAT class become a global studies class for the 2012-2013 school year.  My principal has been very nice and supportive.  I truly appreciate her as she has worked to find a way to “keep me” at the school because ALL of the elementary Spanish teachers were initially told that if we are put in a middle school position, it would only last 1 year.

I immediately started doing some research, looking at different school global studies/multimedia websites, etc.  I thought through it over break.  We returned the 2nd of January and suddenly things were on the fast track.  I really wasn’t going to hesitate in taking on this new and different role.  The multimedia class is project based which is exactly what I would be doing if I were going to create a global studies class.  It seemed to me an easy transition to make.  I obviously would continue with things as they have been THIS current year for the sake of the students and then in the coming year it would really just be adding more of the global aspect.

This past week I took over the multimedia classes.  The 7th and 8th grade classes are year long which they hadn’t been in the past so I am getting the ability to think about and trying a couple of things that I might include in a global studies class while maintaining some multimedia content.  For example, I’m going to be doing a project where students will create a 12 slide powerpoint about what they believe will be the 10 most important issues/events of 2012 (2012 Olympics, elections, things of this sort – last year someone could have put in the tablet phenomenon!).  They will use news and information websites, include pictures, a summary of the information/event, why THEY think it will be an important event/issue in 2012, and works cited.  Obviously the multimedia part of this is the use of the computer, internet, powerpoint, etc.  But I’m also having them evaluate websites for credibility which is important for them to learn how to do in an information rich world.

This will all be quite the journey to get used to…  I’m looking forward to it though.

I need to do some updates about Christmas, my vision board and the epic event that has been, is and will be Code Orange Revival.  It’s been amazing…  More to come.

Why?  Because it’s my college roommate’s new wordpress blog and she’s awesome!  Also, it’s so hard to break a habit.  We’ve always referred to one another as each others’ roommate whether that’s still the case or not.  And it’s not at this point.  Hasn’t been for the last five and a half years.  In fact, she’s got a whole other roommate named Kristoffer now (that would be her husband…).  Old habits die hard.

You will want to read her blog.  The tales she spins are epic in proportion and her take on life is exuberant and full of imagination.  This is the person I made up mad libs with and watched Princess Bride 309457272 times with.  This is also the person whose wedding I got lost on the way to (and on the way to the reception…with the best man) and dressed up like a pirate with (we ARE pirates, by the way).  She is the person I wrote a Negated Declaration and Constitution of Sea Men with (I told you – we’re pirates.  BTW, this document DOES still exist.).  This is the person who I saw Copeland with for the first time and the person I called the second time I saw them and they sang “Coffee”.  This is the person who I conspired with to create an alternate identity whilst in an AIM conversation with a friend of hers thus totally confusing said person.  This is the person who I named inanimate objects with (Petey the hot pot among other things).  She is also the one whose birthday I would plan “secretly” every year.  She is the person I made up a story with very late at night trying to keep a friend with a concussion awake (the story somehow involved the pirate Hot Pink Barbie and The Great Shoe).  This is the person I wrote strange magnetic poetry with on our fridge (and required everyone else to do if they entered our room).  Jackie is the person I instituted the Tuesday night line up with.  She’s the person I worked with in the pharmacy at Eckerd for a year (woo hoo pharm techs!).  She’s the one who told me about the most vivid dreams ever (fire and bongos?).  Soooo many memories.  Sooo many fun times.

Trust me.  Check her blog out here.  You won’t be disappointed.

I can’t say enough about what a blessing is to be at Elevation with such great friends, families and leaders around me.  Six years ago if you’d asked me if I thought I’d be seeing or even experiencing what I have at Elevation…  I just don’t know what I would have said or even thought.  Each week I wonder why anyone would ever show up late to church.  Granted, I know life happens.  Put put your priorities in order, get to church on time and your heart and mind will be more prepared to worship and hear from him.  I can’t imagine missing a moment.  Our worship leaders and our pastor have sent an atmosphere of celebration, excitement, urgency and honor in our worship experiences.  What I (we as a church) have been able to be a part of each Sunday for the last 5 (almost 6) years is astounding.  I love their heart, their talent, their commitment to our city and our church…  This is not about them or where they’re headed.  This is about God’s call on their lives in serving the local church.  Their humility and commitment to creating songs that resonate with our church…the local church is so refreshing.   The individual quirks, talents and gifts they each have that God has brought together have created something special.

Get the cd when it comes out – MIDNIGHT tonight on iTunes and in stores tomorrow.  ALL proceeds tomorrow go toward a partnership with Compassion International that will help those in one of the poorest slums in Kampala, Uganda.

Chris, Wade, Mack, London, Brad, Jane – your church is proud of you and grateful for each of you.  Thank you for everything that each of you do.

Check out these videos – a story behind one of the songs (For the Honor), For the Honor and We Rejoice.  I love their honesty, passion and heart in worship.

Check them out.

One Day

Flip the Funnel

It’s just all so absurd on both ends of the spectrum.  For me, I’m a fan of some ideas the Democrats have and a fan of some of those of the Republicans.  I can’t in good conscience vote a straight ticket.  I  just can’t.  For example, I’m completely fed up with some of the bills that the NC legislature and NC Republicans are trying to put through.  It blows my mind how narrow-minded some of their thinking is.  On the other hand, I don’t get Occupy Wall Street.  Why not call yourselves Whiners Anonymous?  Let’s Occupy Reality instead.  I’m sorry you’re not making the money you think you should be, but YOU chose your path, your job and your profession.   No one else did.  So why is it that someone else  has to make up for your choices?  I took a job as a teacher because I love kids, getting the chance to invest in them and see them grow.  I did not choose it for the pay (and those who are out there saying teachers are overpaid if you count in benefits, vacation, etc. are ridiculous).  I knew I wasn’t going to make a salary anywhere near $50,000.  I currently make about $32,000.  Our pay has been frozen for the last 4 years.  I’m still here.  I’m still teaching and I don’t plan on leaving because I enjoy what I do.  Those out there on Wall Street who I’ve heard on the news and other videos – what is this all about comparing yourself?  Did you choose something you enjoy doing?  Did you work hard for it?  Why are you upset now?  Did you not research salaries in your field?  Isn’t the American Dream based on living in the land of opportunity?  If so, why punish someone who chose a specific career, worked hard to get where they are, chose it because they enjoy it and you just want to take that away from them?  Diminish it somehow?  I had the opportunity to go into other professions, chose another path.  But I didn’t.  And I don’t blame anyone else for me not making as much.  I knew the risks going in.  Educate yourselves!  That’s important when deciding what career you’d like.  YOU make the choice.  Don’t put it on someone else just to make it “fair”.  Life isn’t fair.  It’s about the choices we make.  Why do I have to be responsible for making sure someone else gets a better salary?  I worked hard for my job.  I earned that money.  I pay my taxes.  And I’m sorry – the government isn’t always nor is it supposed to always be there to fix your boo boos.  Also, sure some who make large amounts of money may not have worked as hard as others to get to their post and make what they do.  That’s bound to happen.  However the opposite occurs too.  Some (not all – to be clear) in housing projects purposefully don’t go out and get a job so they can maintain their living situation and continue to receive federal funding.  We don’t need to continue to enable people in situations like that.  Saying it’s not fair someone makes more money than you and occupying Wall Street because of it will lead to further enabling.  Diminished work ethic and efficiency.  Why are we Occupying Wall Street again?  Also, Occupy folks and Democrats are saying banks and other big corporations are paid too much, make too much.  Yet at the same time you say we can’t let them fail because they made poor/illegal choices.  What?  Republicans are almost saying the same thing – they are too big because government has stepped in and made the larger.  I’m confused on this logic.

As for healthcare, do people truly NOT think quality of care will go down?  The floodgates will open.  Doctors will stop accepting new patients.  Doctors will leave the profession.  Malpractice suits will rise because they are overworked.  A shortage in providers and medical care givers will come into play.  I do, however, believe something seriously needs to be done to make healthcare more affordable – not REQUIRED for all, but costs need to be fixed.  Caps on insurance companies.

I’m just so frustrated by politics right now.   It’s ridiculous how much finger-pointing and name calling (“Liar, liar pants on fire” must be politicians’ favorite comeback) is going on.  I know I just did a bit toward both, but I’m fed up with both sides.

Where is the sane third-party candidate?  It’s funny.  Congress and the President are elected to speak for and serve the people but all it seems they do is gossip about each other.

I’m done…

1. I am thankful to still have a job when things didn’t look so promising this time last year.
2. I applied for the first Union County Public Schools global teacher cohort and got in.
3. I fought for my job and a school program I believed in for elementary schools in a respectful manner and even though it didn’t pan out, I do understand and I’m grateful to have the position I’ve been given.
4. I stepped out of something nice, fun, familiar and comfortable into something completely new, unknown and I had no idea what to expect in my new school and new position.  Grateful to have it.
5. I coached an Odyssey of the Mind team for the 4th year in a row and we got 1st in regionals and 3rd in the state.
6. I was blessed with the opportunity to travel with another Unionville OM team to World Finals in Maryland.  A great time to get to know families and kids.
7. I kept my foot in the door with OM this school year – coaching again with a fun, hilarious friend and kids I know at the middle school AND elementary school.
8. I visited and survived driving through Atlanta, Georgia.
9. I got to see Keith Urban in Charlotte with my cousin.
10. In December of last year I went to see White Christmas on stage with a great friend and her daughters.
11. I saw over 2000 people baptized over 2 weekends at Elevation.
12. I spent a good bit of time doing a “summer cleanse” to get rid of a lot of unnecessary/unused items.
13. I got a Keurig for Christmas last year and have since spent a lot less rationalizing with myself that it’s ok go get Starbucks in the morning on the way to school (bad when you have 3 within a mile from you).
14. I got to hang out with my college roommate for a day or two in Charlotte and meet her sister-in-law and family who live here and go to Elevation.
15. I met Maria Crandall and her husband and saw them launch into the realm of amazing in eKidz.
16. I have the opportunity to be both a nerd (doing research, organizing and planning on global issues, topics, etc.) and teach at the same time this year and am not taking it for granted.
17. I got to visit my alma mater twice – once for my sister’s senior recital and then for her graduation from Eastern.
18. I got to use and have a Promethean board in my classroom and learn some other new pieces of technology (therefore discovering I’m even more of a geek than even I originally thought).
19. My family moved back to the South!
20. I get to see former students and reconnect with them and continue relationships with those who moved up to middle school just this year along with me.
21. I’ve continued to pay more per month on my student loans than what is due.
22. I instituted and survived a self-imposed “No Spend Month” in March.
23. Attended Ladies’ Night with Christine Caine in January – an incredible time not soon to be forgotten.
24. I gave up a crazy, unexpected situation to God and had more peace about it than I ever expected even though it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever gone through (saying goodbye to people and a place I loved at Unionville).
25. I created a pretty cool video using iPhoto and GarageBand to commemorate time with my cousin.
26. I was able to walk around Washington DC during the day time (as opposed to night time in college on a spur of the moment trip) with a great family and see THE RUBY SLIPPERS from the Wizard of Oz.
27. I am thankful for my friends and everyone I get to serve with and learn from at Elevation.

And 28…  I’m thankful I have most of my family, my friends and my church nearby and in my life on a daily basis.  A true blessing.

Anyway – more of that to come.  On to the list!  There’s not really a lot that I need or really want.  Pretty blessed.  It’s more a “would be nice but not necessary” list.    I’ll add other things if I think of them.

2011 Holi-Birthday Wish List

• Kindle Fire – not out until November sooooo I think we know this would be Christmas.   But I reeeeeally like it.
• Red Letters: Living a Faith that Bleeds by  Tom Davis
• $$ to pay off some college loans
• The Big Bang Theory season 1, 2 or 3 on dvd
• TICKETS TO A PATRIOTS GAME.  Not likely as it will need to include plane tickets at this point, but still…this = lifelong dream.  Worth a try.
• iTunes gift card
• Starbucks gift card
• Barnes and Noble gift card
• trip to Disney/cruise with the family (again, have to reach somewhere, right?)
• Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
• Guitar Hero for Wii
• any Brian Regan dvd
• Just Dance 2 for Wii
• Dance on Broadway for Wii
• Hamlet w/ Patrick Stewart on dvd
• anything Duke/Patriots
• shoes/clothing for school (ie. Kohls, Old Navy, H&M, etc.)
• The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook (hey…the blog has good recipes!)
• Going Solo in the Kitchen by Jane Doerfer
• Norah Jones Come Away with Me cd (I lost mine!)

Everyone who was at least of school age on 9/11 ten years ago remembers something of that day.  Many people remember a whole lot more. Where were you?

That day set the tone for my senior year of high school.  I’ll forever associate that year (which was a great school year) with that event.  It’s inseparable.  Everyone that I graduated from high school with in June of 2002 (and all those across the country who did the same) will always remember that being the event that defined our senior year.  I’ll tell you right now - this is long.  But it’s real and it’s processing for me.

Now, I’m a very sentimental person.  Like…really.  It’s not a bad thing and to me it is important to remember events, people, situations that mean a lot to me.  Even the small things.  Part of that probably stems from my photographic memory to remember moments in time and look back on them even when they seemed to be the most mundane of events.

The day everything happened was a Tuesday.  We were living in Connecticut.  I remember being in theatre class with Mr. Harrington.  We were discussing the musical we were going to do that fall – Grease.  I was going to stage manage.  My friend Stacy came in and said something about a plane hitting a building in New York.  We all kind of looked at each other with disbelief, like we weren’t quite sure what to make of that statement.  Surely it was an accident.  A very unusual accident but an accident nonetheless.  We carried on.  There wasn’t a tv in this classroom.

Cut to our next classes.  TVs on in all rooms.  I remember watching the tv in sociology class.  During study hall.  TVs on in the cafeteria even.  At some point our principal came on over the PA to share plans for the rest of the day, calm everyone and to ask that students who had parents in DC or NY (on business or otherwise) to come to the office to make phone calls so they could check on their parents.  Surreal.  I remember the last period of the day I had AP English with one of the best teachers I’ve ever had.  Everyone had been glued to the tv all day and she knew – you can only take so much.  We needed a break from it.  We needed time to process.  She turned the lights off and closed the door and told us to just sit, breathe, and process in whatever way we needed to.  It was so quiet.  Not relaxing but time slowed and we could think on our own.  We needed that.  I’m grateful she had the foresight to do this for us.

What was I feeling?  I grew up in places this did not happen.  In the country.  Those visuals, those pictures, that video – that happened in movies.  It was hard to comprehend this.  In America?  I was scared.  I got home and had the tv on.  I’d have it on in the mornings as I got ready for school.  I think about it now and I only made myself feel ten times worse being glued to the news.

Last night I pulled out my journal that I was writing at the time of the attacks.  On September 7, 2001 I was writing about my schedule for senior year.  That I hated the fact that I wasn’t able to take journalism like I had the year before.  I wrote about helping with Grease and wanting to do yearbook.  I wrote a lot about AP English and the initial tests we’d taken over the readings we had to do during the summer and how HARD they were.  I apparently had gotten my hair cut the day before on September 6 and my paycheck for working at the Brooklyn Fair.  I was thinking about people at church who were due to have their babies soon and the colleges I was looking at applying to.

My entry on September 11, 2001.  Some of it sounds like I’m regurgitating what was said on the news verbatim.  This is how real I got at as a 17 year old on the day things happened and the world was still trying to understand everything that was going on. “I’m scared it will continue.  That I’ll die.  It causes me to think of my relationship with Christ.  And my friends who aren’t saved.  I was just talking about religion with someone this morning.”

Then on September 12, 2001 I wrote that I was “ticked off” about people in other countries celebrating the deaths here in America.  I wrote about how my mom had a cousin who was an FBI agent that worked at the Pentagon and she didn’t know if he was ok (correct me if I’m wrong about any of this, mom).  I also wrote one more time “Quite honestly I’m afraid it will happen again.”  What struck me most about reading that entry is the last thing I wrote regarding something that happened on September 10, 2001: “It’s weird.  Monday at the yearbook meeting we chose a theme. ‘On common ground, we stand together.’  How weird that we picked it before this – only God.”

On September 14, 2001 I wrote about something that still gives me chills as I remember it.  “That Friday we had a school-wide moment of silence as Chris West sang the National Anthem.  Then all of a sudden Tessa immediately stood up and began to say the Pledge of Allegiance”.  We all stood.  An amazing moment.  Dare I say, God was present.”  I remember crying that day.  That was another day of quiet processing in AP English.

The next couple entries I started writing a lot about prayer.  My prayer life picked up a WHOLE lot at this time.  I was praying at the oddest times and in the strangest of places.  I wrote about praying for those who had attacked us and for us here in America.  I wrote something kind of controversial too.  “I strongly believe now that God let this happen so that we would see all of the evil in the world and realize we need to come back to him.  We don’t just need religion in our lives, we need a personal relationship with Him.  God is a big, mighty God and he can do anything, so I pray He’d start a revival all across the world…  I know God can change a heart in the blink of an eye.”  I don’t know how I feel about that one particular statement I wrote about believing God let it happen.  Maybe I still think that.  I don’t think God wanted it to happen or He orchestrated it.  But I do think it became a wake up call for many.  I just hope we don’t forget that.

In October 2011 I wrote a post declaring that I “HAD TO” cut out a couple of the best comics and articles in light of the Sept. 11 attacks.  Yup.  I did.  Cut them out and taped them in my journal.  I told you – sentimental about things that are important to me.  Remembering this was important to me.  It was a gigantic moment in my life.  I took up about 25 pages of my journal (front and back of a page) with things I cut out.

In entries after that during my senior year I wrote about the day we started bombing in Afghanistan, a poem I wrote for a creative project in AP English about September 11, a Bible club that was started at the school by my friend Morning Star, a girl who came to the club one time and called me a couple weeks later extremely excited because she’d asked Christ into her heart, classes, the Winter Olympics (which I LOVE) that I was able to watch both weeks of because I was so sick with the flu (not a coincidence, promise), going to visit colleges, our 10 year reunion paper (wow), going on field trips based on vanilla coke, finally being inducted into NHS (let’s just not go there…), reminiscing about camp days on the phone with friends, and the very last day of school of a year that started out with an event like 9/11.

It’s appropriate my last class period of high school was AP English.  We were a tight group.  We were looking through the yearbook together.  “I don’t like this you guys,” one of my friends said.  Dr. Taylor (AP English and yearbook advisor) was like, “You don’t like the yearbook?”  Stacy’s response: “No, I don’t like the fact that this is really ending.”  Yes, there were tears involved.  I told Dr. Taylor how much her class meant to me.  She gave us back the letters we wrote to ourselves the very first day of senior year in August 2011.  We graduated…and with a crazy graduation gift, off I went to Spain for 10 days with my grandmother.

9/11 really had a profound impact on my senior year.  Our AP English class went through that and the processing of it TOGETHER.  I think that’s why realizing it’s been 10 years is crazy.  I feel like I was just in a classroom with some of them just yesterday and seeing all of the coverage on tv this year especially – it hits hard.  Ten years is a decade.  It’s a milestone.  It deserves celebration of lives lived, lives saved and lives remembered.  I am incredibly grateful to see all of the memorials taking place for those who were lost and to honor those who risked their lives and continue to serve and protect on that day.  It will be something the graduating classes of 2002 will always have in common and will always feel.

Tomorrow I might post the poem I wrote for AP called “The Day of September 11″ and some of the clippings that ended up in my journal.  Yeah, that’s kind of super personal, but it’s really cathartic.

9/11 – We will never forget.

This 9/11 tribute in New York City can be found in Bryant Park. 2,819 empty chairs are set up on the lawn facing the site where the World Trade Center once stood, one chair for every life lost. The number of empty chairs captures the enormity of the lives lost and the stark emptiness of it just drives home the point that I hope is never forgotten. 2,819 people were here one moment and gone the next. 2,819 went to work or boarded a plane one morning ten years ago thinking it would be another ordinary day and they never came home.