Ode to Senioritis (and my seniors)

Of course your homework isn't done.
It's 89 days until graduation
and the sun is shining.
Your friends are distracting you.
It's not your fault.
There are geese to chase at the park.

Your dog ate your backpack.
No joke.
And you ran out of gas on the way to school.

You'll get to work
maybe after you finish your paper airplane.

You'll look at me through
the telescope you just made out of your writer's notebook.

I can take it. Really I can.
You are not the first group of seniors
I've lived through a second semester with.

Even though your friends will show up with coffee
at the classroom door,
I will still ask you to write.
Even though you'll play Flappy Bird
behind Kesey's pages,
I will still ask you to read.

You won't even care anymore
if you have the option to attend or not.
Won't even believe it
when I ask you to get up and move across the room
to put some thoughts on a sticky note on a poster.

Exhausted by the weight
of high school ending
and whatever's next looming
(not totally in focus yet)
and the impending good byes
and the last time you'll walk up the ramps,
or play foosball in the senior lounge,
or get to school early enough to get your favorite parking spot...

The affliction is real,
the only cure graduation.

And in the mean time
I will cherish every moment.
Because you will leave
and I will still be here
when you maybe come back to visit the Castle.

But

we

will never
be here
in this place
at this time

together

again.

Ronald Edition #1: Magic Camera

What can your magic camera see?

Will it show you Carl in space?
Or Liza's epic battle?
Emily's magic camera says your eyes were full of stars.
Take a photo of Sawyer's chickens
As they run beneath Annabel's swing.
Or capture a moment at a dance not usually photographed (Sarah's nose kiss.)
(and here's Sav's)


(and when you're done with that, tell me what poem below says about me and my cats)
(this poem too)


The Cats

They walk through my house on litter box feet--
on my pillow
on the kitchen counter
across the dining room table.

They leave their hair everywhere.
Sometimes even in my food.

They stand behind corners of walls and
swipe at legs and feet as they go by.

They hiss at the dog.
She only wants to play.

They nuzzle but then bite visitors' heads and
think package ribbons and knitting yarn
are their toys alone.

They yowl in the house at night
chasing pom poms and drowning them
in the water bowl.

They throw up.
They always throw up.
And yowl until you feed them again.

They poop in the house.
In a box.

And then sometimes,
I'll come into a room to find Phoebe
wiggling on the carpet with her tummy to the sky.
She purrs as she wiggles,
looking innocent and sweet
inviting me to rub her belly.

And I do.

But sometimes it's a trap.
Leaving my hand with little tiny scratches by menacing cat claws.

SLCC Blog Carnival #5: Your human themes for this semester

Our big question for this year is this: How do you read the world to write your future?

Hopefully your research this semester will help you start to figure that out.

How do you write a future full of happiness? What role might control play in such a life? But everything changes, right? How will you ever hold on to your youth? Maybe if you stick together you can do it, despite the difference you will encounter in our crazy world. And then there's money, and the greed that comes with it. Plagued by fear and uncertainty, we'll all wander around, sometimes aimlessly. So look for the love and let it be your guide. Find your passion, collect your experience, question your opinions, and let it all be an adventure, life.

Read your world (and all the texts you get your hands on this semester) with the lens of your theme guiding your thoughts. See what you can find that will enable you to write your own future.

Tristan: happiness
Dana: control
Fenno: control
Addie: change
John: change
Riley: youth
Matt: together
Ian: difference
Kyla: greed
Joey: greed
Colman: greed
Erik: money
Anna: fear
Ben: fear
Ryan: fear
Madelyn: fear
Daelin: uncertainty
Eddie: love
Cecily: passion
Jane: experience
Mike: opinion
Nick: adventure
Emma: equality
Owen: ???????
Mallory: unsatisfied

Oatmeal Obsessed?

You people have been laughing at my oatmeal habits.
And yes, the habits probably ARE laughable.
But this topic, obsession, has gotten me to think a bit about my daily breakfast routine and why it matters so much to me.

Oatmeal before the milk step.

Let me describe it to you first: into the oatmeal pan (yes, the same pan every day), I scoop one half cup of uncooked, old fashioned oats. Then one cup (plus a splash) of water. I put this on the stove on high. Then I get a small plate out of the cabinet and the container of raw almonds out of the fridge. I grab a handful of almonds and put them on the plate and count them--2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18!--it's a great day when I grab exactly 18. I do most of the time actually. I put the plate of almonds in the microwave for 2 minutes. Then I check the oatmeal. If not already, soon it is boiling, so I remove it from the heat and stir it with the spoon I'll use to eat my oatmeal. While still in the pan, I add cinnamon and a few raisins. After I scoop it into my oatmeal bowl (it's a handmade work of pottery with a beautiful blue glaze), I put some frozen blueberries on top and stir those in. I wash the oatmeal pan and set it aside to dry. I take the almonds out of the microwave when they finish and place the oatmeal bowl in for 30 seconds (to thaw the blueberries). In the meantime, I choose a pear from the fruit bowl and slice it up and put it into a plastic bowl (so I can take it in the car with me if I'm unable to finish it before it's time to leave for school). When the microwave dings, I retrieve my oatmeal bowl, toss the 18 toasted almonds on top, pour a bit of 1% organic cow milk on top of the oatmeal/blueberry/raisin mixture, mix it up with the spoon, and carry my breakfast to the dining table to sit down and eat.

You may call me obsessed when I tell you I do this entire process, exactly like this, every single day. You may call me obsessed when I tell you that one of the most difficult things about traveling for me not having this morning routine. (Thank you, Starbucks, for this.) (And I'm sorry, McDonald's, but I will never eat this.)(Because I don't eat at McDonald's.)
And maybe I am obsessed, but this is all important to me.

Mornings have always been extremely difficult in my world (though ever since I turned 40, mornings are becoming a little bit easier. Strange, eh?) I'm not sure why mornings are rough. It doesn't seem to matter how late I've slept in or how many hours of sleep I have gotten, that first hour or so is rough. Part of it is physical--I have some form of arthritis (arthritis as a whole is incredibly difficult to pinpoint and diagnose specifically, so I'm not sure exactly what to call it), and my body in the morning is slow and stiff and sore, some mornings more than others. That's a huge part of it. But well before I was dealing with that in my life, I struggled right out of bed. Speech is difficult (beyond single syllable utterings). I don't like people in my physical space. I can't handle extra noise, not even the radio on morning NPR news. Every morning is an epic battle with my alarm clock to pull myself out of bed.

But the oatmeal routine helps. It's less the meal itself than the process to create it. All of the motions create a ritual--my morning ritual to start my day. It's meditative. It's predictable. It's quiet. There are no surprises. I know exactly what to expect. And somehow, going through all the steps helps wake up my body and mind. After the routine, I'm more ready to face the day, whatever it brings.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

If you've gotten this far, you might as well check out my photos from spring break last year to see the photo I told you about--the one where my daughter demonstrates absolute and total fear on a water ride at Sea World (it's toward the middle of the collection of photos--scroll and you'll find it).

Blog Carnival Edition #1: REBEL

This first edition of the Zerwin SLCC Blog Carnival was an interesting exploration through different aspects of rebel, rebellious, rebelliousness...

It was clear how much Chris McCandless was attached to this concept for many of the bloggers who responded to the call for submissions. Many (like Dana) pointed out details from his life that make him rebellious, except for Esther who wondered if maybe Chris wasn't a rebel actually--just really selfish (and be sure to check out Dana's post for a link to a very cool video someone did while hiking the Stampede Trail). There were lots of thoughts about what kind of rebel CM was. Tristan found him a stubborn rebel (after some compelling reflections on rebels in Syria--what is the planet to do about Syria, people?). Ryan asks his readers (that's YOU in case you're wondering) if CM's death was justified because of his discontent with his family or if we can just explain it by his naivete (answer his questions in the comments after his post). And Max traces how CM's rebellion had significant effects on other people and still does to this day.

Beyond the world of the book, there were some interesting reflections on rebellion. Owen shows how rebels have improved humanity and makes me think about how I believe love is the most rebellious act there is. Don't you think? Isn't that what Harry Potter is about? Harry wins in the end because he fights for love, right? And Voldemort is incapable of acting through love so he cannot beat Harry in the end. (Are you people Harry Potter fans? Or is this the last time I should bring that up in this class? Please advise.) Fenno discusses several rebels in history who have made things better for people and makes me wonder if rebels must by definition be visionary. I've been pondering that since I read what Fenno had to say. Erik suggests that teens rebel because they learn rebellious behavior from adults. Very interesting. What do you all think? Do teens get called out for the same rebellious behavior that adults show all the time? 

Good or bad, rebellion IS popular, as Madelyn points out with connections to three compelling articles she found on the internet. Cool stuff. And Addie's post takes on rebellion within a very specific context: the traditions and trends surrounding makeup. More cool stuff.

Finally, Ms. Maytum's post contains a hilarious list of rules that she wrote for her room when she was 6 and a half and talks about how rebellion worked in her life as a teenager and how it shows up in her life as an adult. There are contradictions--she reflects over them to arrive at her own understanding of what it means to rebel.

Thanks for your thoughtful submissions to the first edition of the blog carnival!

p.s. Here's Jake on rebellion in a rebellious world. And Colman. And Daelin on punk rock. And Riley on Fat Amy. And John's thoughts on CM. And Ian's thoughts on the various types of rebels in the world.

A few pics from my Labor Day weekend adventure to Coupeville, WA

I had an awesome time in Coupeville this past week for the wedding of a good friend of mine from college. I traveled with one of my college roommates--we met at the airport in Seattle and drove together to Coupeville. I just wanted to post here a few photos:

 The big boat here is The Linmar--my college friend (the groom) bought it a few years ago after it had been burned badly in a fire. He restored it to the beautiful boat you see here. I stayed on the boat for the weekend. 

 Here I am on The Linmar.

 With the groom (Kuhrt) and my college roommate, Katie.

 Just goofing around.

 The bride and groom and some of the wedding party during photos on the boat.

 The ceremony.

Sunrise on Monday morning--had to get up at 5:30 to drive the two hours to the airport that morning.

Doc Z's collection of links

My big topic: reading--book reading
My essential question: how do I convince my students that taking the time to read books is important--actually critically important to their lives as human beings?

Collection of links:

• TED Talk, from knowledgeable to knowledge-able: talks about students in our hyper-media world needing to be more than meaning seekers. They need to be meaning makers. I think that this involves deep thinking, the kind you can practice when you engage in the complexity that books offer you, complexity you can't get anywhere else. 
• News article about the Stuebenville rape case and the youtube video showing a kid laughing about it. This shows a complete lack of empathy and compassion on that kid's part. Books help us to imagine the experiences of others and this gives us practice in empathy and compassion.
• Blog posts about why stories are important:
• What listening to stories does to our brains
• Stories and the Common Core, excerpt: 
• So narrative isn’t just a cool thing to do- it’s life or death. Telling stories well is power. As we see in every election, every bit of advertising, and every six year old lobbying for a later bedtime or to skip bath (you can tell what my life is like). To get really good at narrative, and to understand it, ourselves and our culture (and the culture of others), we study narratives. Fiction, epic poetry, history, great science, mathematics. All learning is most powerful when couched in terms of narrative. It is why our most profound texts are in the form of stories (In the beginning…) not in the form of action memos from God. It is why the major art forms revolve around narrative, not data sets. Just being exposed to narrative is accessing one of the most powerful learning modes we have. It’s why people believe movies that have no basis in fact, and it’s why advertising is effective. But really understanding how narrative works, and having some skill one’s self is life changing. It also vaccinates the individual against bullshit. If you know how stories work, you know how to judge the story you are being told. You know how to ask critical probing questions about what a story really means. You notice what it doesn’t say and wonder why the storyteller left things out. You can tell the difference between an honest story and crap.
• Book Love, book by Penny Kittle (link goes to my blog post about it)
• A youtube video using excerpts of the 1960's movie adaptation of Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's novel that imagines a world where books are illegal: 

• This photo about books being the inspiration for HBO programming...yes, there is good TV out there, but there's also TV that damages your soul as a human being. Why not just stick with books?