Accomplished

This was meant to be posted on December 18, 2011. 

I graduated yesterday. An event that is 15 years in the making. The ceremony was nice. It lasted about 2 hours but really didn't feel that long. The commencement speaker was amazing. I think she brought a tear to every one's eye. I was able to rein back the tears of emotion right on up to the part where the President of the University stood up and said that what she was about to say was the official part and then she started in on the "By the powers invested in me by the State of Kansas..." stuff. 

I can't help but wonder what my grandparents would say if they were still alive. Or my dad. Lately I've been telling this joke that my grandparents didn't live long enough to see my dad graduate, and my father didn't live long enough to see me graduate, so I'm pretty glad that I can't have kids so that the cycle will finally stop. And then I give a nervous little laugh because its more of an appalling statement then a joke. My family wasn't able to make it out for my graduation for a lot of different reasons but that doesn't mean they weren't with me.

It dawned on me that I am the sum of all my experiences. I would love to be able to write that statement out as a mathematical equation but I am not that talented or mathematically inclined. The end result is something that is always growing and always changing but yet sometimes still looks like what it used to be. So with this in mind I decorated myself in some memorabilia on graduation day.

Under my graduation gown, I wore my old initials "AH". These gold broach pins were passed down when my grandmother Amelia Harris passed away and since I was the only one with AH for initials they became mine. I also got a cream pitcher in the shape of a cow but that story is neither here nor there. I also wore the gold cross that was given to me by my step-mother on my birthday. It is one of the three crosses that my father owned/wore. Both are symbols of my past mixed in with a little bit of the future. Both represent a deep love in a trinitarian sort of way.

My mom sent me a wonderful charm bracelet made especially for teachers. Each charm has a special message or meaning. It's a great symbol of my future.

On the outside of my gown I had the honor and privilege of wearing a yellow Honor's cord for Magna Cum Laude and the blue and white cord for the Pi Gamma Mu National Honor Society of Social Sciences. 

I'll admit something that sounds a little silly now. The days before the graduation ceremony I would catch myself gazing at my grad gown like I did with my wedding dress. I couldn't wait to wear it and twirl around in it and swing my honor cords around like a 5 year old. I tried the hat on at least 5 times because none of it seemed real. And just like my wedding day, I wore the gown once and time seemed to pass by way to quickly. Here are a few of my favorite pictures:

Alex and I, after the ceremony and moments after I found out that I was Magna Cum Laude

My best and closest friend, Anna

Susie and Jim Hollis, two amazing people that come to see me often at work

Colton and Caden Mason hanging out at the house

The graduation cake

In the last few days people have asked me if I feel "accomplished". I'm not sure what that means exactly. My mind keeps replaying a scene from the book Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen where Mr. Darcy and Miss Bingley are explaining what a young woman must be able to do to truly say she is accomplished. It goes something like this:

     "It is amazing to me," said Bingley, "how young ladies can have patience to be so very accomplished as they all are."
     "All young ladies accomplished! My dear Charles, what do you mean?"
     "Yes all of them, I think. They all paint tables, cover skreens, and net purses. I scarcely know any one who cannot do all this, and I am sure I never heard a young lady spoken of for the first time, without being informed that she was very accomplished."
     "Your list of the common extent of accomplishments," said Darcy, "has too much truth. The word is applied to many a woman who deserves it no otherwise than by netting a purse, or covering a skreen. But I am very far from agreeing with you in your estimation of ladies in general. I cannot boast of knowing more than half a dozen, in the whole range of my acquaintance, that are really accomplished."
     "Nor I, I am sure," said Miss Bingley.
     "Then," observed Elizabeth, "you must comprehend a great deal in your idea of an accomplished women."
     "Yes; I do comprehend a great deal in it."
     "Oh! certainly," cried his faithful assistant, "no one can be really esteemed accomplished, who does not greatly surpass what is usually met with. A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half deserved."
     "All this she must possess," added Darcy, "and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading."
    

I severely lack a thorough knowledge in music. I cannot sing, carry a tune, or conjure up a melody. I am a master of drawing stick-people. My dance moves look more like seizures. I brag that I known Canadian but this is another one of my bad jokes. But I do read extensively. Probably too much for my own good. So to answer the question... no, I do not feel accomplished. On a more serious note, I'm not sure what accomplished is supposed to feel like. If any thing I feel... humble. It has taken me so long to graduate that I thought it would never come. I never thought I would ever be published in a peer-reviewed journal, or be given an award by the Kansas Department of Education, or invited to an international Honor Society, or graduate in the top 3% of my class. If accomplished means surreal then sure. 

But honestly, it really feels like I'm just getting started.

Go On... Just Check the Box Already

I'm catching up still. I swear, soon I'll write about things in 2012.

I usually take birthday's really well. But this one made me just a little sad and only because today (on my birthday) when I went to church and was filling out the Attendance Record...

I had to check a new box...

And I'm not really to excited about my options.

Goodbye Age 25-34 box. I liked checking you a lot. May the 50+ box come a little slower.

A Little Bit of Talent and a Whole Lot of Illusion

I'm trying to catch up here. I originally planned on posting this on November 19, 2011.

Recently, my University granted me the Teacher of Promise Award for 2012. It's the equivalent of Teacher of the Year for student interns. Each year they bestow this honor to one Elementary Education graduate and one Secondary Education graduate. I am the latter. I do not know what I did that set me apart from the rest of my fellow graduates. When I received the letter in the mail I honestly read it over and over again for almost an hour because my mind refused to comprehend what it was saying. You see, I am surrounded by some really exceptional individuals who have incredible talents that make me a tad envious. When I hear about the things they do in their classrooms I am always in awe. Most of them teach itty-bitty's- which scare me to death because I'll take a teenager any day. They try to make us Secondary Ed teachers feel amazing by saying things like "Oh, you have it so hard! You have 125 homework papers/tests/projects to grade and we only have 25!" Sure, like that's suppose to make me feel better. I only have 1 subject to teach every day and I see my kids every other day and only test and collect homework occasionally. The Wee One Teachers have like 5 subjects to teach every day and see the same kids ALL DAY LONG. And they have to have procedures from every thing like emptying out the rocks/dirt from their shoe after lunch, and lining up for different activities, and how to do this and how to do that. Nah... give me the kid who knows how to button up his pants (even if he prefers to sag them) and blow his nose. Give me the girl who is heart broken over the jerk boy who just cheated on her or the kid who was dropped off at school an hour and half early by her alcoholic parent. No, I am constantly in awe of those who purposely chose to be Elementary School teachers. Not only do they have to know a lot but they are amazingly creative too. Amazingly.

One of the perks of accepting the Teacher of Promise award was that I was invited to a 3 hour workshop sponsored by the 2011 Kansas Teacher of the Year team. The experience was nothing short of wonderful and a little surreal. It's not that I felt like I was crashing a party in the lack-of-self-esteem sense but more a long the lines of bewilderment because everyone around me seemed so much smarter, wittier,  and quicker. I did manage to write down just a few of the best ideas:

• Base-10 Villages: using Base-10 blocks have the kids create a village of buildings. The teacher is only to set 2 requirements such as the village has to add up to 4355 and no building can be greater than 300 or no building can have more than 3 stories. Then let them build and create what they think is important in a village. Plus they have to do the math to figure out how many buildings they still need or which building needs to be smaller.
• Using dry-erase markers on their desks. Test this one first to see if the marker is going to stain the desk. Compile a list of polling questions, then have the students make a time-line of the answer. They can then figure out mean, median, and mode. The teacher can see if they have spatial abilities. Or have them create an annotated time-line with a small group of other students. 
• Super Hero: (this one is probably my favorite). Students have to create a super hero based on something that represents the state or region that they are studying. For instance, if I was teaching Kansas history, my super hero might be Sunflower Girl. Sunflower Girl now has to travel through 3 cities in Kansas (kids have to provide the map and tell what she will see in each city), rescue a famous person from Kansas (like actress Annette Bening), and have a hide out (or vehicle) made out of a resource found in the state.
• Periodic table: the creation of the periodic table is amazing, even if it seems boring. Kids should appreciate the work that went into it nonetheless. Teachers can have their students create their own periodic table out of anything they want as long as it has the 3 elements that all periodic tables have. I saw some really great student-created examples like: the Periodic table of Hogwarts, a Periodic table of Sushi, and a Periodic table of musicals.

The other perk was a free dinner later in the evening. The food was tasty and before I knew it, I was in a line waiting for my name to be called which prompted me to walk across a stage and take a series of pictures with individuals I had never heard of. A while later they began to list off the accomplishments of those who were nominees for the new Kansas Teacher of the Year for 2012. I'm not sure how in the world they picked the winner for Teacher of the Year because every nominee's list of activities took a solid 5 minutes to read off. At one point the MC asked one young lady when she had time to sleep. Soon after, the dinner was over and Alex and I were on our way home. Here is a picture or two of the night:

Alex and I after dinner

My new spiffy award

So to get back to what I was saying originally- I honestly do not know why I was picked. I tried to ask my teacher and all she would tell me is that it was absolutely unanimous among the Newman Professors. This was of no help at all. It was truly a humbling experience to be given this honor. Truly. I've said it before, but I am surrounded by some amazing future teachers. I always have been.

The other night I was watching "Water For Elephants" and there is a part in the movie where Jacob (Robert Pattinson) is sharing with Marlena (Reese Witherspoon) and August (Christoph Waltz) that he never finished Vet school so he's not a real veterinarian. Marlena and August start laughing and say something to the effect that the 800 pound lady is more like 300 pounds, and the lady with all the tattoos was never tatted up by the Amazons with blue paint but in reality she did the tats herself over a few years. Then they reveal the true secret to show business: all one needs is a little bit of talent and a whole lot of illusion. This scene struck me in such a profound way because for a moment or two I felt like someone had finally revealed the secret about my teaching abilities. I have a little bit of talent. A very, very little bit. The rest... it's just well-played illusion. I'm just hoping I'll be able to pick up a little more talent along the way before the illusion disappears.

Summer Books

Pardon the reflection, I meant to post this August 8, 2011.

I've been reading a lot this summer. Then again, I think I read a lot every summer. Anyway, as soon as I finished the Harry Potter series I started on my pile of other books that I have been wanting to read. This pile has grown much larger in the last few weeks since Borders is going out of business. I'm having a hard time resisting the 25-50% going-out-of-business sale. So far this is what I've read...

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. This is probably the first mystery I have ever read. Lisbeth Salander, or the girl with the dragon tattoo, is not the main character but definitely has a supporting role. The story revolves around a journalist named Mikael Blomkvist who has recently been hired to solve a murder that happened forty years ago. Lisbeth Salander is more like his assistant but in the end saves Mikael's life. She's incredibly smart, incredibly private, and has a super dark past that won't be fully revealed until the last book. The book is set in Sweden, names tons of Swedish landmarks, and even mentions all the money in Swedish kronor. From what I understand, Stieg Larsson handed in the first 2 books to his publisher and the manuscript to the last book and then died shortly after. I think he never lived to see a single book published. The book is really very good. If I hadn't seen the movies first, I probably would have thought that they were awesome.

The Girl Who Played With Fire is part two to the Dragon Tattoo. Lisbeth Salander is a more central figure given that she is framed for murder. Although she doesn't have many friends, journalist Mikael Blomkvist, her ex-guardian Holger Palmgren, and her former employer Dragan Armansky, try solve the murders before the police track down Lisbeth. In the meantime, more of Lisbeth's horrible past is revealed and you find out more about her family. I think I liked this one a little better than the first. Stieg Larsson divides his chapters into days. The book starts on December 16th and ends on April 7th. Many of the chapters happen on the same day but you start to see the same events from the different groups of activity. By the last page, there is no doubt that Lisbeth Salander is one bad ass chick.

Next came Green, the final chapter to what used to be the Circle Trilogy. I read the Circle Trilogy (Black, Red, and White) back in 2004. Green is both the end of the story and the beginning. So the story goes something like this: Thomas Hunter is being chased by some bad guys and gets shot, but not seriously. He runs home, patches himself up, and falls asleep. He wakes up in another world that is as real as this one but its 4196 AD but it could easily be 4196 BC. When he falls asleep in the future world, he wakes back up here. Both realities are moving toward the same apocalyptic end. The things that he learns in the present he can use in the future and vise versa. The major difference between the worlds is pretty neat. Here, in the present time, evil resides in the heart and we all look the same on the outside. In the future world, evil is visible on the flesh in the form of crusty, scabbing flesh that itches and burns when you try to wash it off. Those who believe in God, on the other hand, have smooth healthy skin. The "Scabs" (unbelievers) are always waging war on the "Albinos" (believers) and in Green, the church begins to fracture. Green has two alternative endings and I think I like the second ending better than the first.

I adore Chuck Palahniuk's writing. It's twisted and fresh and real. He writes like you and I talk. Chuck Palahniuk is probably most famous for "Fight Club" but his other books are well worth the read. Survivor is written in first person narrative form and starts off with the main character, Tender Branson, sitting in the cockpit of Flight 2039, dictating his life into the recorder of the Black Box. I don't want to give much of the book away, but Tender grew up in the Creedish Church (which is fictional, a death/suicide cult like the Heaven's Gate of California or Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple) in Nebraska and is the last living survivor of the church. When Tender is discovered by the media that he's the last survivor he becomes an instant celebrity. Think Paris Hilton meets Jim Bakker (the televangelist in the 80's). It's a nightmare but comfortable. It's tragic, and predestined, and your left thinking at the end, "What if...". And it's brilliant.

I usually don't take a break in between books when I'm reading a series, but for some reason I did this time. Hornet is the very last in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. This time, Lisbeth is on trial and Mikael's sister is her attorney. Even more sick and twisted things are revealed about her past- like the fact that the guy who shot her in the head and buried her alive in the last book was her half brother who takes orders from her dad, who happens to be the head of the human trafficking ring in Sweden. There's government corruption and police corruption and media corruption. In the end, Lisbeth finally realizes what it means to have friends. Or something like that, cause I'm not going to ruin it for you.