i don’t know how this happened, but i got suckered into doing STP - an annual event where 10,o00 people from all over the world lather on butt cream, put on spandex shorts, and hop on their bike for a 200 mile ride from seattle to portland.
it was never my intent to do anything remotely serious with cycling when i bought my first bike a few years ago — a hybrid road/mountain bike for a couple hundred bucks at target. generally speaking, i would go for maybe 10 miles per ride (15 if it was a really nice day, or if i had a lot of soul-searching to do). i would usually ride at night when there weren’t many cyclists out on the trails (the big groups that rode during the day were too intimidating), and i would usually ride because i wanted some quiet space to process dennis’s death. it was more for my spiritual/psychological health than for anything physical.
a couple months ago, my friend started bugging me about signing up for STP. every time i saw him, he’d try to get me to sign up, telling me how fun it would be, how it’d be an adventure. initially i refused — almost entirely because i didn’t think it was possible for me. 200 miles is really far. i was certain i didn’t have it in me. but he kept pushing. then i finally gave in. i didn’t come to any new conclusions, and nothing had really changed. i just simply caved. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: personal, sports
my time at the uw has taught me a lot of valuable things, but there is a lot that i’m not prepared for, including just how small my place is in the world.
most of my peers will never write a ny times best seller. most of us will never get to be the chancellor of a big school district or act as secretary of education for the whole country. instead, most of us will have an impact on a more modest scale. for me, i need to think about student x and how he’ll earn enough credits to advance in grade next fall; student y’s boyfriend drama; and student z, who needs help finding scholarship money for college. being a teacher requires you to think about one person at a time.
none of us wants to think of ourselves as small potatoes, but it can be quite difficult not to feel like a white-collared cog in an enormous machine that many (most?) feel is failing on multiple level. how could it be otherwise? there are a ton of teachers out there, and many more waiting in the wings (like me) to join a school system where around half the kids in big cities don’t graduate high school on time. the future of education in america is dependent on a system made up of millions of people, not on any single individual within it. practically everyone is replaceable in this big ol’ machine that tries to sputter forward. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: education, personal

after two (fast) years, i am now a master of education =).
i’m going to miss the friends and faculty members at the college of education that made my experience so meaningful. i am now able to step into a crowded & chaotic classroom of youth and experience it as something not only meaningful but sacred. i’d like to think that my program prepared me to care and sacrifice for my students in a gazillion small, unsexy ways, over and over again, every day.
can’t wait to get started in september.
Filed under: education, personal
there’s been a lotta local news coverage of the teacher lay-offs in response to the $800 million of public-school funding cut by the state. most of the teachers being “RIFed” are young, energetic recent graduates who are excited to be serving in public schools but have nowhere to work.
carrie and i have been lucky (so far). even though carrie’s only been teaching a couple years, she’ll still have her job this fall. and even though i haven’t even graduated yet, i’ll have a full slate of classes to teach, too.
i’ll be joining the staff at health sciences & human services high school (HS3), as a general Language Arts teacher and special education teacher. HS3 is part of the coalition of essential schools, a national network of schools marked by their small sizes (high schools have less than 400 students) and favorable teacher-to-student ratios. i had the chance to do some student teaching at another CES school last spring, and was really impressed to see how far fewer students “fall through the cracks” in that kinda learning community.
needless to say, i’m excited about working at the school because 1) i was not expecting to use my whole degree (english and special ed) right away, 2) the school is doing some innovative things in the field of education, 3) i hear the staff is fun, and 4) it serves a dynamic, diverse community (white center).
this is exactly the type of situation i hoped to be in, and i’m amazed to find myself actually here in light of everything that’s happening. i hope by this time next year, i’ll have shown myself worthy of being brought on board.
Filed under: education, personal
April 11, 2009 • 11:59 pm
this morning
I stood once again
in this world, the garden
ark and vacant
tomb of what
I can’t imagine,
between twin eternities,
some sort of wings,
more or less equidistantly
exiled from both,
hovering in the dreaming called
being awake, where
You gave me
in secret one thing
to perceive, the
tall blue starry
strangeness of being
here at all.
You gave us each in secret something to perceive.
Furless now, upright, My banished
and experimental
child
You said, though your own heart condemn you
I do not condemn you.
[franz wright - walking to martha's vineyard]
Filed under: poetry
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