More Reactions to NPR

I've been listening to NPR a lot lately. It's a nice break from the inane conversations I have every day at work. There's lots to like about NPR. No, not the pledge drives, although I think I would be ecstatic if Ira Glass of This American Life called me and shamed me into pledging. But I like hearing the stories. I like that the news comes in narrative form, with real people telling the stories. And I like that more often then not, it makes me think about the world outside of my microcosm.

So I was listening to an All Things Considered* story about soda in America. The story posits that children today drink too many sugary drinks, largely due to a lack of education about what those beverages do to the human body. There was even mention of children who drink soda in the morning to "get them woke up." Kind of appalling, right? When asked about water, the kid says he can't drink water, he has to have something with flavor or his digestive system acts up. Really appalling, right? So all of this I agree with. Something should be done. I'm not opposed to taking soda out of schools, it's a small step, easy to make, and would probably do a world of good (although they tried to do that when I was in high school, and if memory serves me correctly it lasted less than a year). Then the reporter asked whose responsibility it is to educate children about good eating habits. Parents? Teachers? The guy at the Quik-E-Mart? "We all bear responsibility," the interviewee said. Again, I don't necessarily disagree with this. As a teacher, it's my job to help mold my students into happy, healthy, productive young adults, whatever that entails. The problem is, how do I teach them something if they go home and their parents teach and model the exact opposite?

This highlights a more widespread problem with education today, something that I've observed by interacting with parents. Lack of parental support and involvement. The principles, concepts, and behaviors that we try to instill in students at school are undermined when they go home. The problem isn't always with teachers or the public school system, although we tend to take the blame. It starts at home. That goes for learning and nutrition.

*Question: do you italicize radio program titles, or put it in quotes? Standby for MLA check--my handbook is still within arms reach of my desk, even though I haven't written a paper in years. Indeed, you do italicize. The episode title goes in quotes. I WIN!

Another One Bites the Dust

This weekend was a serious fail as far as NaBloPoMo is concerned, however, I blame it on The Foreigner and am resolved to try to continue for the rest of the month (until I get busy again).


Speaking of Foreigner, it's over. Two months of hard work has come to an end, and the only thing that remains are memories and dried droplets of paint on the black stage from careless brushes. And maybe some stickiness from spilled Coke. That reality is one of the hardest things about theatre in my opinion. It's so temporary. You work on it for a set amount of time, then you do it, then it's over. I don't think I would want it to keep going much longer, but I still miss it when its gone. For me, taking down the set is the hardest part. We spent weeks putting it up, getting it to where it needed to be, painting, building, taping, painting some more, hour after hour; the whole thing came down in three.


The only thing that makes it easier for me is knowing that there is another show coming in a few months. There are already things I'm working on and planning for December and January. I have not one, but TWO one acts in the works, one with 6th period as an in-school performance, one with 4th period for Districts. I'm only sort of directing them, acting more as a consultant/producer for student directors. I wanted to put it in my student's hands and see what happens. Hopefully they will rise to the occasion.

21 Hours and Counting

"The Foreigner" goes up tomorrow night, yet I'm strangely calm. Maybe it's because I've done this before. Maybe it's because I fell strangely detached because I've had to be at ESOL class two nights a week rather than at rehearsal. Maybe it's because I'm just having a hard time caring this year. Maybe it's because I've lowered my expectations. Regardless, I'm calm, and I'm trying to decide whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

I've realized that regardless of my mental/emotional state, the show will go on, and it will probably be relatively good. Sure, the run time might be a little long, but that's okay I guess. There's nothing I can do about it at this point, so why should I worry?

In fact, I think this is the most comfortable I've felt about the technical side of things. We actually programmed light cues this year. I have three reliable people running the boards. I think I can actually sit and watch without having to worry about the house lights not coming up. Or maybe I do. Maybe I'm being foolhardy.
Anyway. There's that.

Baby Steps

Someone asked me in the first few months of teaching what my goals were for my Drama program. I didn't really know how to answer; my best response was basically that I wanted it to be like the drama program when I was in high school. That was my goal two years ago, and still is, to a certain extent. But now I approach the question with a slightly more educated and realistic eye (is that the best way to say that? I don't know). My ultimate goal is to be able to put on excellent productions that are primarily student run. I want to be able to sit in the front row and watch, without having to worry that there will be some disaster backstage that will require my immediate attention.

That is a pretty lofty goal, especially from where I'm standing. But I think it's doable. Here are a few steps we need to take towards excellence:

1. Establish a sense of pride in the program as a whole and in the quality of work. At this point, we don't know what a really excellent program or even an excellent production looks like, nor do we know what it takes to get there. I need to start showing my students what excellence looks like. We need to go watch other people who are being excellent. This has its pitfalls. The tendency might be for them to compare themselves, rather than take it as inspiration to do better.

2. Get out of the mindset that we can wait until the last minute to pull it off "because we always do." I think this is what has killed us with "The Foreigner." A few strategic people have established the attitude among the cast that later is okay, so we've taken far too long to get off book, and find costumes, know our cues. In today's rehearsal, we were where we needed to be about two weeks ago because two weeks ago, I was still yelling at people to be off book, and they were still making excuses. This is a great segue into my final point.

3. I need to be a jerk about things like missed rehearsal/tardiness, and missed deadlines. I don't know how to do it. I don't have the heart to tell someone who has been in rehearsal for a month that they won't be in the show because they aren't off book, or because they missed 3 rehearsals, or because they were late a few times. How do I tell a parent that their kid is out of the play because they had some kind of obligation and didn't tell me in advance? In reality, I HAVE to if I want the program to succeed. Teaching them that being there sometimes is not okay. Aside from the difficulties of trying to rehearse or block a scene without a character, it also destroys a sense of trust among the cast. How can I expect one person to rely on the other to make an entrance or know a cue if they aren't even at rehearsal?

[Insert Witty and Alliterative Title Here]

So, I obviously haven't been writing much on here lately. I think it's a combination of school starting back up, then Vision '13, then the fall show starting up (The Foreigner, November 5, 6, 7 @ 7pm, November 8 @ 2:30), and online reading courses starting up--not learning to read, I know how to do that, learning to teach reading. Next week I begin my ESOL course, which, sadly isn't online, so I loose another two evenings out of my week.

Anyway, life has been busy, but good for the most part. There are, as always, the normal complaints about teaching and working in general, but I think I'm okay with that garbage. Sadly, getting okay means that I feel like I'm falling into a rut. Oh, the ever dreaded rut. Ruts are bad. Ruts are what make me feel like I need to get out of said rut. Ruts are indicative of discontent.

Basically, I'm going through a quarter life crisis.

I was at a meeting for area drama teachers a few weeks ago, and I sat there looking at the faces around the table wondering, "Is this my life in 10 years? Really?" What happened to doing something adventurous? Now, I know on the grand scale of things, my job is pretty sweet. I get nice long summers, and two weeks at Christmas, and a week for Thanksgiving, and Spring Break and I don't have to clean toilets. And don't get me wrong, I love my students. Sometimes I catch myself imagining what the program will look like in two or three years when my freshmen are upperclassmen, and they know how I roll. And then I imagine the dark circles under my eyes and the slight hint of madness etched on my face. I don't know if I'm that resilient.

On the Eve of a New Year

Well, summer has come to end, and I'm staring a new school year in the face. I also have a terrible case of insomnia. Dang it.

I am incredibly un-enthused about this school year. I'm going into it without knowing a lot of things, and with more work than I had last year, and with less room for error just because it's my third year, and not my first or second. Also, we're going back to the 7:20 start time. I'm not a morning person. At all. In one sense, I'm glad that I'll get out of rehearsal at 5pm instead of 6:30, that I'll get to see something other than school in the daylight. On the other hand, anything I do before 9am is basically rubbish.

As frequent readers of this here blog might remember, I'm a worrier. It's what I do. Also, I like lists. So here, in no particular order, are things I'm worried about this year:

- Fall play. I'm not sure what it is yet. Both options have their own separate set of problems.
- I don't have a good strong senior leader. This could be a problem.
- My classes are all a jumble, and they may stay that way all year long.
- I had a couple of GREAT classes last year, and I'm afraid my standards for awesome are completely shot. Forever.
- No strong Senior leader.
- I had some really awful students last year, and I don't want their kind again. Ever.
- Musical. Don't know what it is yet. Also, no seniors (it seems ridiculous a little, but they're REALLY important).
- One Act. Don't know what it is yet.
- Certification stuff. Should have done it this summer. Didn't. Will invariably do it on the night before it's due and have Dad proof read it. Just kidding. But seriously.
- Two more preps this year than last year. Didn't do them over the summer (in my defense, I didn't know that I had them, one of them I found out about YESTERDAY, dang it.)
- Did I mention that I don't have a strong Senior leader?

Why I Do My Job

The girl that wrote this note on my board made my life suck last year. We had clashes almost daily. At the beginning of this year, she was on the top of my list of people to kick out of the class because it was too large. That ended up not happening, and I'm so thankful that it didn't. This kid--no, young adult--has surprised me with her maturity, and I'm looking forward to working with her next year.

This kid is just a naturally talented young person, and I'm hoping she's in my class next year too. Not quite as "afternoon special " as the first, but I touched by it as well.

That's why I do my job, the off chance that maybe I'm making a difference in these peoples lives. I'm thankful that I got to see some of the fruits of my labor.

Hi. You May Not Remember Me. I'm Laura. I Write This Blog

I've started writing a blog post no less than four times in the last month, but each time I got about three sentences into it and realized that I was whining (again), when I really had nothing to whine about. The things about which I complained were petty at best, things that I deal with every...single...day. So I didn't feel like I should whine about them, because that would only encourage this habit of whining about silly things (like having Memorial Day right before the end of school. I have my reasons, but why am I whining about a three day weekend?).

To be honest, my life has been pretty comfortable for the last month since Guys and Dolls ended. Happy, comfortable growth. This has been a semester for personal victories. Here are a few:

1. I stood up to someone who I would have let run me over a year ago.
2. I directed a musical, and it was okay. Not great, I dare not even say good, but we got through it, and the kids--and maybe me, too--had fun.
3. I got my guitar string callouses back. And a new guitar. It sounds pretty.
4. I got over my fear of calling parents. I think they're more afraid of me than I am of them. I still don't like it, but I'll do it. One area that needs growth: sounding like an adult. I called a parent and they asked me three times if I was the teacher. Maybe it's my youthful enthusiasm. Or sarcasm. Just kidding.
5. I get to keep my job. Not an area of personal growth, but I think it speaks to my growth over the last year and a half, so I feel justified including it in this list. Yeah, I'm pretty stoked about that.

A Diatribe Against Laziness in English

You may have seen something called “No Fear Shakespeare” in the Shakespeare section of your local bookstore. These ‘editions’ of Shakespeare have the original text on one side and the ‘translated’ text on the other side. In my one week’s experience of teaching Shakespeare, I’ve found that these “No Fear” editions have accomplished the exact opposite.

Students fear Shakespeare because they do not understand the language with which he speaks. As a freshman in high school, I struggled to understand the Bard’s early modern English and subsequently the plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. My teacher walked us through it scene by scene, and we were able to make the first halting steps toward comprehension. I have done the same thing with my Drama I students (most of whom have already studied Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in their English classes), yet they aren’t even familiar with the abbreviated words (flow’r, o’er), or the common words ‘doth,’ ‘wast,’ ‘wilt;’ some even trip over more familiar archaic language like ‘thee,’ and ‘thou.’ How can they be completely unfamiliar with the language if they have indeed studied Shakespeare in English? No Fear Shakespeare. They haven’t read Shakespeare, they’ve something 'translated' into modern language, void of the language which makes Shakespeare Shakespeare.

Why should we even study Shakespeare if we aren’t studying SHAKESPEARE? One doesn’t read Shakespeare for plot, since many of his stories were recycled from mythology and folktales. We read Shakespeare for the poetry, for the way he molded the words and images to capture his audience’s imagination. We study Shakespeare because he was able to hold the attention of the uneducated groundlings that attended his plays for hours on end. We study Shakespeare, because even after four readings of the same text, I'm still discover something new each time. Do you really think Romeo and Juliet is famous because of its tired and worn out plot (which, by the way, had been done before)? No, it’s because Juliet said, “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" Sure, the story is timeless, but I almost think Leonard Bernstein did it a little better in the 1950s when he set it to music.

Furthermore, using No Fear Shakespeare as a class tool has taught the students that it's okay to let someone else do the work for them. We don't give students the answer in math class, why should we do the same thing in English? Shakespeare is like any difficult problem, it takes time to learn it, but once learned the concept is the building block for bigger and better things. The skills I learned from doing close readings of Shakespeare have proved invaluable to me as I went to other classes, and into my job now.

Finally, No Fear Shakespeare sends the wrong message to students about themselves. Handing them a pre-solved puzzle is like saying, I'm sorry, you're not smart enough to understand this for yourself, you need someone older to tell you what's going on. All of this isn't to say that there is no place for No Fear Shakespeare. I can see how it would be beneficial to show students that this is English, and that they can draw parallels to the language as we speak it today. It might provide a good starting point for students, a model of how they might go about understanding it for themselves. But how are people supposed to learn and grow as human beings if they face no challenges to their intellect? How are they to get past a 7th grade reading level if we keep giving them the dumbed down version of one of the greatest writers of the English language? Quit taking the easy way out in education. It won't do anyone good.

Musical Anxiety

I was examining my calendar this evening in a feeble attempt to get some kind of rehearsal schedule down on paper when I realized that the first day of rehearsal for Guys and Dolls is less than a month away! Gah! How did it sneak up on me that fast? Anyway, I have a lot of work to do between then and now. So I'm starting to freak out. That's just what I do. Freak out. It can't be particularly healthy, but it's my natural reaction to basically everything. That, and procrastination, which only compounds the effect.

I sat down with the script today and was trying to figure out exactly how many people I need in this thing. Here's the problem: I HAVE NO IDEA! Having never directed a musical before, I don't know what my style is, and therefore don't know if I should over cast this thing and have wings stuffed full of people that aren't absolutely necessary, or do I go with the bare minimum and have people playing three or four or five roles (walk ons, but roles nonetheless).

So, I have all of this preparation to do to get ready for the musical, as well as a whole bunch of things to do to get ready for Districts in two weeks and State in April. State is in April, but I have to start the paperwork now because it's out of county. Ugh, why can't they all suddenly be 18 and responsible for themselves?

Hello 2009

Well, the new year has arrived, and with it the promise of January 5th--the first day back to school--looming in the near future. I have decided that I'm not a fan of the Spring semester. It brings with it more stress than I'm paid for. In an attempt to stave off the imminent anxiety for just a while longer, I have begun working on the set design for "Guys and Dolls," our spring production.

So, for the first time ever on this blog, I'm showing you something that I've drawn. Pardon the darkness of the photo, I tried it with flash, but it just got really washed out. This is the view of the main location, Broadway of the 1950s. The things with the darker edges are meant to be flats built with a little bit of forced perspective (hurray for the Italian Renaissance and forced perspective!). The lighter stuff is a rough idea of what I want for the backdrop (and yes, I know the Empire State Building is a little weird looking).

Anyway, I'd love to hear what people think.

P.S. The cat is asleep next to/half on my pillow. I don't want to move him because he's so darn cute, but he's kind of in the way.

Odd Couple from the Other Side

Odd Couple is now over! I'm extremely proud of my students, and I'm especially happy that I actually got to sit and enjoy the show this year (for the most part), which means I'm nearly to the point where they can run it themselves, without having to consult me at every turn.

Of all the nights, I'd have to say that Thursday and Friday were the best, mostly because the crowd was the most responsive those nights. I was worried at the beginning of the week that they wouldn't be able to pull it off, but on Thursday it all seemed to come together, and they gave sterling performances.

The cast for the Sunday performance experienced one of the things that makes live theatre unique from other dramatic forms: audience responsiveness, or in this case, the lack thereof. When I stepped on stage for the introduction, I felt the lack of energy and excitement in the crowd. The audience hardly laughed for the entire first act, even with the other cast and myself doing our best to seed the laughter. Despite this, the cast persevered and the audience loosened up a little bit in the second act.

All in all, I think the show was a success, but I'm glad that it's over. I spent this entire last week coming home early, well, at the same time as everyone else, and sleeping.

Show Week

Pardon the retroactive post publishing. I don't know why I didn't publish this when I wrote it. Maybe I felt it was too short.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Show week is here. This is the first time that I feel almost ready. Last year, we were still trying to get off book the Monday before the show. But right now, I think well be okay, despite having some hick-ups along the way. We were supposed to have new lavaliere mics, but the order got bogged down in purchasing, so we will most likely not get them in time for the shows. I'm frustrated to say the least. We will get through it. The cast just needs to learn to project. A lot.

We will be ready, whether we're ready or not.

Making the Magic: Flying Plate of Spaghetti

In theatre, we have to do things that would never ever happen in real life, like throwing a plate of spaghetti...sorry, linguini, at a wall four nights in a row (plus rehearsal). The problem is that spaghetti, when thrown, goes everywhere. The noodles don't stay on the plate, and the poor techie on the other end of the flying sauce-er (bad joke, I know) gets a large mess to clean. Compounding the problem is the need for one of the actresses to take a bite of the soon to be flying spaghetti.

The solution to the problem: Elmer's School Glue and tape. You cook the spaghetti first, then put it on a plate, toss with glue and nuke the heck out of it. The resulting pasta is rubbery and sticks together, and most importantly, can be taped to the plate. Spread a little bit of fresh (i.e. not glued and rubbery) spaghetti on top of the glued spaghetti (hurray for non-toxic glue) for the actor to play with, add a little red sauce, and no one is the wiser.

The picture to the right is the spaghetti post nuking, before the extra glue dried. The white stuff is glue. Yum!

The Odd Couple

Here's the info on the bottom if you don't want to click on the image and read it in the pretty font:

The Odd Couple (Female Version) by Neil Simon
Colonial High School Performing Arts Center
November 13, 14 & 15 @ 7:00PM
November 16 @ 2:30PM
House opens 30 minutes before curtain
Tickets $5

Be there! Or just give me $5 bucks!

Oh, and 6 posts in October! Whohoo!

Pet Peeves

I didn't think I had pet peeves. Sure, there were things that bugged me a little bit, but nothing that drove me really insane. Then I became a teacher. I now have several. The most prevalent is the mispronunciation of words/use of words that don't exist.

Here are the top three, with plenty of snark on the side:
Anyways. It's not a word (okay, maybe it was in the 13th Century, but it's not standard today). But somewhere along the line, teenagers must have decided that since there are multiple 'ways' there must be multiple 'anyways,' which is, of course, not the case. Somehow, it wormed itself into even the smartest of students' vocabulary and frequently rears its ugly S-shaped head. I do my best to battle the unnecessary 'S' wherever I may find it. I am slightly ashamed to admit that I too have on occasion succumbed to its awful powers. But thankfully, the light of proper grammar always shines through, and I return to the singular 'anyway.'

Supposably. This, I'm guessing, comes from the lack of written word in teenagers' lives. They heard the word 'supposedly' but have never seen it written, so their brain didn't have anything to connect it to. I believe the term for a misheard word is mondegreen, but I could be wrong. Anyway, we now have supposably, a bane of my existence. And now, a short anecdote: I once was lecturing about Greek theatre history and used the word 'supposedly.' A hand shot up in the back row. Ah, I thought, an eager young mind! and nodded for the student to speak. I was simultaneously amused and appalled by what I heard. "Miss," the student said, "don't you mean 'supposably?'"

Ax. No, not the tool used to chop wood, the verb meaning 'to inquire of'. That's right, fair reader, medieval weaponry has been confused with the simple, harmless verb 'ask'. I'd heard this mispronunciation many times before I began teaching, but the frequency since has driven me to the edge of frustration, so much that I've even created a sign. It reads, "No! You may not AX me a question. You may, however, ASK me a question." One of my students read the sign yesterday, tilted his head to one side and said, "I don't get it." I hope that means he's never heard the wonderful word 'ask' slandered in this manner.

So, one year of teaching and I now have pet peeves. Oh, and I hate being called 'Miss'. I have name, thanks.

So-and-so Squabbling

Well, October is threatening to go by with only a few blog posts to its name, so I figured I'd better get cracking if I'm to meet my goal of 75 posts this year. At this point, methinks it is a lost cause, but I'll still try to get as close as possible.

I was posting quite a bit in September when I had a little more free time, but in the last couple of weeks free time seems to have been sucked out of my life and replaced with unavoidable sleep (falling asleep before I intend), and work. Always work.

As far as work goes, I've been inundated with stupid high school drama in the last few weeks. So-and-so 1 is mad at So-and-so 2 because So-and-so 3 was talking to So-and-so 1 about an ex who is a... you get the picture. Somehow, So-and-so thinks it's part of my job to sort out their stupid squabbles which are really all about their inability to stop talking about each other. So, So-and-so asks to speak to me before rehearsal one day and starts spilling the beans all over my bright and shiny day. I stop So-and-so mid story and ask, "Why, So-and-so, is this my problem? This seems like something you and So-and-so need to sort out between yourselves. And frankly, I refuse to be inserted into your juvenile bickering." Perhaps I shouldn't have called So-and-so juvenile because it then forced me to explain that I said nothing about prison and had simply called them immature. Anyway, that and a few other things have resulted in So-and-so being angry with me. There's also an issue about pizza...

I really want to just tell them, stop taking life so seriously. Have fun, let stuff go. You're in high school! RELAX!

One Year

Here's an excerpt from my personal journal from October 8th, the one year anniversary of my first day as a teacher.

"I felt that I should write something today because this day, October 8, marks the one year anniversary of my first day as a teacher. The only thing I can say is thank God I survived. There have been more than a few times in the last year in which I thought I would not make it (Christmas Carol show week, Districts, States...), so today, I breathe a sigh of relief and hope for a better year."

I ended up not actually writing much because the power was out, which incidentally is why I didn't write it here in the first place. So, a week later, I'll try to flesh it out a little bit.

I still don't feel like a teacher. When people they walk in, they come up to me and ask where the teacher is. But I have an advantage this year over last, my students knew I was the teacher from day one, rather than assumed I was jut another sub. This year, I'm not telling them that I'm only 23 years old, and that I only graduated from college a year and a half ago, and that some of them have siblings older than me. I am acting like I know what I'm talking about (which I generally do), and that I've been doing this for a while.

The biggest difference, though, is the distinct and wonderful absence of worry pangs. Last year I spent half of my time with a dull feeling in my stomach rooted in the fear that I had done something wrong, or that I'd missed something important. I imagine myself as a little puppy trying so incredibly hard to do everything everyone wanted of me, freaking out whenever I fell short. I've been more relaxed this year, and it certainly feels better.

One year...and counting.

The Boot Game

Every year, Colonial and University battle for a boot painted red and black on one side and blue and gold on the other. This game has come to be known as the Boot Game, and it is undoubtedly the one game out of every season that each team wants to win the most (except for maybe University vs. Timber Creek, but that's a newer rivalry). Six years ago, I stood on the east side of the stadium. This year, I stood on the west side looking towards the bleachers I had run up and down countless times in my high school career.

It was strange walking around to the far side of the field, greeting people in red and black. Even more strange were the cheers of, "Let's go, Colonial, let's go!" issuing from my mouth. I felt weird cheering against my Alma Mater, but at the same time, I couldn't possibly cheer against my students. After all, I don't really know anyone at UHS anymore.

I contemplated wearing my University Varsity jacket over a Colonial faculty shirt, but decided that the ribbing I would get from everyone wasn't worth it. Besides, it's September and therefore WAY too hot to wear a leather and woolen jacket.

Anyway, I walked over to the home side to watch the band. As I stood there, it struck me that I was looking, to borrow lyrics from Ragtime, "toward the future, from the past."

Out of Sorts

I'm feeling very out of sorts this morning. I know that there are a myriad of tasks I could, and probably should, be doing at this moment instead of writing a blog post, but somehow I can't really think of any. My brain doesn't seem to work. This has been the case nearly every day for the past week. I had a restful weekend, but here I am again on Monday wishing it was Friday all over again. Somehow, I haven't gotten out of the summer state of mind, and it's about to bite me in the butt.

Anyway, I guess I'll go try to get something done.