A life in progress

This afternoon, I went into my principal's office for a moment to ask a routine question about a student.  We chit-chatted for a couple minutes and then he gave this dramatic sigh like I'd never heard come from him before and handed me a couple of pages stapled together.  I had no idea what was happening, but I took the pages and started reading. The first was a student ID photo with some basic information -- printed out from our student information system.  While this was not my  student, I was aware of him.  We are a very small school with a dozen teachers and one administrator; everyone knows everyone - literally.  At times we have as few as 25 students on campus.  This particular student had recently completed our program and returned to a comprehensive high school, but recently enough that the name and face was still familiar. The second page was a news article giving some sketchy details of a murder.  I'm sure pretty much everyone can se...

Yesterday (October 5) was world teacher day, in pretty much every country except America.  Technically it existed here, but there was no special pomp and circumstance for those of us teaching America's youth.  I didn't get anything special, though things didn't go particularly badly.  Today a student told me I was going to "burn in hell for my sins," though he didn't specify what.  My husband broke up two fights in his classroom... all in all, not a great day of celebration. Let me tell you a story... I experienced one World Teacher Day in all its glory while I was teaching in China back... well... a long time ago, however Chinese friends tell me this is still the way it works. At the time, I taught 12 or 14 classes.  I don't remember.  It was a lot.  It sounds insane, but I only saw each class once a week for 45 minutes, so I didn't actually teach that  many classes.  One day, everyone I see starts wishing me "happy teacher day!" ...

I haven't written in a while, mostly because the summer and these first few weeks of school have been incredibly busy!  But, I'm sort of back at it  now and I'd like to get back to blogging, at least as best as I can. I am writing tonight's post in the spirit of my favorite journalist, John Oliver, complete with hashtag. So, my post tonight probably will not win me any friends, and that's ok.  I accept that from the start.  But, my goal is not to win friends, it is to openly state my beliefs without holding back, because most of the time, I do hold back. For the past few days and weeks, I have been unable to turn on the news or scroll through social media feeds without seeing endless accounts of people and political groups spouting hatred and discontent towards other individuals and political groups for the people that they are and the choices they have mades.  Some of these individuals have made poor personal choices in their lives, some have simply be...

About a year ago, I was a hot mess.  That is a clinical term.  I'm pretty sure they use it in the American Medical Association Journals.  I was incredibly overweight and amazingly out of shape - embarrassingly so.  And to make things worse, I was in kind of a downhill spiral of bad habits.  Since I was out of shape, I didn't exercise, which just made things worse.  My clothes didn't fit, I had zero motivation to look attractive. One night, I believe it was Bastille Day (French Independence Day), my husband and I got into an argument.  I won't get into the details, but let's just say, some not-so-kind words were said by both parties.  And while it was incredibly hurtful (and I was no angel), there was also more truth to it than I cared to face at the time.  And on that day, I said "enough".  I need to take control of my life back. It was a few more weeks before we got back to the States (for those that don't know, I was actually IN...

I have just finished my second week student-lawyering at the county PD office.  A lot of people have been asking me what it's like, or if I still want to be a lawyer (like this would be the best time to decide I didn't).  Since the past few days have been particularly emotional for me, I'll give a general overview of the experience. In some ways, working for the PD has some of the same elements as working in a behavior school.  I come in constant contact with the criminal element that's brilliant enough to get caught for some reason or another.  Most of the people I see are arrested or cited on rather minor charges -- possession of drugs, solicitation of prostitution, petty theft (shoplifting), and other relatively minor charges.  Part of me is amazed that this is what our local law enforcement focuses their time and energy on.  Are drugs and prostitution illegal?  Yes.  Is it worth thousands of dollars to arrest, prosecute, and jail each ind...

I have not done any blogging lately, because as most teachers will tell you, May is terrible. Most of May is a lot like that purple one.  As a teacher, especially as a teacher in an alternative school, you become frazzled and exhausted.  I have literally come home and napped for hours at a time out of sheer exhaustion.  Students are panicking because they haven't completed any of their work for the past 6 weeks and suddenly they need enough points to get course credit for the semester.  They are needy and desperate.  I do my best to be helpful and supportive, but it is wearing.   I mostly finished what is essentially my last academic semester in law school in late April, so I've been able to focus on my students and their needs, but now law school is picking up again, so I will once again have divided interests.  Part of me will need to focus on my students, while the rest of me will focus on my studies. Despite all of this crazy, Mike a...

After watching Fed Up, which I outlined in my last post, Mike and I decided to do a 30 day clean eating challenge.  Part of which is Dr. Mark Hymann's  10 Day Blood Sugar Detox . Essentially, this is a slightly more severe version of the first week - there seems to be less fruit involved - which makes me sad because I like fruit.  I'll outline the basics for you in case you're interested at all. Breakfast:  Protein shake.  He offers a few recipes, but a lot of them include bananas, which I'm allergic to.  Also, I use Shakeology, which I'm pretty sure is the healthiest substance on the planet.  The idea is to have a filling, nutrient dense, low-glycemic index breakfast that will get you through until lunch. Lunch:  Salad (He gives a big list of mix and match stuff and says eat whatever you want, as long as its on these lists), or if you get tired of salad, there are some soup and grilled meat recipes to use to mix it up. Dinner:  Meat,...