I am about to start a Shakespeare unit for school.  I saw a great website that lists a whole bunch of phrases and words that we use or say because of Shakespeare.  I couldn’t find a way to make it into a poster easily.  So, I made my own.  Here it is:

Feel free to download and use for yourself.  You can click on the image and go to my flickr account and download whatever size you want.  I made it to be printed as a 16×20 poster, so pretty big!

Enjoy.

And . . .

You’re Welcome!

One of my students asked me to take her senior pictures for her. I was extremely nervous because I take mostly pictures of plants and mountains, not really people.

We took her pictures at Gardner Village in West Jordan. These are my top 9 favorite photos. (I only took about 350 or so.)

This is Carly’s favorite!

While I was shooting Carly, she said that I would get the biggest smile on my face. I loved every moment of it. If I could do this for a living, I totally would. But there are so many photographers out there, so it will probably stay a hobby.

This accidentally published a few weeks ago. Sorry if it is a repeat for some of you who have my blog on a reader.  I wrote and finalized a poem for this post that is at the bottom.

A few weeks ago, I was finishing Fahrenheit 451 with my honors class and we were discussing this scripture, which is quoted in the book:

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8

1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

My students were literally leaning forward in their desks.  This scripture really influenced and affected them.  Only one had heard the scripture before (but once I played the song by The Byrds “Turn! Turn! Turn!” they recognized it).  They all wanted a copy of it to keep for themselves.

As I’ve thought about this since, I realized that they have never been taught the principal of “This too shall pass.”  They live their lives in the now, in the moment, without any thought to the future and often the past.  So when things are bad, they are really bad.  They have a hard time thinking that this will change soon.

As a child when I was upset my mother would always say to me, “Go to sleep.  You’ll feel better in the morning.”  Now, I do love sleep, but what I think my mother was trying to teach me was distance.  To allow myself to calm down, get some distance, and with distance you gain perspective.  Perspective is all about seeing something in the grand scale of things – seeing everything around it in relation to your object.

This was also a lesson for myself.  To gain perspective and distance.  I need to remember that when I’m teaching the students that I teach.  Too often I feel hopeless at the end of the day.  Too often I wonder what I’m doing there.  Too often I don’t see the forest because I’m staring at one stubborn, rude, little leaf.

There is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.

Maybe, just maybe, that also applies to my current state of singleness – although, to be honest, some days it just doesn’t feel like it will ever be my time and season and I certainly don’t see the purpose of it.  As I have been thinking about this all, I wrote a poem about it.

There is a Season and a Time
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter

A season to mourn, a season to rejoice.
A time to laugh, a time to cry.

My time to work, cook, clean, grade, drive, teach and dream.

A time to sleep
just a little bit longer.
A time to relax
and read just for fun.
A time to study light,
looking into the heavens wondering.

There is a plan,
or so I’ve been told.
There is a direction,
but I don’t know where to head.
There is a purpose,
but I don’t have one.

Is it the fall of my life?
Things beginning to age.
Did I just skip over summer?
Where was my June?
Weddings and Bells.
Children playing, running, red-faced by the sun?

Or is it still Spring?
Am I still stuck in
April showers, waiting for
the first tulip
buried in darkness
to reach for the sky.

Some days it feels like winter,
cold and dark.
Waiting for the sun rays
to greet me,
taking me to the New Years
A new cycle
A new beginning.

There is a season
Which one am I in?
Summer, Winter, Fall, Spring
There is a time
Night and day, light and dark
Dusk and dawn of life.
There is a purpose.
I’m trying to find mine.
It wasn’t where I thought it would be.

Around this time, each year (and once in the Spring) my students have gotten comfortable with me.  They have gotten used to my strict rules, my weirdness, and realize just how much I care about them.  Once that happen, they then become really concerned for me because they care about me in return.  So, it is at this time that these questions then get asked:

(Remember I work with Youth in Custody who doesn’t really know what is ‘appropriate’ to ask and not ask.   I don’t take any offense to this.)

• Summit Student: Lesli, are you married?
• Me: No
• Summit Student: Do you have a kid?
• Me: No
• Summit Student: Do you have a boyfriend?
• Me: Nope – (dramatic sigh – it’s funny)
• Summit Student: Are you gay?
• Me: Nope – definitely like boys.
• Summit Student: Do you want to get married?
• Me: Yes, yes I do.
• Summit Student: Why don’t you have a boyfriend?
• Me: That’s a good question.

And every once in a while a brave student will put two and two together and ask me this question:

• Summit Student: Wait.  So, you’re a Mormon and not married. . . . . Does that mean you’re a virgin?
• Me: Yes. (No shame.  I’ll talk about this below.)

At this point in time other students will start defending me by saying things like, “She’s Mormon.  She’s got to find a good guy.”  or “She just hasn’t met the right one yet, idiot.”  or  “Hey I could set you up with my tracker/case manager/foster brother!”  To which I refuse.

I find it so funny that they are so worried about my single status.  They really do worry about it.  As if my whole life’s happiness hinges on whether or not I have a boyfriend.  And I can understand why they feel that way.  For many of my students having a girl/boyfriend is the most important thing in their world.  Many of my students are already parents and their view on families is very different from mine.  They go from guy to guy to guy or from girl to girl to girl.

What I also find quite funny is their dating advice.  I try not to giggle too much when they give me this advice, but sometimes it just sneaks out.

1. They like to tell me about his awesome club that they like to go to.  There are “like lots of hot guys there!”  Which I remind them that I’m 30, I don’t drink, I don’t do drugs, and I’m Mormon.  They tell me that I don’t have to drink or do drugs in order to go to the club and meet guys.  But then I ask them, “But I don’t want to marry a guy who would go to a club like that.”  And then they are stumped.
2. They like to remind me that I’m turning 30 and so I better hurry because once I turn 30 I can’t have any kids.  This one always makes me laugh and laugh and laugh.  Once I can breathe I remind them that not all people in the world have kids when they are 15 years old.  And then I tell them I have 10 good years left in my uterus.  They look at me with their doubting eyes.  I don’t think I’ve made them feel any better.
3. They like to try to set me up on dates – with anyone they know who is single, no matter their age or moral standard.  I say, “Thanks, but no thanks.  That would be weird dating your __________________ (proctor dad?  Ewww!)
4. They also like to give me tips on my hair, makeup, and clothing.  I even had one student tell me that I needed to “slut it up” because boys like that.  (This was from a male student.)  Yup – not happening.  One year I had a student say (after this tidbit of advice) “Oh you wear those funny white underwear things huh?  Because your Mormon.  Yeah, you can’t dress slutty with that on.”  No Sir-ee I cannot.  Nor do I want to.
5. And my all time favorite piece of advice: “Your standards are too high.  That’s why you aren’t dating anyone.”  To which I respond with something about not wanting to be miserable for the rest of my life because I was married to a loser.

When I first started at Summit and had this first conversation with students, I was shocked and embarrassed.  Now, I’m used to it.  If my students didn’t like me then they wouldn’t ask any personal questions.  I actually, kinda like having this type of conversation now.  It gives me a chance to show these kids a whole different world of relationships.  I get to show them that it is okay to not date everyone, all the time.

Also, I can teach them a little about my values and standards when it comes to dating – like chastity.  I don’t out and out teach or preach it because there is such a thing as separation of church and state.  But I can answer questions.  Too many of my students are sexually active at such a young age, that they don’t understand the power of it or the sacredness of it.  For them, if you sort of like a guy, you better open your mouth or spread your legs in order to show him that you like him.  (Ouch.  That was vulgar – sorry, but that really is how these girls and guys think.)  When I answer honestly and without shame to the whole virginity question it may just help one student see that there is another way of living and maybe even consider not being so consumed with the whole idea of sex.

But enough seriousness -

I just have to say that I think my students may just be more worried about my non-marital status than my parents are.  Or perhaps, my parents have a filtering system and they just don’t say everything they are thinking, like my students do.

Last Friday, two other teachers and I did an activity with our classes called “A-Frame.”  We like to do physical, experiential activities with students.  It helps build teamwork and breaks down walls and barriers.  I don’t know why, but when you have to do something physical it bonds you with the people you are doing the experience with.  Let me walk you through it.

(First, I can’t publish photos of my students on the Internet since they are in custody.  So these are the ones where you can’t really see their faces.)

First Ben (our Vice Principal) talks to the kids. He preps them for what they are about to do and explains a little why we are doing it and what we are trying to accomplish. The kids are pretty restless and just want to start. Not to mention they are a little nervous.

We had a little sna-foo. All the ropes were tangled. I love that everyone has their hands in this trying to get it untangled. Go Teamwork!

Next, a student is blindfolded and taken to the A-frame while the rest of the group has a rope and is surrounding him in a circle.

The students begin to pull tight on their ropes.

Pulling the one on the A-frame up into the air.

Until the A-frame is vertical and the the student is sitting upright.


(This is my favorite photo from the day. I love the ropes going out like a May Pole.)

Then we have the student stand up – then take the blindfold off. They always freak out and I love this moment.

Now that the student is standing, we pull on the ropes making the A-frame walk or spin in a circle. It takes everyone working together. One side holds steady while another pulls. One side runs forward, while the other holds still. It is great to see the kids doing this.

Eventually we let the student down.

And start again with another student.

And another.

This activity really is great. It is fun to watch and fun to do. But it is scary as hell being up on that A-frame. I know, I’ve been there. You really do have to trust all the other people in a group. Doing this physical activity is much more powerful than “talking” about trust. You really do have to trust those around you.

It is things like this that make me really love my school. There is no way that we could even attempt to do this in a mainstream school. You couldn’t even have the idea. But the benefits are amazing.

As a side note – I used the portrait setting on my camera and my zoom lens. I loved the blurred background, but I had to make sure I stayed further away than I wanted sometimes.

Side note #2 – I love the sun spots in this shot.

If there is one reason more than any other reason why my mother calls me her Stepford Child, then the first day of school is it.  You see, children from Stepford don’t like change.  They like routine.  They like knowing what will happen when they get up in the morning.  (And when I say “they” – I mean “I”)

While I have always loved school, the very idea of the first day of school gave me nightmares as a child.  And hysterical crying.  And tummy aches.  You see, by the time I had finally gotten used to summer, school would start again.  Then I would worry and worry and worry.  I would worry about who would be my teacher, who would be my friend, who would I sit next to, who would I eat lunch with, play with, walk to school with.  Every year I feared that I would be the tallest one in the class, and every year I was.  For weeks before school started my poor mother would have to deal with my hysteria.  She would desperately try to calm me, but to no avail.  I spent sleepless night fretting.  I was hopeless.  By about October, I would have calmed down and gone back to loving school, but man, that first day almost killed me every year.

Well, not much has changed.  I still hate the first day of school.  It is sort of ironic then that I am a teacher.  And not only that, but I’m a teacher at a school with a large amount of turnover and new students.

What I particularly hate about the first day of school now is that at my school we do “team building” activities at the end of the day on the first day of school.  Basically, you can translate that into, lets see how badly we can humiliate all the teachers and the new students.

First we start out by holding hands, tangling ourselves up, and then try to get into a perfect circle.  It is called the human knot.  I call it – way too close, invading my personal bubble, I don’t like holding hands with my students, torture activity.   My class lost.

Next, we run relay races, spin in circles, jump in potato sacks, and generally allow my students to see all my wobbly bits, well wobble across the field.  Double yay?  My class lost again.

Then, we do this torturous activity, which is now a Summit tradition called the Root Beer Run.  I call it the I think I’m going to throw up race.  We run down to some tables, try to down a root beer float, and run back.  And I usually have to do this 2 times.

This is me trying to choose the smallest possible Root Beer Float.

And this is me trying to drink it.

Both of the pictures above are from previous years, but every year it is the same.  I usually end up cheating by spitting out half of the drink because I just can’t take it anymore.  Way to be an example, eh?  In case you were wondering, my team lost again.

Luckily this year I teamed up with the other English teacher and he was able to be the positive leader.  He was cheering on the students and I could stand uncomfortably on the side and listen.  You know, it is really hard to motivate others when you yourself don’t want to participate.  If I were a student and not a teacher, you bet I would be sitting on the side watching, but not participating.  Unless they threatened to get me in trouble and then I’d participate (unwillingly and with a bad attitude) just so I didn’t get in trouble.

Because the other thing Stepford Children hate more than change, is getting in trouble.  We’re rule followers.  Unless it comes to chugging Root Beer Floats.  Our inner circuits can’t handle that.

The day ends by doing a Summit cheer (thank goodness we skipped the pyramid building this year).  And I’ll be honest.  I cheered really, really loud.  I was excited the first day was over with.  Whew!

I’m praying that if I have any children, they are nothing like me because then both of us (mother and child) will be fretting, worrying, and stressing out over the first day of school – and no one needs that – one Stepford Child is enough.

. . . I will be sitting in a conference room.

. . . I will be answering questions about my teaching methods.

. . . I will have driven 7 hours.

. . . I will have hopefully had a good night’s rest.

. . . I will hopefully not forget my portfolio,

. . . or have a run in my pantyhose,

. . . or a wrinkle in my shirt.

I have not slept for more than 4 hours a night since I was contacted about interviewing for a teaching position in Casper, Wyoming, two weeks ago.

My emotions have run the gammet of excited, confident, skeptical, delusional, worried, nervous, disbelief, denial, hope, fear, and dread.  Lets just say that I am worn out.

At night I have been kept awake by my overactive brain going over any interview question I could think of.

I have researched the school and in fact feel as though I have their website memorized.

And it will all be over in less than an hour.

So, by three o’clock tomorrow

. . . I will be in my car, on the way home, somewhere in Wyoming.

. . . I will be exhausted.

. . . I will have probably run the gammet of emotions about my interview.

. . . I will have probably talked Christi’s ear off about the interview and analyzed every single second of it.

. . . I will have called my mother and done the same thing.

But hopefully, I will know one way or the other what the decision is.  And as soon as I know – you’ll know.  Thank you, everyone, for your support, encouragement, kind words, and belief in me.

Today is graduation at my school.  All year it seems as though this day will never come.  It also seems like I will be glad to watch my students leave and ready to start the summer – which I am.  However, I also feel a deep sense of reflection at this time.  I can’t help but get a little teary-eyed as I look back at the past year and the lives that my students have led.

Josefina is the perfect example.

This is her son – Chucky.

I took this photo one day after school with my iPhone.  Josefina was staying after school, working on math.  Josefina stayed after almost every day to work on math.  We are lucky in that our students can bring their kids to school and take them to a day care that is downstairs.  So, every day, Josefina would take Chucky to day care and pick him up after school and bring him up to our math teacher’s classroom.  He would play or nap while she worked on her homework.

I wonder about Josefina’s life.  I wonder about what drives her to just keep on going.  She has pure strength inside of her.

Chucky’s real name is Angel.  I think that embodies perfectly the innocence and optimism she must have felt, when at 15 years old she had him.  The father is in prison and Josefina struggles to make it to school every day.  She also takes care of her mother, who doesn’t speak English.  She lives on Top Raman because they can’t afford to buy groceries sometimes.  Josefina is by far the best student in my class.  You wouldn’t know it by her grades, but she really is.  She studies.  She works hard.  She has a positive attitude.  She is funny.  She enjoys learning.  And she is a bright spot in my day.  Last fall, she debated about whether or not to drop out of school.  I talked with her, her case manager, and her tracker and tried to convince her to stay.  She did and I truly believe that my year would have been completely different if she had gone.

I think this year I might be a little bit more emotional about graduation because I don’t know if I am coming back next year.  My job interview in Casper is on Tuesday.  Only a few students know that I might be leaving and it is weird to not say goodbye to anyone knowing that I might be leaving.  As I made the graduation video today, I almost cried.

From Josefina I have learned that you can keep moving forward, taking one step at a time, one day at a time.  I have learned to laugh and giggle as much as you can.  I have learned that I am truly blessed.  And I have learned that we really do influence other people by just being who we are.  I’m sure Josefina has no idea how I feel about her, but she has changed me.  I will miss her the most if I leave.

Before I started teaching high school, I substitute taught. One day I subbed for half a day in a fourth grade classroom. After 2.5 hours, I left crying. Literally. Crying. I had no idea how to handle a bunch of rambunctious kiddos. I never subbed for elementary school again.

The second job I have now is tutoring. I tutor a 14 year old and a 9 year old. I’ll admit, some days I go into the tutoring sessions with Tasha, my 9 year old, and I tremble in fear. I don’t know how to handle her and I am afraid of being too harsh with her. Not because I’m mean, but because I don’t know how to talk to kids. They cry really easily.

So, this week is Teacher Appreciation Week. And Tasha appreciated me! She gave me a card and this flower!

(Sorry about the photo’s. They were taken on my iPhone.)

Here is her card.

The inside.

Yeah, I’m cool – just kidding!

She apologized for not coloring the butterfly, but she didn’t have time.

It is a good thing the flowers came with this little tag – I don’t have the slightest idea how to grow anything.  Remember Tomas?  No?  Well click here and here.

Yup – very nice gift.

An old roommate of mine worked as a 1st and 2nd grade teacher.  I swear, every day she came home with something from her students.  Holidays were the worst!  I felt so under appreciated.  But thanks to Tasha, I know one student thinks I’m “cool.”

This last term, during our character education class, we focussed on Service, with a capital S. To get ready for it, we, as a staff, got together one Saturday to clean the school and help clean up at a local park.

Now, I don’t know if you know it or not, but teachers really don’t enjoy being at the school more than students do. It was weird to be here on a Saturday.

I learned how to plaster.
I learned how to clean a carpet with fancy spray stuff.
And I learned the perfect method for raking leaves.

And I took some photos. Actually, I made a slide show for our teacher to show students. If you want to see it, click here.

I think it was supposed to inspire them. I don’t think it really worked. My students did two service projects this term. They made file folder games and then made baby blankets. The file folders – sucked. They looked terrible. You would think 17 year olds could cut out shapes, but I guess all the drugs they have taken have made it nearly impossible. Then the blankets – embarrassing. The ties were awful, crooked, and shockingly awful.

I don’t know if my students felt good, but I didn’t.  It seemed like such a waste of time and money and materials.  Sigh.