Ringing Like a Bell

Pat McCrory Office of the Governor 20301 Mail Service Center Raleigh, NC 27699-0301   November 16, 2013   Governor McCrory: Let me introduce myself. I am Brandy Carter, and I teach tenth grade English at Bunn High School in Franklin County. I'm sure you receive many letters each day and lately plenty of those letters have surely been from educators like me.   I'm not anyone special. I show up early for school each day, try to build good relationships with my students, and summon my best efforts to teach them the things they need to know. I figure that makes me the equivalent of an Average Joe, which is why I decided to write to you. A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with one of my colleagues that inspired me. He was a firefighter before he became a teacher, and he was explaining to me how firefighting teams work. When there's a large fire, the chief stays in one central location handling all the communications. His job is to manage th...

I ate a Gigi's cupcake today. It was a lemon-lime one. When our (former) students bring us the leftovers from their parents' shop, I always want to try a new one. I was tempted by the one just to the right, which was clearly cookies and cream. I'm brining up the cupcake because my dessert fast has ended. I actually ended just over a month ago. On the first day I shocked myself. I didn't even eat anything sweet; I didn't want to. That's how much my attitude toward dessert changed in a year. When I finally did indulge, I ate a Reese's cup, and it tasted AMAZING! It felt like I was tasting the confectionary equivalent of the Mona Lisa. I also got a colossal sugar rush that lasted for at least thirty minutes. Since then I've had a few sweet things like the cupcake I ate today, and I still really like sweet things. The difference now is that I've realized I don't need them in order to survive my life. Part of the reason I didn't write abo...

It's that time again. Early Monday morning 900 students will fill the halls of our high school. The last few days of this week began with lazy procrastination and culminated yesterday afternoon in a fevered rush to make everything perfect for the first day of school. Earlier yesterday morning we had our annual district-wide convocation. For the last few years it has been held digitally, so our staff gathers in the library to watch our superintendent give his remarks about the year ahead. Usually it consists of a lengthy list of accomplishments given school-by-school which is followed by what amounts to a professional pep rally. If you work in public schools, you'll know that it takes a lot of encouragement to make it through a school year; the task ahead is daunting. Sometimes we even watch an inspirational video. I think I shared last year's with you,  Dalton Sherman asking, "Do you believe in me?"   I was moved to tears last year and walk...

Today began with such promise. I woke up early to an unseasonably cool breeze and sunshine filtering through the trees. Today is the last day of my summer vacation. It seems as if it was to be the last perfect pearl plucked from the strand. I took Bailey for our morning walk, prayed, and read my Bible. I already decided yesterday that I would give our house one more good cleaning before my time and energy got sucked away by the greedy demands of teaching public school. The turning point came while I was wiping down the kitchen counter. I saw the slobber stains all over the glass of our back door. That's where Bailey spends most of her time outdoors, waiting impatiently for someone to let her back inside. She uses the doorknob as a signal by hitting it with her nose; the more frequent her hits, the more frantic she is. That's how her saliva gets all over the glass and the knob. That's when my glorious morning morphed into a bad episode of I Love Lucy . It's easy to...

"I hated it when my teachers did that! It was so unfair," I hear that statement or similar ones pretty frequently in social situations. Sometimes it's awkward. Someone will say, "I hated it when my teachers punished the whole class for what one person did." How am I supposed to respond to that? I'm guilty of the thing this other person just declared that he hates. What's worse is that I used to be just like him and think the same thing -- until I became a teacher. Now I know. Things aren't always what they seem to be. People are particularly nasty when it comes to talking about tests or as we call them now "assessments." Nobody likes being tested; it's a lot of pressure. You are judged, graded, and evaluated. Most of the time the results are less than favorable. I have heard, more than once, teachers say things to students along these lines, "I wish we didn't have to have tests, that we could just learn, but that's n...

I know people who are bold, courageous, and inherently tough. I know people who are humble, focused, and intuitively seem to know just what needs to be done in every situation. I know people who don't have a habit of second guessing themselves. I know people who find living and breathing in their mortal bodies effortless. I am not one of those people . When I first started writing this blog last year, I felt like I was trying to expose what's really going on with me, deep inside, the way you might pop off the back of a watch to see all the little gears and springs inside. I've got a box full of old journals in a closet right beside the desk where I'm sitting. The chief difference between what you're reading now and those journals is audience. I'm letting you see what I have to say if you want to. I just read a book called An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith   by Barbara Brown Taylor. As I read the introduction, I found a kindred spirit, not someo...

"Christmas in July" annoys me. Thankfully, it only shows up in cheesy sales promotions and gimmicky Television programming marathons. Last week I stretched out on the couch ready to relax a little and watch some TV. When I accessed the guide, I noticed that the Hallmark channel was showing a non- stop Christmas movie marathon. I gagged. I apologize if anything remotely Christmas related is enjoyable for you at this time of year, but for me, it's like trying to wear a heavy sweater into a sauna. If I sat around watching Mrs. Miracle , Elf, and Midnight Santa, it would ruin real Christmas for me. Christmas is special because it's seasonal. All the enjoyable things about Christmas- brisk weather, hot chocolate, special cookies, and cozy blankets - just don't work in July. Christmas is only supposed to come once a year . That's what makes it something magical to savor. When we start celebrating "Christmas in July," the specialness gets sucked ...

Since school has been out, I've been catching up on all the little things I've put off during the year. One of those things, besides resting and going to the dentist, is listening to all the podcasts I've missed in the last few months. One of my favorites is the Freakonomics podcast. The subtitle is "The Hidden Side of Everything." So if you like thinking about off-beat things in a weird way, let me recommend it. The Stevens (Levitt and Dubner) do a lot of talking about unintended consequences, and last week I listened to one called " The Cobra Effect ." Here's a quote: MEHROTRA : So the “cobra effect” refers to a scheme in colonial India where the British governor, or whoever, the person in charge in Delhi, wanted to rid Delhi of cobras. Apparently in his opinion there were too many cobras in Delhi. So he had the bounty placed on cobras. And he expected this would solve the problem. But the population in Delhi, at least some of it, responded by f...

Summer Reading. Ahhh, the phrase that strikes fear in the hearts of vacationing honors students everywhere. Last year, I set up an interactive message board for my rising tenth graders, so they could communicate about the book we were all supposed to be reading over the summer. It didn't work out quite the way I intended. In June and July, only three kids posted to the board. Nobody else asked me any questions. There were no signs of life from any of the other seventy students. Nothing. Then in the last week before school began the message board lit up. There were so many posts that I couldn't read and respond fast enough. Can we say procrastination ? After that experience,  I abandoned the message board idea and changed the assignment this year. I put my email address at the bottom of the assignment page. In case you're wondering, I haven't heard a peep -- yet. In about a month, I'll probably get about twenty emails a day from panicking students. I'm resign...

During the summer, I take Bailey for a walk pretty much every morning, even if it's drizzling a little bit. We both love our walks in the mornings. It's the best time of day in the summer, and being out there is good for all of you not just your body. It gives us time together. I can breathe in the peaceful air, and she can sniff for rabbits. You'll recall how much she loves to chase a rabbit. Unfortunately our walk this morning wasn't quite as satisfying. First, I had to go to the dentist this morning (something I despise more than nearly anything else in the world). Second, I spotted a young little bunny in the front yard this morning when my husband was leaving for work. I realized I wouldn't be able to take ol' Bailey outside our backyard fence without a leash, and I didn't have time to rummage around for the leash. So I decided to just circle around the backyard instead.    Consequently, Bailey stood expectantly by the gate for at least 45 minu...

For a variety of reasons today has been one of those days. You know the ones -- when you think about your life and what it means. Am I doing enough? Does my life count? What really matters? One of the reasons I've been thinking about those things is that it's the end of another school year. Seniors will be graduating on Saturday, which always produces a mixed bag of emotions. Between school and community events, I think I've spent more time with some of them in the last four years than their parents have. I'm always so proud of the students from our school because, on the whole, they are great kids, and they are sincerely headed out into the world to be productive citizens. I'm always selfishly sad to see them go because I will miss them, but mostly I'm just full of joy. After all, they are the reason I do what I do every day; it isn't really about money or any other reward I could get. I show up in my classroom for them. I'm using my most precious r...

Let me tell you about a student who sits right beside my desk. I'll give you three chances to guess why he sits in that particular seat, and the first two don't count. This guy drives me crazy! He spends his time in my class constantly looking at the other students and thinking of things to say that will make them laugh. (Mostly quotes from Rush Hour 2.)  He's a classic class clown. Needless to say these behaviors often interfere with his learning; he'll be lucky to get credit for my class at all. You might be thinking that I dislike this student of mine, but I don't. At heart, he's a good kid -- he just exhausts me. In fact, there's a tender spot right in the middle of my heart for him. I've been teaching for a while now (next year will be number ten), and I've learned quite a bit about human nature in that time. I can tell you that the atmosphere in the room shifts in just this certain way when a punch is about to be thrown, and nothing brings...

Last year my students and I went on a crusade. One day I was reading "The Hot Word," a blog on Dictionary.com (I don't like it as well now as I used to; someone new is writing it, and it isn't as good). One of the posts was about dying words -- words from English that aren't used as much anymore. My diligently working students were distracted by my sudden gasp. One of my favorite words was on the "in critical condition" list. Hornswoggle -- a verb meaning to cheat or trick. It also has a great synonym I really love -- bamboozle . I was appalled! I read the short post aloud to my students, and we unanimously decided to revive two words on the list: hornswoggle and aerodrome . (An aerodrome is a small airport.) Our plan worked, kind of. A few juniors at my high school now know the words and use them occasionally. If nothing else, using the words has become a sort of inside joke for us. Yesterday after school I went to the library. Going to the li...

Keep your eyes on the road . I learned that lesson , where I should have learned it -- in driver's ed. class. Our teacher, Coach Burnette, took us down lots of winding country roads, and believe me there are plenty in rural Alabama. My lifelong friend, Joey, and I were in the same driving group along with another girl named Debbie. I'll never forget Debbie's 30 mph stretches and her 50 mph right turns. I don't know how he did it, but somehow Coach always remained calm. He had a "teacher's brake" over on the passenger side, but I'm not sure how much good that really would have done in an emergency. The man must have had nerves of steel. I really didn't have much experience behind the wheel then, and I'm not exactly the best driver in the world now. I wasn't too worried about what Joey and Debbie were going to think because both of them had already driven. They hadn't had too many serious issues. I could handle it. Right? I crept  ...

Today is a glorious day; it's my sister's birthday. A few months ago I was getting my oil changed, and I read an article about siblings in one of the worn out magazines on the table near my seat. I found it insightful. I can't remember the article's title exactly, but it was in People or Good Housekeeping -- a magazine like that. Its basic premise was that the relationship people have with their siblings is the most formative, vital, and long-lasting connection they have. I remember thinking. Yep. So true . Reading it raised my awareness about how important my siblings have been in my life. I need them, probably more than they know. I wouldn't be me without them, not to mention the fact that they  understand me in a way other people just can't. We do have the same parents and most of the same childhood experiences after all. All I have to do is look at one of them and say, "Cheesebooger." They know what that means and exactly what I'm tal...

A few years ago one of my colleagues showed me what might be the best lesson plan -- ever . The whole idea is to show students the Discovery Channel "Boom De Yada"  commercials then let students write their own versions of the song inserting the things they love about the world into the verses. If you've never seen the videos (or even if you have), you can watch it right there. Students whole-heartedly embrace the idea every time I've ever presented it. They write some pretty beautiful Boom De Yadas, and they leave class brighter, their faces shining. I've got a theory about that: it never hurts to think about the good stuff. I'm a sucker for the videos myself. I've seen them several times now, but somehow they still manage to lift my spirits. The wonders of this life (heartbreak included) make my heart sing. I read an article a while back about how scientists have figured out how to encrypt Shakespeare's sonnets onto a synthetic strand of DN...