Ringing Like a Bell

I was a spy today. Sometimes that happens when you're teaching; you see and hear things you, as an adult, were not meant to see or hear. Most of the time I wish I could un-see or un-hear it. Use your imagination: obscene gestures, profanity, or just plain old meanness.    Here's a little background. It seems there are a few students who've moved into our little community over the summer, so they're just getting to know everyone, a daunting task when you're a self-conscious teen in a small town high school where everybody already knows everybody else. I'm not just making an assumption here. I teach writing classes, so I often have an open doorway into the hearts and minds of my students. In fact, just a few days ago a girl in one of my classes turned in a paper that made my heart a little tender. In it, she detailed all the times she's moved and how hard it can be to leave old  friends behind and make new ones.  Here's where the spying part comes...

Summer's nearly over. In just a few days, all the concerns about the new school year will rush in, and I'll be consumed by it completely. For now, I find myself languishing in a lovely middle ground. I have rested from all the demands of last year, and since the new year is still several days away, I'm in a good place. I'm a tiny bit bored in a pleasant sort of way, which is what led me to re-watch an old romantic comedy I already saw years ago -- New in Town .  I remember watching the movie when came out in 2009, but there's something about it I forgot. It slipped my mind that one of the characters in the movie is an uncomfortably exact reflection of me. Let's just say it isn't Renee Zellweger's character Lucy -- if only. As I saw the film again a few days ago, I was transported back to 2009. The first time I watched the movie I was transfixed -- not by the plot, the actors, or any kind of amazing special effects. On the whole the movie is just wha...

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...

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...

Each Thursday after school a group of students meets in my room. There aren't many of them, but that's okay. Each week a different one of them offers a brief devotional, and they pray. They pray for all sorts of things, but, most importantly they pray . I'm not able to participate in the group with them because of school guidelines about staff and religious activities, but I can offer them a place to meet and my supervision. Interestingly, I think my being just an observer is a good thing. First of all, the students bear the responsibility for the group. The decisions are theirs -- not mine. Second, watching them has been such a gift. Let me explain.  I know most of them outside school from church or the community. I teach in a small town, so I get to know my students in their actual lives -- not just as bodies in a classroom. The Bible Buddies, as they call themselves, have encouraged me so much. Each of them takes leadership and discipleship seriously. They are commit...

What do you want? Has anyone ever asked you that question? If you've ever gone to a restaurant in the mall food court, you've surely been asked the same question by a bored fast food employee with a mouth full of gum and an attitude. Usually the answer is as simple as, "Fries and a coke." You should see me in a new restaurant. I nearly fly into a panic when I'm handed the menu because I want it all. In my heart I want to taste every new, good, delicious thing, so much so that it's a problem for me. Sometimes I take forever making up my mind or order quickly and experience a strange regret later that I didn't try the "special funky chicken." Most of the time it leads me to overeat. I think, "Just one more bite!" or "Of course, I'll have dessert." There's nothing inherently wrong with enjoying good food. In fact, it's one of the delights of this life, but, for me, the unhealthy relationship I have with food h...

Have you ever read The Shack by Wm. Paul Young? When it came out a few years ago, it caused a little stir among my group of friends, partly because Young portrays God as a sassy black woman. There are a few other things in the book that raised my eyebrow, but on the whole I really loved the book. It made me cry -- in a good way. Mr. Young does a good job tearing away the religious layers we've placed around God, Jesus, and The Holy Spirit. I also think he has a way of explaining difficult and abstract things in a really accessible way. The Shack is an allegory after all. Anyway, I was reminded of a passage from the book a few days ago when I saw this Hallmark commercial. Here's the passage from the book: "Consider our little friend here," she [God] began. "Most birds were created to fly. Being grounded for them is a limitation within their ability to fly, not the other way around." She paused to let Mack think about her statement. "You, on the ...

If there's ever a Lifetime movie made about my life, I'm convinced it will amount to nothing more than a chubby actress bumbling through life enduring a series of clumsy, self-inflicted accidents. Scene one : she falls off her tricycle and skins her knees. Scene two : she loses her grip on the merry-go-round and is launched into a huge puddle of red mud. Scene three : an entire montage of bike wrecks. Scene four : she knocks down an entire row of tables at McDonald's. Scene five : an entire montage of horrendous athletic accidents -- tripping, bobbling the ball, getting smacked in the face... Scene six : she falls, head first, down the bleachers. Scene seven : she loses her balance and rolls down a hill on her college campus. Scene eight : she tumbles off her stool while her students are testing. Scene nine : she slips while trout fishing and nearly breaks her arm. Last night I added a new one to the list; I fell out of the church van while Christmas caroling. ...

One Christmas when I was in high school the adult ladies Bible class at my church, The Hamilton Church of Christ , decided to host a special dinner for the teen girls in our congregation. Each of us was paired up with a lady from the class as our 'buddy' for the evening. My buddy was Ms. Fayrene. When she came to pick me up, I gave her the Christmas pot holder set I'd picked out for her a few days before. She acted like I'd just given her a check for a million dollars, and right away she started talking about how much she loved the Christmas season, exclaiming that the gift was perfect. I'd always known her in a general way, but until I sat down in the front seat of her car, we'd never really talked one on one. She was wonderful. She asked me about my life and listened intently to what I had to say. The twenty minute ride to nearby Winfield was over in the blink of an eye. At The Boar's Butt (yes, it had a drive through), we stepped into a fabulously d...

I'm a Hallmark movie kind of girl, so of course I got emotional waiting for my brother at the airport. I stood there on the day before Thanksgiving with about fifty other people. In any other situation, it would have been awkward standing so close to complete strangers, just waiting around in public, but all of us were united in the camaraderie created by waiting for our loved ones. A flight landed just before my brother's, so people started to trickle out. I watched as people I didn't know jumped into each others' arms, and little children cheered, "Grandma!" As I stood there, a lump developed in my throat. I hadn't seen any of my family in months, so I was already excited. I also felt moved by the love I could sense in the reunions of strangers standing around me. I recently read a book called Edmund Persuader . If you're a Jane Austen fan, you should check it out. Here's a quote that came to mind while I was waiting in the airport: It ...

Of all the things I need to teach my students, one of the most difficult is clear pronoun-antecedent agreement. For those of you who don't speak 'grammarian', that's the connection between the thing you just talked about and the he, she, or it that replaces that thing later on. When my students write, they are forever rattling off a list of men like Bob, Charles, Tom, and Alex. Then they begin the next sentence with 'he.' I've lost count of the number of times I've written, "which guy?," in the margins of  student essays. A few days ago, one of my classes was discussing a writing assignment. The thread of conversation carried us around to the topic of homeless veterans, which might have seemed illogical, but you've got to remember that I'm teaching a herd of fifteen-year-olds. One girls said, "That's messed up. They shouldn't let that happen." Her friend chimed in, "Yeah, They need to do something about that....

A bunch of vultures has been circling around our school. I'm not sure how long they've been there, but I noticed them a week or two ago. Out here in our rural area, we see buzzards sometimes. They eat roadkill, which is helpful, so seeing them isn't that strange. However, I initially noticed this group because there were so many of them. I mentioned it to my husband one morning on the phone. I even counted them -- there were at least twenty. I expected it to be a random, one day occurrence, but they're still out there. This afternoon they'd broken into two groups, each one circling around a different end of campus. I've mentioned their appearance to other people, and they've noticed them too. About an hour and a half ago, three things happened at once. I thought about those vultures, the lights in my classroom switched off (we have power-saving motion sensors in our classrooms.), and I watched this YouTube video. *It has one, slightly offensive word i...

I end up focusing on a quote or motto every year. I don't plan it. It happens organically. Like many other people who work serving others, it takes a lot to keep me going. I don't do my job for money or fame, so my motivation has to come from somewhere else. It's the same for other teachers, nurses, customer service representatives, or anybody else that spends lots of time helping other people. The first year I taught, it was Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me," for obvious reasons. Yep, that year was quite a challenge, but whatdaya know -- Christ did strengthen me, and I made it through. A few years later, it ended up being a quote by this lady named Lorie Keene, " Whether we are biological mothers or not, each of us has been given a special gift as a woman that   can be used to love, cherish, encourage, and nurture the children God places in our circle of influence ." I've already written about that yea...

I just read this article called, " New York's Craziest Prenups ." It detailed some of the strange stipulations from the prenuptial agreements of the rich and the not-so-rich. There's a part of me that understands having some sort of contract to protect material assets in the event that a marriage dissolves -- so many do these days. It's the other, now popular, demands that really bother me. In the article, examples were given that seem petty or just plain strange: no piano playing, no weight gain, no pregnancies, or even a fine for being rude to in-laws. I guess the people who sign these agreements before they tie the knot have their reasons. I'll also say that I'm far from being an expert on marriages or any kind of relationship for that matter, but I can't help but think extreme contracts like the ones I just read about defeat the whole idea of marriage. One of my all-time favorite poems is Shakespeare's 116th sonnet. Here's fresh, int...

It's no secret that I'm crazy about Jane Austen. I've read all her novels -- more than once . I'm also a fan of all the various adaptations of her works. Some are better than others; the 1995 Pride and Prejudice is absolutely my all time favorite. Here's a little peek if you've never seen it. I'm not the only Austenite. There are websites and fan clubs on every continent. Well, I'm not sure about Antarctica, but you get the idea. Her stories are popular for a variety of reasons. Jane is an excellent observer of humanity, so her characters are like people we meet in everyday life. She manages to be quite satirical and witty without being mean, but people mostly love the stories because no matter how realistic the story line is, the ending is always a happy one. Despite their misunderstandings, Darcy and Elizabeth work things out in the end. Edward finally comes to propose to Elinor, and Emma eventually gives up her matchmaking ways to realize she...