Ringing Like a Bell

I have a good memory for faces but not always for names. My husband teases me unmercifully about it. He wobbles his head around in imitation of me and says, "He looks familiar!" It all started one night when a new episode of Cops was coming on. During the brief intro clip montage, I saw the face of a guy from my hometown. I perked right up and said, "Hey! I know that guy!" Sure enough, near the end of the episode, there he was being arrested during Mardi Gras. It happens all the time. Sometimes we'll be out somewhere in public, at a restaurant or a store. I'll turn to my husband and say, "I think I know that guy -- He looks so familiar to me." Then the waiter or clerk will say, "Hey! Remember me? You taught me five years ago!" My husband just shakes his head and says, "I swear. We can't go anywhere." It is a small world after all. Sometimes I'm sure he thinks I'm making it up, but I do really recognize peop...

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....

"Oooh, let's call your husband and tell him you're trapped inside the building," he said. Two of my colleagues and I were filing out of the Raleigh Convention Center while the fire alarm blared in the background. I shook my head, "No way, that's beyond a joke; he'd probably have a heart attack on the spot." We stood outside for a while before the building was cleared, and we could go back inside. My two teacher friends and I were at a reading conference. Most of the other teachers there were elementary school teachers, and most of them were also women. In contrast, I was walking around with two men in tow wearing a flamboyant purple shirt and pink scarf. Not to mention the fact that the three of us possess more personality than the entire cast of SNL combined. Let's just say we were easy to spot. I'd love to tell you about how the conference changed my professional life and that I learned a million new strategies for teaching reading. I g...

Everyone I've talked to has said, "They're an investment." I haven't met a single person with a pair of Dansko shoes who doesn't love them. I'm sure there's somebody out there, but it isn't anyone I know. Other teachers, nurses, friends, even my school's principal have all said the same thing. All I did was mention that I was thinking about getting a better pair of teacher shoes. That little opening did it. I heard all about how I would buy a pair and never go back. Lately my feet and lower legs have been just a little bit tired and achy. My shoe philosophy since I started teaching has been to buy shoes that are decent but not too pricey. I also have to admit a weakness for shoes that match a particular dress or look lovely, so I've suffered for fashion sometimes. I started to google 'teacher shoes' and ask around. The result? Like I already said, everybody is crazy about Dansko. Not the best looking shoes in the world, but und...

I'd already admonished my students to arrange their make up work with me. As I sat at my desk looking at the spreadsheet for my ninth grade class, there were holes, lots of holes. Some of the grades were downright abysmal, and progress reports were going home tomorrow. I shook my head, deciding to call the parents of students missing important test grades. Maybe that would get some results. The first few tries didn't get anyone, so I had to leave a message. Finally, a mom picked up. I explained who I was and said, "I'm calling because the test your son missed last Thursday needs to be made up." I paused expecting the standard response, "Okay, when can he arrange to do it." That's not what she said, "My son didn't miss that test. He was at school on Thursday." I sighed. "Ma'am, I'm sorry, but I don't have a test grade here, so he must have missed it." She stood firm, "Nope. He was at school. You've ...

Last night I watched the latest episode of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo , a spin off from the show Toddlers and Tiaras . My husband and I watched Alana, a.k.a. Honey Boo Boo, and her sisters roll toilet paper all over their house, inside and out , while their parents were out on a 'date.' I use the term date loosely. My husband was horrified, and all I could think was, "Ah, takes me back." I'm the oldest of four siblings. I know there are people out there that don't buy into the whole birth order thing, but let me tell you it is absolutely true. I am a big sister to the core. I am forever worrying about the welfare of everybody and everything. I'm surprised I made it out of childhood without having a stroke or massive heart attack at the age of twelve, especially when you consider the non-stop shenanigans the four of us were always involved in. I've already told you we rode our bikes down a hill toward certain death and that a bird pooped on my tongue...

My husband is a sports fanatic. If it's a sport, we've watched it on TV. Unless you're reading this from somewhere in Siberia, and even then, you know that we are in the last few days of the thirtieth Olympiad. I've seen it all in the last several days: swimming, table tennis, gymnastics, beach volleyball, and diving. I even saw some guys playing a sport I can't name and have never seen before. For my husband sport is  serious business. We watched the latest May/Walsh victory over the Chinese beach volleyball team, and it was a close one. My husband said, "Well we won, but I swear I just lost three months of my life." He gets that into anything competitive. My response to his comment? "Well, at least it's the three months at the end." My husband has held his breath watching the light-weight sculls. On the other hand, the thing that has impacted me most about the Olympics is not the sport but the heart behind it. I love the inspirational s...