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 ...