born so i might live

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion —
to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor."
-Isaiah 61:1-3

And the first time
That You opened your eyes
Did You realize that You would be my Savior?
And the first breath
That left Your lips
Did You know that it would change
This world forever?
-relient k

and learn to fly

Thursday was my last day at Norwood and my kids threw me a little party and gave me some gifts and wrote me some letters and it was all really precious. During third period, I was sitting in the teachers' lounge waiting for Jenny to finish teaching her class and our principle walked up and we started chatting:

Roxanne: "Ooh, what did you get?"
Me: "Oh, some cards, some stuffed animals, and some other things from Mary."
R: "How sweet. So, where are you off to now?"
M: "I have a long-term placement at Hiram Johnson High School that starts in January."
R: "I see. So you have somewhere else you need to be?"
M: "Um... yes, kind of."
R: "So, when will you be a credentialed English teacher?"
M: "June of 2007."
R: "Hmm... Would you be able to get your emergency credential and start working here in January?"

HOLD UP.

So you want to hire me? As a real, paid teacher? In January? Before I even have my credential??

What followed was convoluted and hard to follow, so I'll shorten the last several days into serveral haikus:

I talked to Pauline

Discussed next quarter's options

Part-time would be fine

Roxanne called Pauline

Would only accept full-time

I'm just that awesome

If you don't read poetry well, it went something like this: Pauline said I could take the job only if it was a part-time position because my priority needs to be the program (blah blah blah). Roxanne wasn't willing to negotiate for part-time because they need somone ASAP, but told Pauline she was really impressed with my teaching and was sorry I wouldn't be joining her team. Because I'm awesome.

So, you know, that was flattering. And now I'm home with my family until January. I can't promise a lot of blogging, but I can promise a lot of PJ wearing and fireside sitting.

We'll be in touch, I'm sure.

post script

Oh yeah, I also don't have cervical cancer. I learned that today too.
I neglected to mention it because, let's be honest, I was scared out of my flipping mind, but last week I got a call from my doctor saying that my test results had come back with some "abnormalities" (specifically high-risk HPV abnormalities) and that she wanted to "discuss a few things" with me. Yikes.

Apparently there were some cells that looked precancerous. But they ran some tests and it turns out they're not precancerous. So I'm cancer-free.

And much less frightened than I was two days ago.

Praise. The. Lord.

are you having any fun

Things have been pretty exciting, teaching-wise, lately. Yesterday I was filmed (yuck) and had my end-of-quarter conference with my professors and master teacher. Then I had to go watch my film with Zach and write a paper about it. It was weird watching myself teach and even weirder hearing my teachers tell me what a good job I'm doing. I mean, I know I'm doing a good job, but it's been a tough quarter and I've dealt with a lot of stuff in the classroom, so it was great to get some positive feedback and validation.

Plus, I'm teaching poetry.

So today, an hour into my lesson, I find out I'm being observed again. By someone from the district. What the crap? Apparently, this woman was observing support classes and was originally supposed to observe Mary but, surprise, Mary isn't teaching right now - I am. Rather than reschedule, Mary told her "Oh, Megan just does what I do, so you can observe her." Fortunately, I was prepared with a good lesson and lots of handouts, overheads, and guided practice, but that really threw me for a loop.

So we had another short conference after class today and this woman told me that she had no negative things to say about my lesson, my teaching style, and my behavior management techniques and wanted to know if she could have a copy of my tape from yesterday to show clips of during training sessions (what??) and when I would have my credential and if I was planning to teach in the area next year.

Holy crap, did I just get a thinly veiled job offer? Brilliant.

And that's all for now.

geisha bruises

Today I started a poetry unit with my students. We read fun poems like "The Aliens Have Landed" and, my personal favorite, "Lemon Moon". In honor of all things poetry, here is my favorite e. e. cummings poem of all time. I wish my students read well enough to understand how beautiful it is... you shall above all things be glad and young.

For if you're young,whatever life you wear

it will become you;and if you are glad

whatever's living will yourself become.

Girlboys may nothing more than boygirls need:

i can entirely her only love

whose any mystery makes every man's

flesh put space on;and his mind take off time

that you should ever think,may god forbid

and(in his mercy)your true lover spare:

for that way knowledge lies,the foetal grave

called progress,and negation's dead undoom.

I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing

than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance -e. e. cummings Get your daily poetry fix at InVerse.

lets be alone together

I always knew I loved penguins.

From CultureBlog, Who will stop the gay male penguins??

right in front of you

Everything about yesterday was a slap in the face. Today is looking better already.

Completely unrelated, but making me think nonetheless:
Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection... I am called to live in perfect relation to God so that my life produces a longing after God in other lives, not admiration for myself. Thoughts about myself hinder my usefulness to God. God is not after perfecting me to be a specimen in His show-room; He is getting me to the place where He can use me. Let Him do what He likes. -Oswald Chambers

they made a statue of us

I finished my 45-page project! I would write more, but I'm sick of typing (sick of it!), so I'm going to go make some hot chocolate and start on my last 3 short papers of my first quarter of grad school.

I am amazing.

And Regina Spektor rocks my face off.

keep the promise

World leaders have made a number of promises to control and combat AIDS, including the goal of providing universal access to AIDS services by 2010 and to halt and begin to reverse the spread of AIDS by 2015. However, as of 2006, new reports from the World Health Organization indicate that the epidemic continues to spread in every region of the world and that in 2006 alone, 2.6 million people died of AIDS.

Today is World AIDS Day and the theme is accountability. You can read more about the struggle to establish Universal Access to AIDS treatment here.

-Over 65 million people have been infected with the HIV virus.
-Over 25 million people have died of AIDS since 1981.
-Over half of all new HIV infections worldwide are in young people aged 15-24.

Get involved.

Stop AIDS - Keep the Promise.