T-Dawg’s Blog

Admittedly, I am playing with some new Edublogs image improvements — and trying to do them with my Mac. These are rock sculptures that tourists come along and add to. It’s all visible from the “Marginal Way” path leading to Perkins Cove. 

Wow, I have really been a blog-slacker. There’s a movement called “Slow-blogging” — but I have now put a face on “Slack-blogging!” Guess that’s what happens to a teacher having too much fun in the summer… Anyway, here’s one  of the places I’ve found quite relaxing: Ogunquit, Maine. Great waves, lobster, sand, and backyards. Can’t wait to go back someday…

Welcome to the weekly “Day in a Sentence” activity that Kevin usually hosts on his blog Kevin’s Meandering Mind

Hi! This week, while filling in for Kevin, I’m going to mix it up a little and ask you to boil down your week to one “Night in a Sentence.” Many of us work hard during the day, but what happens after we leave our jobs? Conjure up a sentence and let it rip. I’m looking forward to your masterpieces! (You can leave them in the “response” spot on this blog.)

I was driving home from the dentist this morning after an hour of massive mouth drilling when I saw this lovely gal. She cheered me up! While I was taking her photo, a woman came running down the inside stairs, yelling “Sheila, Sheila!” and I said, “No, I’m T-Dawg,” but she didn’t seem convinced. (Maybe I am an imposter…) I thought she was going to yell at me for being in her yard — her child looked scared — but she just smiled and told me I have a twin. (That may have been the 17th time in my life I’ve heard that!) It’s a good day when a Snow-Woman sprouts flowers for ears, and though I did look for her missing eye, it didn’t turn up.

I recently read about a guy who wakes up every morning and says “Today, I’m going to be happy.” I tried it the past three mornings and it seems to be working. But then again, I am on vacation…

I read an article this morning about sleep and heart disease. The well-rested are less inclined to have heart attacks. So, I’m making a big deposit in “The Sleep Bank” these days…and I’m reading Into the Wild, and cooking chowder, seeing friends, playing guitar, and hitting the gym once in a while. No paper grading yet. Nap time…

  Yesterday, on his wonderful blog, the poet Mark Doty wrote this post about the allure of California. It made me so homesick for the place of my birth and for the family who still resides there.

    “I can’t help but connect this painting with my new pleasure of living temporarily in California: the softness of the light, the just-right temperature of the air, the piles of beautiful citrus on the sidewalk this morning on my walk to the bank…  truly, it’s all the experential equivalent of butter.”

    The week I recently spent in Southern California was glorious in every way. Red berries were blooming along the trail we hiked on the day after Christmas. The chocolate labs went swimming in a river. Fall foliage was at peak in December! Vendors sold fresh fruit and flowers along the side of the road in Ventura. There was light everywhere and no evil ice on the ground. My family was so lovely and honest.

   I’m on the wrong coast.

“But if parents are searching for the perfect teacher, teachers are looking for the ideal parent, a partner but not a pest, engaged but not obsessed, with a sense of perspective and patience. And somehow just at the moment when the experts all say the parent-teacher alliance is more important than ever, it is also becoming harder to manage.”  ~ Nancy Gibbs, Time Magazine, February 13, 2005

Last week at a video workshop, I ran into a parent (who also happens to be a teacher) of one of my students. He proceeded to tell me how much his son enjoys my class, how the writing assignments excite him, and that he’s impressed with how engaged his son is in English. I thanked him and tried to hide my tears. It was a total and complete rush! I felt validated, appreciated, and understood. My joy of teaching returned.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the norm, and my love of teaching is sometimes soured by the critical parent who chooses to go straight to the top when his/her child comes home and complains. Usually, this parent will choose to remain anonymous, fearing some kind of retaliation from the teacher. This undermines us not only as professionals, but as empathetic human beings.

I had a wonderful writing teacher in college who said “No one really grows from negative feedback.”  Parents who have something constructive to say don’t need to hide behind anonymity or bypass the teacher altogether as they angrily march to the front office. Talking and listening to the teacher first might be a better path toward compassionate communication.

 I am a Slowblogger – I know that now. I can let go of the pressure to write every day or even once a week. I can stop feeling like I am a Blog Slacker! The New York Times article validated my fledgling blogger neurosis. I am free.

BTW, this is an old photo of T-Dawg in the snow. It was taken last year in March. Today’s precipitation, which closed down all of the schools, is just a lot of slushy ice that will freeze tonight and turn my driveway into a hockey rink. So…I get to go move it around with a shovel now, and then I get to eat my homemade chicken enchiladas and read a book and take a hot bath. I love the unexpected snow day, especially when it turns the weekend into three days. It’s a gift for teachers and students, a way of rewarding us for staying sane in the winter. Full Cold Moon tonight. LIfe is good…

This is where the “Writing Retreat” was held for the past three years. There won’t be one this year because we didn’t even break even on it last year. I’m going to miss sitting by the fire and writing with the other teachers. I’m going to miss the incredible meals we shared together downstairs at the long benches. I’m going to miss the evening camaraderie and my little bunk bed that I crawled into at night. Most of all, I’m going to miss this view. Maybe next year…