I just wanted to announce that. 

No changes at our school for the next 4-5 years… or that’s what they say for now.

I love playing basketball on Friday afternoons, even if I’m the worst player on the court. 

I love coming home to my wife and kids even more.

And I love my dog, even when she gets us up several times a night. 

We’re reading a book that I picked out– the student in class are, that is. First time in five years that I proposed a new book to buy and read. If you’re curious, it’s Three Cups of Tea (Young Readers Edition). Every seventh grader in our school will read it, most of them starting tomorrow. I’m pretty stoked about this. It’s a true and amazing story about one man who really is changing the world.

Also tomorrow morning, we have a staff meeting at 7:45 a.m. to find out what changes the district has in plan after the board meeting last night. If our building is affected at all, it will likely be to add 6th grade (we’re currently a 7/8 middle school). That would definitely change a lot, if it came to pass.

Happy Friday everyone!

But neither did we. Alas, none of us are among those claiming that $380M Mega Millions jackpot.

Then again, it’s not always a good thing to win the lottery. (Seriously, if you’ve never read that story, you need to. Every year I get to warp enlighten the minds of seventh-graders and guarantee it’s the one story we read all year that they’ll never forget).

Day 1 of Semester 2 is over and done, and Teach is happy for it. But I’m tired and my back hurts– and again that’s a story for another time.

The great thing about teaching is you get a new year twice. The new school year in August, and then the new calendar year with the new semester.

Not having fun making seating charts at the moment.

So I came to one of those momentous life decisions today. I decided, after much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth, that I am going to put off graduate school for another… six years or so. This was after it took me two attempts during the past two summers to finish one graduate course, and added over $100 a month to my student loan payments. Ugh.

I can’t help feeling like a bit of a failure. I have had to concede that I can’t do everything. I can’t succeed at everything I want to do, at least for the forseeable future, and that’s difficult for me to accept. But I had to weigh costs versus benefits. The costs would be the loss of all my time, time with my wife and kids, time to devote to doing my job well, as well of, of course, five digits more in student loan debt. The benefits would be the satisfaction of accomplishing something I’d initially set out to do over a decade ago, and a significant bump in salary– IF our (teachers’) pay structure does not get changed, which is completely uncertain at this juncture. We already know that steps (increases for years of experience) are frozen next year, but levels (increases for level of education) are still in effect– but only for next year. Beyond that, we can’t know; but we know that there’s a lot of anti-public education, anti-teacher (or at least, anti-teachers’ union) sentiment right now, and people in high places (Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, etc.) advocating on the anti- side. Mr. Gates says that a master’s degree doesn’t make you a better teacher. For the next two-thirds of a decade at least, I hope he’s right.

It’s weird to come to this decision at this particular moment, as I try to resurrect this blog, which I created after completing my first semester of grad school. My first full year on Xanga (2001) saw me grow disillusioned with my situation and end of leaving school about a year short of earning my Master’s… and I never did, and now I know I won’t until my mid-40s at the earliest. 

But that’s OK. I know it’s for the best. Unlike that last time, this decision is made because of more people than just myself. Right now being a husband, father, teacher, and marginally-aspiring writer is much more important than being a graduate student– because I can’t do them all. 

As for today, there’s not much to say for it. Staff meeting all morning, lunch, staff training all afternoon. Barely any time in my room. I can’t even say right now what the lesson plans for Wednesday will be, but you know what? That’s OK too.

Back to work tomorrow, though no students until Wednesday.

That’s all I’ve got for now… do I need to set a 20-word limit on these?

Just wanted to write that date once. Going to borrow from myself today (would that be autoplagiarism?)

New Year’s Resolution

I resolve
To live this year
And each one hence
Inside that one
Brief shining moment
Where all was good
All was joy
All was love.
Can you build your life
Inside a moment?
Can you stand breathless
but resolute
Upon the battlements of the sandcastle
As high tide rushes in?
Can you make your world
Within the globe of the soap bubble
As it wafts perilously on the summer breeze?
The past without
And the future within
Is the eternal present.
Here is no fear, no doubt;
No loss, no pain, no death.
Here is the life you always imagined
Finally experienced
In this one transcendent moment,
Captured forever
And gone in an instant
Both at once.
A fantasy you say?
Are sandcastles and soap bubbles not real?
And is not our mind’s resolve
Far stronger than either?

On December 25, my original hometown of Atlanta, Georgia experienced its first white Christmas since the 19th century, while here in Denver, in the state of Colorado, whose reputation is inextricably linked to snow, it was sunny, dry, and 53 degrees. In fact, it’s been sunny, dry, and relatively mild ever since Halloween. This extended autumn finally ended yesterday, December 30. The following shots, from our front step looking towards the clubhouse and pool, and from the sidewalk looking at the front of our house, were taken at 8:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. respectively, during which time the temperature dropped at least 20 degrees:

Now, almost 24 hours later, the snow has stopped and the sun is out, but the temp remains just above single digits, and about half a foot of snow lays on the ground. So while we were nowhere close to a white Christmas, we will indeed have a white New Year’s. 

I am still trying to determine how I’m going to write something interesting every single day, and build up readership again, but there’s only one way to try. 

So it has indeed been a fun and eventful week. Last night we attended our second hockey game in eight days. There’s divided loyalties for this, as I pull for our hometown Colorado Avalanche, but Maria, native of Michigan, cheers on the Detroit Red Wings. (Detroit won 4-3 in OT; it was an intense game).

In between, we have visited the same arena to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra and also attended a performance of White Christmas at a community theater. Both ends of the spectrum, a major metropolitan arena with a packed house of 14,000 for a national touring act, and a theatre seating 260 for a local production. Bottom line, we’ve had FUN.

The kids are gone to their dad’s house, so Maria & I have been enjoying uncommon alone time. Getting to simply hang out, do– or perhaps more importantly, not do– whatever we want, sleep in, drink peppermint schnapps in our coffee, whatever we damn well please.

That’s the upside.

We had a nice Christmas, and everyone including myself is generally happy with gifts received. The fact that we have our family to celebrate with is still the greatest gift of all. Yet, I can’t help but be a bit bummed by the fact that I did not receive a single phone call, or text message, or personal remark on Facebook. I’m not sure what to think about that. Of course, the only call I attempted to make on Christmas Day was to my mom, who did not answer. She didn’t answer the next day, either. Finally, on the evening of the 26th, she called and I discovered she had been at my brother’s house. I was glad to hear that as otherwise she’d have been left home alone on Christmas. My mom is 77 years old and lives with one of my three older brothers. He, however, is in Mexico right now. The oldest of our clan lives 20 minutes away but apparently can’t bother to see his mother. Of the remaining brother and I, he is a bit over two hours away and I, well, am two time zones, at least four states and some 1,450 miles away. Thankfully, other brother took her from her home to his and back for the hoilday.

Every fall I teach a unit on the Middle East to my 7th grade students and one major element we examine is stereotypes about Muslim people living in that region of the world. I need not identify all the stereotypes Americans/Westerners hold about Arabs/Muslims/Middle Easterners (which are not interchangeable terms) but one “they” hold about “us” is we do not value our family members and treat them as we should when they grow old, preferring to pay someone else to care for them rather than keeping them at home with us and giving them the respect they deserve. I think “they” have a point in this regard.

More tomorrow; I am trying to build up to daily blogging again– I do not dare call it a New Year’s resolution as that will doom it to failure (or did I just do that?)

Ten Years Ago Today…

That was as litboiler. For the none of you who are keeping score, my Xanga incarnations have been:

litboiler (December 23, 2000-May 5, 2005)
education_is_life (October 10-November 8, 2004)
jasonwrites (May 5, 2005-present)
jason_the_poet (a self-explanatory side project, first created June 5, 2001)

There were others that I was involved with as a co-contributer, such as the original Xangaholics Anonymous.

It’s been an eventful (mostly fun) week in the real world but that will wait until next post.