Pied Beauty

It is a lovely Sunday morning and I've already been up for hours! The sun is streaming through the windows, the crisp morning air is filtering through the screen doors, the birds are chirping outside, and there's a batch of blueberry French Toast baking in the oven. The sweet smells of cinnamon and vanilla waft gently into the living room and mix with the aroma of freshly laid bark mulch.

I still have a lot of projects to do today, but I am eager to get outside again. I spent the majority of my day weeding and spreading bark mulch, so I am excited to dig into planting today. When I walked out to collect the newspaper this morning, I was reminded of a lovely poem that one of my favorite English teachers (thanks Ms. Jencks!) presented to my class many, many years ago.

It seems like a perfect morning for Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Pied Beauty

Glory be to God for dappled things

For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;

Landscapes plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;

And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)

With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise Him.

Welcome, Weekend!

I am really looking forward to the long weekend! The weather forecast looks fairly positive and I am so thankful for that. It was certainly not fun to teach in the sweltering heat earlier this week. My husband and I do not have any great plans for the weekend, but I suspect that we will be busy with yard work.

All of these plants need to go in the ground! My dad does a lot of gardening and he has given us so many lovely plants. I am really excited to transform our yard. We will be very busy planting a variety of Irises, Cosmos, Zinnias, Cleome (a.k.a. Spider Flower), and Dianthus.

I cannot wait to see these plants flower!

We may have been a little over zealous in our mulch purchase. I think that we will have more than enough mulch for the various garden beds. Do you think ten yards (!!!) is enough?

It looks like I'm not the only one who will be busy in the garden today. I discovered this bee pollenating our Walker's Low, which is located near our back deck.

Our Weigela bush (a.k.a. Wine and Roses) is one of my favorite plants.

Once I have finished the weeding and planting, I will need to do a little bit of "clean up" with our front porch arrangement. From the left, Nasturtium, Pansies, and a pot with Petunias and Lobelia.

And while I am thankful for the extra time off this lovely long weekend, I want to close this post by reflecting on why we have this time off in the first place. On this Memorial Day weekend, I wish to thank all of those who have served our country. My American Studies class was visited this week by Mr. Wilson, a local WWII veteran. Mr. Wilson's reminded the students of the importance of freedom and the right to think. It was inspiring to see how much my students valued his very special visit.

Enjoy your weekend!

Wake up, Daisy!

A Little Inspiration

Before I sign off for the night, I wanted to leave a link to a performance piece that inspires my teaching. Taylor Mali, a slam poet, wrote the the poem "What Teachers Make." He also performs this poem in the video. This piece gets me every time and it helps me to keep keepin' on even when I'm feeling a little overwhelmed.

Check out the link below: Taylor Mali performs "What Teachers Make."

Have a great Monday!

It's Just Another Manic Monday...

For as long as I have been teaching, I have always had grand dreams of "reclaiming" my Sunday afternoons and evenings. Despite some very noble efforts to reinvent Sunday as a day of rest, it still seems that until June 20th, the next several Sundays will remain days of work. However, I know that I can hang on until then!! When June 20th rolls around, not only will I have my precious Sunday back (if only for eight delicious weeks), but every day of Summer feels like Sunday afternoon! I am definitely looking forward to the respite that summer offers, but I shouldn't get too far ahead of myself. Though the time between now and June 2oth is but a small gap, there is a lot that is bound to happen.

And here are some rough thoughts about a Monday Morning in May.

A Monday Morning in May

How come 5:30 didn't seem so early in September?

I'm slow to wake on a Monday morning in late May

The alarm clock wails, and wails, and wails

I extend an arm to reach for it, but I fumble, clumsily

My fingers pass over the buttons as if they are reading Braille and they do not understand

And thankfully--finally--I hit it.

Snooze.

Fifteen minutes.

The first five feel like forever

And I can feel myself getting sucked into a dark and encompassing sleep.

Soon I'm falling like Alice down the rabbit hole.

This is an exceptional state of slumber.

I'm not even thinking about whether or not the photocopier will jam this morning

Or that I need to sign out the TV for G-Block.

In this kind of sleep it's like I've never heard of an agenda,

a 7:30 parent meeting, or NEAS&C.

Before I get a chance to meet the Mad Hatter,

the sound calls from far away

And again, that alarm clock is wailing, and wailing, and wailing

And again, I reach, fumble, and finally hit it.

Snooze.

But before I can enjoy those first five minutes,

I feel a finger poking me gently--but with certainty--beneath my ribs.

"Are you going to get in the shower?"

Though his eyes are closed, he smiles like he's some kind of Cheshire cat.

Thoughts and Introductions

Hi everyone!

My name is Maureen and this is my "Thought Spot." I've been trying to think about a theme for this blog all week long--and it hasn't been easy!!!. Should I write about my work in the classroom? Should I write about what I'm reading in my free time? Or should I write about my many interests? Gardening? Yoga? Family? Friends? Travel? Cooking/Baking? The possibilities are absolutely endless. So I've decided to use this blog to reflect on all of the above. I'm excited to see where this journey with blogging takes me and I'm happy to let a theme emerge as I begin to "write it out." I am especially excited that this blog will allow me the opportunity for personal reflection. I have used blogs in my classroom, but I haven't ever used a blog for my own personal writing. I'm looking forward to this.

So I guess that I should begin with an introduction of sorts, eh? I'm in my eighth year of teaching English at a mid-sized high school in southern NH. I consider myself fortunate to work with a fantastic group of colleagues and a great population of students. I suppose I should also disclose that I am also an alumnae of this high school, too! This was nothing I planned, but an appreciation for the positive school community in my hometown and sheer coincidence brought me back "home" in 2002 and I haven't left yet! If this isn't enough of a deeply personal connection to my workplace, my husband also teaches at the same school, too. Again, this was not planned and we weren't even dating when we both accepted positions at the school, but coincidence and connections brought us to the same workplace. All in all, this connection has also enriched my role as a teacher in my school. I appreciate and admire my husband as a teacher and a leader in our community. He is a great advisor, educator, mentor, and colleague. And though we do our best not to "talk shop" during our personal time together, I firmly believe that our conversations about teaching make me a more thoughtful and compassionate educator.

When I'm not teaching, I enjoy spending time at my house in small-town NH. I've lived in the Granite State all of my life, and I really do love it here. If you want to know a little bit more about NH, you might want to check out "Granite State of Mind," a parody of Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' popular hit, "Empire State of Mind." And if you do know something about NH, this is bound to give you a chuckle or two.

Check out the link here: "Granite State of Mind."

Enjoy the afternoon!