Teacher Watching

I love watching other people teach. Especially students who are still trying to figure it out. They'll do anything. Not-yet teachers are often way less inhibited. Seasoned teachers are great too. They have wisdom of experience backing them up. You can see it in how they interact with the students and hold their audience. I love watching other people teach.

Today is a perfect day for teacher-watching. I'm back with the MWP, teaching my own lesson at a youth writing conference. The morning was filled with getting up and running, learning 25 new names (thank God for nametags), keeping it interesting, and getting them writing. The afternoon is for break-out sessions. There are 10 different mini-sessions happening twice in a two hour time period. Theoretically, this is 10 different opportunities for teacher-watching. Realistically, I can't sit in on just 10 minutes of a lesson. In fact, I've spent the entire first session in just one place. But the teacher watching is fascinating. I'd almost rather stay than go back to my own teaching this afternoon.

In other news, never get bronchitis. It's miserable. I fell ill last Thursday evening, and I'm still feeling it. The medicine is causing detached head moments, my voice is unrecognizable, and when I cough I can literally feel my lungs shaking. I'm slowly making it back to the land of the living, but it's not a fast process. So there's my advice for now: never get bronchitis; just say no.

Bravery

On several occasions, people have told me how brave I am for moving to Missouri. True, I didn’t know anyone, had never been here before, was starting a new job, and was 900 miles away from family and friends. To many, this constitutes bravery. I always just felt like I was doing what I had to do.

Last Tuesday night I went to a going away party for a friend who is moving to Africa. Africa. She has joined the Peace Corps, and will spend the next 2 years tending to sheep and goats in the town of Niamey, Niger.

Let’s take a moment to compare: I moved to another state; she is moving to another continent. And she’s committed to two years; I knew that my time here was a limited engagement if need be – I only had to survive until the end of the school year. Most importantly, she is choosing to do this. I didn’t really choose to start my life after college in Missouri. I needed a job and I needed to start my career, and Missouri was the only option at the time, so that’s where I went. My friend, however, doesn’t need to go to Africa. She has a job, a home, a life, right here. But she made a conscious choice to devote the next 2 years of her life to the completely unknown and unfamiliar. That, to me, is true bravery.

Happy Anniversary to Me

Today marks 2 years from my move to Missouri. Not sure how I feel about that one. In many ways I still feel like a "newbie" to mid-MO, but then there are things that indicate to me that I'm "settled" here now.

Do I really want to be settled here?

Maybe after 2 years it's time to stop cynically wondering, "who moves to Missouri?!?" and start actually living here. Time to grow where I'm planted.