A haiku for fall: I am oft speechless. (Home reeks of campfire remnants.) Hello, tea season.  

How can one articulate the feeling of normalcy after alienation? I notice it most right before sleep, cradled by pillows and under the weight of three blankets, the feeling that seems to puncture into my marrow, that sits in the muscles under my shoulder blades, that is locked in the crook of my pillow-clutching arm.…

This week, I was blessed with unsolicited advice in a manner so candid it was teasing. It’s ridiculous in it’s simplicity and honesty and is so blatantly obvious in the way best advice always is, “You need to relax.” Oh, do I? With the whole of the nation’s children resting on my decisions today? With…

NOTE: This is bursting with typos, but I can’t get myself to comb through and fix them. Please forgive me. Also, if you were worried, the day got significantly better after school. In the morning, I wake up heavy with sleep, almost unable to open my eyes for a full ten minutes. That could be…

I am starting to get embarrassed about being “a third year.” Something about TFA is leaving a bad taste in my mouth, some frightening divide between being a third year teacher and a third year corps member. There is no third year corps member. There is no mandated social responsibility bearing on the shoulders of…

Sitting at the back table of a computer lab with Mesha, three other students with headphones take on-line literacy tests to see how prepared they will be for the state tests. I have volunteered to do “afterschool,” which is aptly titled. I wanted to do seventh or eighth grade literacy so I could spend time…

EDIT: I also meant to write that I’m up to 21 received letters so far! Germany, Philly, Chicago, California, Texas… I am beside myself and students are begging to read them! I had a really hard time with Leton. It started with assuming he needed to be in special ed in the second or third…