My Classroom

Just thought I would share with you some pictures from my classroom:

Yes, this is my classroom from today. I am overly OCD, so it is a clean classroom.

Here are a few things I have in the room:

This dragon was a Christmas gift from a Chinese student I had 4 years ago. It is one of the strangest (but completely awesome) gifts I have ever received.

The bears are from my travels. (NYC, London, National Cathedral in Washington DC, and a Tennessee Bear from a UT Football game.)

The disc is from St. John in the Virgin Islands and so are the last two lizards. The top lizard is hand-painted, and I picked him up while in San Diego. 

Just thought I would share part of my world with you today. 

A Glimpse of Tragedy

As I child, I lived in the most perfect subdivision of our town. My house was dead-center of the subdivision, which made my family the center of attention most days. (Everyone loved my crazy & fun dad! He still is a bigger kid that I ever was!) Our subdivision had about 20 houses in it, and almost every house had two or three kids my age. I went to school with all these kids. Many of them were in my classes all the way through high school.

The subdivision was picture perfect. Every lawn was always perfectly manicured. Everyone was growing vegetables in their individual gardens. Every other house had a swimming pool. You never locked your doors at night. We played at each others' houses growing up. We had hide-n-seek across the neighborhood. My neighbors' parents were my parents, too. Everyone in the neighborhood knew your business and took care of you. It was a huge family!

Did I mention we were perfectly situated adjacent to a lake and wooded area. I can remember camping out by the lake each summer. It was beautiful!

Life was perfect!

Fast forward to just after Christmas of 2008...

In the middle of the night there was a loud rumbling. Suddenly, there was a tidal wave of mud, ash, and water headed right for your house...your neighborhood...you! This wave picked up your house and carried it across the street into the neighbor's yard. Your car was mangled and destroyed. The landscape, as you knew it, was no more!

What happened?

In the middle of the night, a earthen-retention wall gave way and let loose millions of gallons of mud, ash, and water from the retention pond located at the TVA Steam Plant, in Kingston, TN. 

TVA is the acronym for the Tennessee Valley Authority. The TVA originated from the public works program instituted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression. The TVA is the largest producer of electricity in the south. They provide electricity for all of Tennessee, all the surrounding states, and beyond. TVA manages all of the dams, steam plants, and nuclear plants in the state. 

The failing of the retention wall, and the onslaught of millions of gallons of polluted water changed the world in the area near the Steam Plant. Roads were wiped out, houses destroyed, rail road tracks mangled, and water in places where it had never been before. Miraculously, no one was killed in this incident. That, in itself, was a miracle. 

I look back now and really count our blessings. My father was a heavy-equipment operator for the Steam Plant. He helped build and maintain this earthen-wall. Many times he would have said heavy equipment on top of that wall. I can tell you that one time the machine he was in (most likely a bull-dozer) went off the edge of that wall and into the water. He was stuck in that machine under the water. Luckily he was able to break the glass and escape. But, what if he had been on that wall the day it gave way? I shudder at the thought of it!

My family is lucky. We moved out of that subdivision a few years ago. However, so many of the families I grew up with were still there. I can tell you that even two years later, the area is not the same. It looks so much more like an industrial work zone instead of the beautiful lake-side neighborhoods we all loved and knew. It is extremely saddening to think about it. 

One of the greatest tragedies that has occurred is that the family that have moved away have lost touch with the families they were connected to for so many years. One of my best friends, Callie, and her family have moved to the other side of the state following this incident. I never get to see them anymore. It is sad. 

Just a thought for the day! 

I Love Hillary Clinton!

New Addition

I got quite the surprise today before classes began.

Two of my students, let's call them Callie and Katie, brought me the newest addition to my classroom rubber duck collection. This very much over-sized duck has been named "Moby Duck." We will call him Moby for short. This is rubber duck #121 in the collection. (I actually had one of my students come up to me today to tell me she confirmed we now had 121 ducks...she went around the room and counted them.)

I find it hilarious that the students decided that this duck was a male duck. What makes it even funnier is that this male duck is wearing a PINK rain hat. They finally realize that real men wear pink.

Do the students think that pink is my favorite color? Oh no...they may be on to me.

Love my students!

Questions for Me

Thanks to those who left me a few questions on Formspring. Since I am taking a break from letters I am writing to parents, I thought I would take a moment to answer a few.

What do you like to do during the weekend? Hang out with friends? 


Interesting question to ask for I rarely have a weekend free during the school year. (Yes, I am CONSTANTLY getting scolded for not taking enough ME time in life.)

One weekends that I have free time, you will find me in several different places. If I am staying home for the weekend, I will go to the farmers market early on Saturday morning. I usually store up my supply of goat cheese, freshly grown fruits and vegetables, homemade breads, and Amish donuts. I know some people are thinking "Amish donuts?" Yes, they are incredible. They are made fresh right in front of you. The only drawback is that there is sometimes a one-hour wait in line to get them. They are THAT GOOD!

The rest of the day you might find me hiking on the Appalachian Trail or hiking to some of the beautiful waterfalls in the area. I love being out in nature. There is such a sense of peace when I am out on the trails. Usually I will go alone with my iPod, but I love having friends go with me.

I also enjoy going to the movies. I prefer drama and some comedies. Yes, I even enjoy the chick flicks! I have to be in the mood for a good action movie. If I am going to see a comedy, it cannot be something that I will leave afterward felling as though I had lost brain cells. I just cannot stand them!

What else? I also love volleyball, bicycling, playing frisbee, ultimate frisbee, going to the theatre, hanging out at one of the local bookstores, sitting with some friends at Starbucks, going to concerts, etc.

One of the places I love to visit with friends is Asheville, NC. It has such a diverse population. My friends and I love finding the best local restaurants, shopping in the downtown shops, going through the art galleries, etc. Asheville is one of Jenny and my favorite places to go. It is only best when Jenny is with me!

When I can get away, I run off to Greensboro, NC to visit with Jenny. She is in such a wonderful city with access to everything you could ever want. Every time I visit her, we do something totally different. I love it!

Did I mention that I love to DANCE? Well, let me be specific! I love country/western couples dancing and line dancing. I have been doing that since I was a kid. Sadly, there is NO place around here to do that. I have to go to a bigger city like Nashville or Knoxville to find a place to dance!

To address the question about hanging with friends, sadly, most of my best friends do not live near me. It is hard to get out to see them, too. The friends that I do have here are mostly in education. They also are mostly married and have kids. So, their lives are crazy with after-school activities, sports, dance classes, etc. More on that topic at a later date!

How many gay friends do you have that you hang out with on a regular basis?


Oh, that is an easy question...NONE!

Allow me a moment to explain before someone chews me out! I spent so many years in denial, in the closet, hiding who I was, etc. Even though I am no longer hiding who I am, I find that the majority of my friends are straight. There is no particular reason for that. It has just happened that way.

I do have a handful of gay friends in the area, but we rarely hang out.

Well, there you go as a start to the questions. Please, please, please...ask away!