i am going to buy my Christmas tree this week from a tree farm in the middle of a housing project. charming, no?

my station in life. is to make bulletin boards. my hands are messy, but they are making. creating. living. moving. writing. touching. messy. marker stained. kid-germed. held. messy hands. spilling. dropping. holding ( Read more... )

life and love and teaching are complicated. and what he misses the most about me is my smartness. so, we are going to talk about it.

I live in a neighborhood that is not my own, but I live here. I watch, I notice, I teach. Somewhat an outsider, on the inside. Although, I live in Harlem... I often forget the way that things can be on the streets. I walk around after dark, carry my iPod in my hand, don't watch my purse carefully, and think mr. gelardi is silly when he offers ( Read more... )

things on my mind today ( Read more... )

today i lost 5 children during a fire drill. i did not scream. i laughed. i flirted over lunch down the hall with a co-worker. i made posters. i walked around my classroom with no shoes on. i read gq on my harlem fire escape. i drank 2 glasses of wine. got a voicemail from a one-time lover. ate dinner at camaradas. had to call off writer ( Read more... )

in a TFA speech, i was told that a certain east african culture does not greet each other with the question of "how are you", but instead with the question "and how are the children". If the children are well and safe, then the community is well and safe. At MS 45 (the corner of 121st and 1st Ave, East Harlem) the children are not well. they are ( Read more... )

Tonight it is cool and noisy in Spanish Harlem. I am ripping a picture of Chinua Achebe out of Vanity Fair to put on a bulletin board in my classroom entitled "Great Writers Far and Near." I am sitting on the edge of my frameless mattress being terrified that on Tues morning, these children will see that I don't know what I'm doing. That they ( Read more... )

holy hell. my life is in shambles.

new york makes me fall head over feet, down the stairs, and around the corner. in love. life lately has been so sweet and bursting. bursting with giggles and Casablanca in bryant park, and hard wood floors at 116th street. and too many glasses of wine, and feeling pretty, and kiss me, danielle. dancing until my feet hurt at a wedding with a boy ( Read more... )