Thursday, May 18, 2006
A Perfect Circle
I find it necessary to mark the day on which I taught my last class at The School, the final periods of literature and creative writing which I will steer for at least a couple of years. Leaving behind the role of a teacher, I am reminded of a remark my mother shared with me. She was told by a teacher friend that it took three years to really feel like he or she really had it down. After year four, I feel as though I have attained a respectable level of expertise as an educator, which I carry with me into graduate school. It has taken me many mistakes to get to this level, but I leave The School having learned as much as I taught. It is in many ways another graduation, occuring on time in the four-year cycle of education to which I have grown accustomed since I was a ninth grader (31 of whom I bid farewell to this morning in our last class together). I am feeling both exhilirated and anxious. There is, additionally, a fare share of guilt as I am abandoning the class (of '07) Amanda and I had been advising, nurturing, and befriending for three school years. I will miss many of my students, many of whom have become friends of the order only a boarding school scenario can forge.
A bittersweet barage of awards ceremonies, informal dinners, and goodbyes awaits, culminating in graduation in nine days, followed by my last faculty party (playlist in the works) and, finally, the peaceful balm of a teacher's summer. But first, we travel to North Carolina to attend our third wedding as a married couple.
I began this blog three and a half years ago as a college graduate with very few clues, and I find myself today a married teacher headed back to university. Ah, life.
I find it necessary to mark the day on which I taught my last class at The School, the final periods of literature and creative writing which I will steer for at least a couple of years. Leaving behind the role of a teacher, I am reminded of a remark my mother shared with me. She was told by a teacher friend that it took three years to really feel like he or she really had it down. After year four, I feel as though I have attained a respectable level of expertise as an educator, which I carry with me into graduate school. It has taken me many mistakes to get to this level, but I leave The School having learned as much as I taught. It is in many ways another graduation, occuring on time in the four-year cycle of education to which I have grown accustomed since I was a ninth grader (31 of whom I bid farewell to this morning in our last class together). I am feeling both exhilirated and anxious. There is, additionally, a fare share of guilt as I am abandoning the class (of '07) Amanda and I had been advising, nurturing, and befriending for three school years. I will miss many of my students, many of whom have become friends of the order only a boarding school scenario can forge.
A bittersweet barage of awards ceremonies, informal dinners, and goodbyes awaits, culminating in graduation in nine days, followed by my last faculty party (playlist in the works) and, finally, the peaceful balm of a teacher's summer. But first, we travel to North Carolina to attend our third wedding as a married couple.
I began this blog three and a half years ago as a college graduate with very few clues, and I find myself today a married teacher headed back to university. Ah, life.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
More gems from Agee:
On the movie musical Good News:
On Tycoon:
On the movie musical Good News:
I like the tunes and June Allyson. Joan McCracken makes me think of a libidinous
peanut; Mel Torme reminds me of something in a jar but is, unfortunately, less
quiet. If they had used the old George Olson arrangements on the tunes and had
had any real feeling for the late twenties, this could have been a beauty.
On Tycoon:
Several tons of dynamite are set off in this movie; none of it under the right
people.
