A Potpourri of Thoughts

I'm still teaching and my students seem to be learning something. In fact, I think that if I stuck with this teaching thing, took a few pedagogue classes, and got my license that I might eventually be a decent teacher. But I've decided that the really good teachers have two qualities. First of all they have an amazing ability to connect with and inspire young people and secondly, they have an amount of energy that allows them to maintain their amazing-ness for more than a year. I have yet to determine whether I can really connect with young people, but I'm certain that I don't have the energy or the stamina needed to find this out. I'm gonna be one of those sell-out teachers, another statistic, who leaves the profession before my third year.

I'm not a catalog person. If I'm going to order something, I prefer to use the internet, but apparently using the internet to order something is also an open invitation to receive catalogs. Recently I received a catalog with the warning that if I didn't purchase something in the next few months, then I would be dropped from the catalog list and that would be my last catalog. Didn't they know that the thought of not receiving any more catalogs would be a huge incentive not to order?

We saw Dan in Real Life this weekend. I don't consider myself to be a huge Steve Carell fan (I watch The Office mostly for Dwight because I used to work with someone just like him). But he was great in this movie. Yes, the plot is predictable but despite the fact that we've all seen this story many times before, Steve Carell brought a level of emotion to his role that I didn't think was possible for a comedic actor like him. The same guy who wrote the screenplay for Dan and directed the movie also directed Pieces of April (my favorite Thanksgiving movie) and wrote the screenplay for About a Boy, another favorite. Dan in Real Life isn't quite as quirky as Pieces of April or About a Boy, but it's just as delightful and I highly recommend it.

For the most part I see young adult fiction as light reading, but every now and then I run across a book that seems to be more than a book for teenagers. These books tell compelling stories, but they're also beautifully written. I include books like Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Tuck Everlasting, and The Book Thief in that group. Recently I've been listening to another book that I think fits into that category. It's called Speak and it's by Laurie Halse Anderson. The book deals with the dark issue of rape, but without becoming salacious. It's a tough topic, but so far I have a great appreciation for this book.