The best of votes, the worst of votes...

The votes are in, we know the "win,"

Merridew's jealous all over again.
And that Dickens guy,
though up in Heaven,
is impressed with the taste of period 7!
Just 3 votes for Caesar, that's hardly a thing,
it's like once again he can't be the king.
I'd hate for Shakespeare to think you were cheats,
I'd never want to read: "Et tu, Teets?"
So hail to Lucie, Carton and Darnay,
it was a landslide, from the very first day.

A picture is worth 55 words...

All this week seemed to be filled with just waiting...

waiting for the week's rain to stop falling down

waiting for the sun to finally come out

waiting for Friday to get here too

so that I can get home

because I love my husband

and puppy so much

and because they're

waiting for

me.

Black and White

My question to the Holocaust survivors...

Yesterday the students watched
a video of Elie Wiesel going back to Auschwitz.
He used to be 15-- in black and white.
Today he is 82-- in living color.
He approaches Auschwitz, on a bus this time,
riding, silently, staring out the window.
Underneath a bright blue sky
birds are chirping,
grass is waving bright green in the breeze--
but it doesn't seem to fit.
Everything I've seen and learned
of the
Holocaust
is in
black and white.
Photographs of the victims,
the perpetrators,
train tracks,
the camps,
barracks,
Hitler...
all images of gray and black and white--
such a dark and black time seems
fitting to stay that way...
Elie gets off the bus and
steps on to the dirt path that
leads back to his dark past.
Birds fly overhead and white cumulous clouds
brag a bright beautiful day.
I never imagined birds chirping
while the
Holocaust went on.
I never painted the sky blue as I read the books
and watched old newsreels.
How did the sun have the guts to come out
back then?
How did any bird find a song
as it flew above what was happening below?
Yes, black and white seems much more fitting
for such a time and place in the world...
How did anyone find "technicolor" in the world again?

"Found Poem"

(What a word!) (17)

Anguish (7)
"All Jews outside! Hurry!" (13)
parting...forever (27)
Night. (18)
Flames. (25)
"Men to the left! Women to the right!" (27)
My father wept. (16)
We settled in. (17)
Never. (32)

"Auschwitz camp's stolen sign recovered in 3 pieces"

Since beginning to read Night, by Elie Wiesel, my 9th grade class has been mesmerized. This, in large part due to the experience and effort of student teacher, Ms. Schiff. She comes in every day ready to impart the lessons Wiesel has left us through his memoir; the students come in each day ready to learn them.

Arbeit Macht Frei.
"Work sets you free."
We discussed these infamous words one day as we read about Elie first seeing them upon entrance to Auschwitz.
Arbeit Macht Frei.
I could tell the students were uneasy. They knew what it didn't mean.
A student mentioned hearing that recently the sign had been stolen.
Miss Schiff did her homework-- and then gave us some.
"Read these articles," she said. "Let's hear what you have to say. Blog about it."
Arbeit Macht Frei.
I recalled discussing this act of theft in G&T last year and I remembered my heart sinking,
"What next?" I had thought to myself...
Tonight, the article I have for Miss Schiff's assignment reads in part: the theft was "an attack on the remembrance of the Holocaust...a desecration." It goes on to say that apparently the theives had split the sign into three; perhaps to sell it three times and make three separate profits.
They must have been thinking:
Money sets you free.
Poor them.
Because we know differently.
The truth sets you free, and the truth is only this:
love, compassion, dignity-- for all and to all.

Still sunny after all these months...

When I look outside

at the

sun Sun SUN!

I wonder what

I'm doing

in here.

That azure blue sky

covered

by the slate gray

ceiling of

New Milford High.

working working working

teaching teaching teaching

waiting waiting waiting

for the

sun Sun SUN!

and all of a sudden

there it is--

Santa Claus in March!

I never stopped believing...

And we're off....

Thoughts on today March 6, 2010:

Sunny
blue sky
dog barking
window cleaning
front doors open
this is spring
time to smile
stop waiting
it's here
in your
own
backyard!