Mrs. Moore's Musings

HOORAY!  It's my favorite time of the year.  I love New Year's Day, and this entire season-more than any other part of the year (not weather related of course).  New Year's Day is my most favorite holiday of all of them.  It's because it's not about anything other than giving yourself permission to attempt to be better. New Year's is time to acknowledge your blessings and truly reflect on your goals.  My family traditions include sitting around all day and watching Netflix (I'm pushing for an all Gilmore Girls extravaganza of awesomeness-we are on the final season, and I hate it, but I will push on).  We will have a toast in our ONLY NEW YEARS ONLY fancy champagne flutes we got as a wedding gift, I will make black-eyed peas with ham and green vegetables with bacon and cornbread in a cast iron skillet, and we talk and laugh and love each other.  I freaking love this holiday! As you may know if you read my blog, three years ago I stopped making resolutions.

One thing I love about teaching Seniors is that I get to participate in an event each year that marks a definitive change in someone's life.  I have been blessed with participating in so many young people’s life changing moments. Today marks one of the most important personal moments of unequivocal change in my own life.  16 years ago, December 22, at 3:32 in the afternoon, one of my most favorite human beings came into existence-my daughter!  I was there the whole time!  Olivia Linda Moore, I have loved you since before you existed, and now, 16 years later I am absolutely certain I will love you forever and always.  In honor of your day, I want to celebrate 16 of my favorite things/memories/awesome things that make you the greatest gift I have ever received: You hate mornings and love late nights, and I love mornings and hate late nights: This might not be everyone’s favorite, but some of my favorite memories we have together come at really not great hours for either one o

I am unequivocally one of the luckiest people I know.  I am so freaking blessed, I don't even know where to begin.  I have an incredible husband who loves me and makes me feel valuable and special and loves all my weirdness.  I test him and push him, and despite everything-he is always by my side.  I have two kids who love me and accept me.  They have become amazing friends and who love each other. I am not even exaggerating that random people have approached me to tell me amazing stories about my kids.  My sister is the BOMB! If I go more than two days without talking to her, something is seriously wrong. My friends are super ridiculous.  They are smart and funny and we have discovered Snapchat together. They make me think critically, and when I can't do that anymore, they make me laugh at really ridiculous double entendres that only English teacher people can understand (we have the ability to make everything dirty-I mean everything.  Staff meetings and CPR training are pote

Thanksgiving!  It is not my most favorite favorite, but I love it.  Our family likes to chill out, eat, and celebrate all darn day!  I love to send texts to people near and far all throughout the day to let them know how thankful I am to have them in my life.  I've been thinking about writing this post for a while now, but today seems like the perfect day.  I have read a lot of posts grateful for teachers-from students and parents and friends.  I am a high school English teacher, and I appreciate the fact that I have so many people have lifted my profession (and myself) up and encouraged me and thanked me over the years.  I work alongside some truly gifted educators and people who humble me not only with their intellect, but with their compassion and generosity.  I hope that they know how thankful I am for them.  My family is ridiculous.  They love me and support me and encourage me. They put up with so much so that I can do crazy things and be myself.  I will NEVER be able to be

Over the last couple weeks, I have had some pretty amazing opportunities.  First, my students and I applied and were selected to attend not only a reading from Taylor Mali, but we got the chance to write with him in the afternoon.  Then, this past Thursday, I took 80 of my high school seniors from my AP Language and Composition class to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, a world class museum located in Bentonville, Arkansas.  After our trip to the museum, I was honored to watch my daughter perform in her first high school play (along with several of my students).  It has been a whirlwind of a couple of weeks. There is something that has been hitting my heart as I have been participating in this crazy season of my life-imperfection.  I am swimming in a sea of imperfection, and I need to figure out how to embrace this. Taylor Mali, a nationally acclaimed slam poet and author, asked us to describe a page in our journal.  Then he explained that he usually gets two types of respon

Last week was spirit week and parent teacher conferences at my school.  I am a crazy woman for both of these things. When I think about my word for 2015, when I chose "embrace"-I really intended for it to be metaphorical-as in "embrace the challenges."  But, now that I think about it, I think the word has a more literal meaning that has truly impacted my life. During spirit week, Tuesday was the most wonderful spirit day of my existence-it was "Tutus and Ties Tuesday."  I was born for this spirit day.  My tutu (that I made with my dear friends) was the very most glittery, beautiful creation imaginable, and my tie had been specially made with a super glittery "Go Cats" and paw prints from one of my favorite boutiques in town. I wore glitter tights and I put a glitter paw print on my face.  But, what was magical, was the amount of hugs I gave that day. I felt the literal importance of "embrace."  I loved every moment of that day. T

I am not going to lie, it's weird for me to blog on a Monday night, but today has been somewhat unexpectedly challenging. As a lover of learning all things, I have certain teachers who are definitely my favorites. Tonight, two of the teachers who mean the most to me are hurting from their own personal struggles, and I really want to let them know, as privately as I can, what they mean to me and to let them know they are in my heart. Four years ago, I was struggling to find my true direction as a teacher. I mean, I was doing okay, but as a lover of all learning, my classes tended to be a little disconnected.  I joined the Northwest Arkansas Writing Project because I figured giving up four weeks in the summer to learn about teaching writing-that could be nothing but a party. It was! That is not sarcasm! (Neither is that-I am being totally serious.)  I remember the first few days, surrounded by these amazing teachers thinking, "What am I even doing here?"  To top it of

Monday is one of my favorite days of the year-the first day of school.  I am strange in the fact that I actually love change.  It's probably why my favorite days are New Year's Day, Graduation, and the First Day of School (and my birthday-October 28 if you want to go ahead and start planning now). While at one point in my life, I feared change, it is now something I tend to embrace, given the fact that almost overwhelmingly in my life, change has led me to something absolutely wonderful. I have, like a kid who cannot wait for Christmas morning, peaked at my new class list.  Holy macaroni, once again, someone decided I deserve to work with young people who are so remarkable I can only shake my head and continue to live the way I am-reaping the blessings I don't deserve but will continue to be thankful for every single day.  Each year I cajole some of my 11th graders into taking the leap into my Advanced Placement course, and this year I have more students I will get teach

Summer officially ends tomorrow morning at 7:45 am in the cafeteria of the high school where I teach.  It is in that place that I will be reunited with some of the most amazing friends/family/co-workers I am privileged to call mine. We will begin a week of getting ready for the hundreds of young people we get to serve next year.  I'm truly excited.  However, this summer has been exceptional.  My daughter and I went on a magical journey to Europe together (neither of us had ever been), I traveled to Washington DC on my own for a once in a lifetime chance to learn at the US Holocaust Museum, and I just returned from a family vacation to Florida. I kept a travel journal, and I loved every single thing about traveling, but as I was on the tour bus from Switzerland to the Cinque Terra in Italy, I kept a top ten list of important things I didn't want to forget.  Here are the most important things I  think a person should remember when traveling: It is okay to laugh aloud

I haven’t written very much this summer because I have been busy traveling the world with my favorite adventurer-my daughter.  She and I have just finished a whirlwind tour of Europe, and I am looking forward to writing about that soon. However, I have something else on my heart today.  This morning, as I was coming home from the gym I got a text from a very sweet student, excited over her success on the AP exam (I am humbled and honored to teach AP Language and Composition).  I was very proud of her.  I knew scores came out today, and I was eager to get home to look at them.  I made a cup of coffee and sat down at my computer, took a deep breath, and logged in to the system to see my students’ scores. Immediately I scrolled through the results, thinking about what these numbers mean as a reflection of a year of teaching. Would these numbers give me permission to be proud of the work we did in my classroom this year, or would it make me feel ashamed and like a failure? And that’

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL…Last DAY of SCHOOL…Last Day of School…last day of school…last day of… Okay, I know if you are a teacher or a student or a parent or have ever been one of these things you get it!  You understand the joy that accompanies the last day of school-at least for a little bit.  I am extra excited this year because my summer is chock full o’ goodness.  My daughter will be starting at my high school, and she and I are celebrating this gigantic life change with a European girl vacation-seriously blessed for this gift of time and learning!  I’m still pinching myself.  I am also going to be going to a few professional development major things which I am giddy about.  At my school, the last day for teachers is not the last day for students-they had their final hoorah yesterday.  There is a reason we spend the last day together, without kids, and today I want to write about why teaching rocks and it isn’t because of the students or parents or lessons or cool projects (okay, it

Like almost everything that gets a lot of media attention, nearly everything you’ve heard about teaching is somewhat true.  Kids are tested into oblivion, and these results are all that matter to administration and the government when determining teacher success. Teachers are being stripped of their autonomy and ability to create their own lessons and assessments.  Teacher dissatisfaction is at an all-time high. Retention rates for teachers is deplorable. There are many failing students in poverty. Teach for America and similar programs inform us that anyone who has a good intention can be a teacher.  No one wants any children left behind, and all of us wish to “Race for the Top.”  The devil is in the details-as always. I teach kids of all sorts: poor, rich, white, brown, black, and green (not really-but that would be fine with me).  I teach kids whose parents love and support them and kids whose home lives have brought me to tears. Despite all of these things, the fact that people b

This week is teacher appreciation week.   I am a teacher (if you have read this blog AT ALL, you know that).   Teachers have had a huge impact on my life, as a student, as a teacher, as a mother, as a human being.   I can’t imagine what I would be like without the amazing professionals who have shaped me.   So, before I write anything else-THANK YOU TEACHER PEEPS-you have made a difference for me. Over Spring Break, I received an e-mail from the National Council of Teachers of English, informing me that I was the recipient of the “Reclaiming the Joy of Teaching” award for 2015. I was overwhelmed.   I didn’t even know I was nominated, and I wasn’t even sure what the award was about.   Upon investigation, I learned the following, “The Reclaiming the Joy of Teaching Award is presented to a teacher at any level that inspires authentic progressive literacy learning.”   Again, I was humbled.   Some of my family members do not even know about this. I’ve been thinking a lot about joy as