So....I'm a writer???

Here's the thing, I write, but VERY few people read what I write.  Of course the hubby, the best friends read what I write and if I produce something I write an audience experiences it, but I never have the guts to actually put stuff out there...until now.  After all what is the point of a blog, that may be from a  writer-if I NEVER post things I write?

As part of my Creative Writing minor I had to take a poetry workshop.  Man do I suck at poetry!  One thing I wrote however I do kinda like, since it makes me giggle and makes the hubby roll his eyes, plus my professor liked it and he was one hell of a hard professor...so here it is...(and remember I am a playwright/fiction author before you judge how bad this is!)

Walking in any bookstore

I would love the feel of the spines against my fingertips,
the sensation of pages flipping in my hands,
the smell of the various stores; old books
in a used bookstore, or even the inviting
aroma of Starbucks, a welcoming scent for browsing.

Walking into a bookstore today my senses are alarmed
for although the coffee smell still lingers in the air
my eyes cannot comprehend the garish displays
of electronic readers that demand my attention.

You can hold all the books you want in one I am told,
But isn’t that the function of my bookcase?

But this one comes in color, so you can look
at children’s books or even magazines.
How will my son learn the fine motor skill of turning a page?

I have vowed I will never own an e-reader, my husband agreed
they are too creepy, too unnecessary, why read on a computer
after all what would Dickens think, or Emerson say?
Would they want the intimacy of their words glared from a screen?
Now my husband has a Nook, and is trying to convert me.
It will never happen; I have prized books authors have signed
what next? An author can sign a Nook?

There are books we can no longer share, since his are
not in the true form of a book. And afternoons once spent
browsing a bookstore become a memory
as the stores around me close.

Teaching

I've been thinking about teaching for awhile now.  Although my ultimate goal has been to teach Secondary English, now that I am in the Certification program at Providence College, my dream is becoming a reality.

Or should I say nightmare?

Wait, back up!  Nightmare?  Don't get me wrong, I am excited when I think of having my own classroom, planning lessons, opening the world of literature to teens.  And then I sit in my classes, and my head feels like it is being squeezed in a vise!  This is not going to be easy by ay means!  And true, nothing worthwhile ever is; but the amount of work that goes into becoming certified, and then planning lessons, reaching out to kids who don't want to be there, reaching out to kids who might be bored, well quite frankly it is overwhelming!  And I have found myself thinking of teachers I have been lucky enough to have had the pleasure of sitting in their classroom.

Miss Brown, fifth grade Hope Elementary.  She honestly originally sparked my interest in writing and told me I had a talent for it.  She made class exciting, and even wrote to me, (back int he days before emails) after I was her student.  So the question is-did she ever sleep?  How did she have the time?

Mrs. Mumford, Scituate High School, by far one of my all time favorite teachers.  Mrs. Mumford taught English, and I had her twice.  Honestly if I can be half the teacher she was, I'll be doing fabulous.  She made Shakespeare come alive for us, introduced public speaking so we didn't pass out, went to the plays to support us, taught us how to write papers.  How?  How did she find the time to make class exciting, and give us each that personal touch she was so great at doing?

Mr. Kane, my chorus teacher all through high school.  Another fabulous teacher, who kept his music selections fun, while being educational.  Who would plan something special every year.  Who never treated us like we were children, which of course we were.


One of my classes has asked us to reflect on some of our favorite teachers and think of what made them so great.  What I want to ask them is how were they so great, while managing a life?  Teachers very often get a bad rap in society, and I think if people just saw a tenth of what a teacher has to do in order to get the positions they have, they might not be so quick to blame the teachers.