Rite of Passage

Here she is, the new graduate. The Marietta High School 2006 graduation was a whirlwind affair, finished in a record 1 hour and 14 minutes. What was gained in speed was somewhat lost in warmth. Personally, I could have used a little more of the warm and fuzzy, more substance. At least Jordan Strycker's speech was memorable; he chose to focus on events outside of the Mid-Ohio Valley, calling for graduates to contribute their efforts to fixing a world in bad need of fixing. Mr. Eliot's recognition of graduates who are entering the armed forces, and his wish for their safe return, prompted a standing ovation from the crowd, a moving reminder of what is going on in the real world. All in all, we had a lovely family event. I'll post more pictures to share our celebration.

A Little Feng Shui

When a power outage curtailed my computer activities today, I rearranged my bedroom. Moving all the clutter into the crawl space has made a remarkable difference; suddenly our little bedroom actually feels spacious. Jim likes to hoard little piles of things in the bedroom. It must be a habit from childhood. Anyway, since he's working in Albuquerque for a few months, I decided I can sleep in a room without a geiger counter, a converter, and his various electronic experiments. The latter are actually quite neat; he has different colored gas lights (neon? argon?) mounted on wooden boards. But they can live somewhere else for the time being.

I've been cleaning a little bit every day, trying to scrape off the layer of filth before the Willeys come to visit for Rachel's graduation. Curiously, the Asian lady beetles never attained their usual fevered reproductive spike this spring. I rarely see live ones now, just carcasses here and there. Dad and Sandy are coming for the event as well, staying at a local motel. Dad is generously taking all of us out to dinner at the Marietta Brewery afterwards.

Searching for my classroom

Now that my student teaching is over, it's time to concentrate on my job search, or, as I like to think of it, the search for my future classroom. The bureaucratic details of looking for a job can be a pain, but I enjoy envisioning myself in a warm, dynamic, print-rich classroom where I direct all my energies into guiding the next generation into critical thinking. Geographically, I'm casting a wide net. Colorado appeals to me because Mom and Paul are there and Matt is buried there. The Gulf Coast of Florida sounds beautiful; it would be so neat to be near the beach! North Carolina would be closer to Rachel at UT, and the students at my field experience at Bunker Hill High School were so well behaved; North Carolina seems so gracious and civilized compared to southern Ohio. In short, I'm keeping an open mind.