(3/21)  Born to Run-282 pages (11/3247 pages)
(3/24)  Recovered, Not Cured-175 pages (12/3422 pages)
(4/6)    Electroboy-273 pages (13/3695 pages)
(4/11)  Match Day-244 pages (14/3939 pages)
(4/15)  The New Vampire's Handbook-206 pages (15/4145 pages)
(4/16)  Memoirs of My Nervous Illness-259 pages (16/4404 pages)
(4/25)  See You in a Hundred Years-252 pages (17/4656 pages)
(4/30)  Killed in Action-Struck by Lightning-157 pages (18/4913 pages)
(5/9)    Crossing the Gates of Alaska-272 pages (19/5185 pages)
(5/17)  I Never Promised You a Rose Garden-279 pages (20/5464 pages)

I just cleaned out my friends list for the first time in what feels like forever.  I'm making this post public so you can comment if you want to be re-added.  I haven't updated my journal regularly in a long time so I think the only ones left would be people I wouldn't think of un-friending, but just to be safe here's your chance.

I figure if my friends page is free of community posts that are irrelevant to me, then I'll be more likely to actually read it.  I am not interested in reading the minutae of strangers' running injuries or lesson plans right now.

(1/5) The Up and Down Life-227 pages (1/227 pages)
(1/12) Why Cant You Teach Me 2 Read?-337 pages (2/564 pages)
(1/24) The Food of a Younger Land-366 pages (3/930 pages)
(2/2) The Snake Pit-278 pages (4/1208 pages)
(2/9) The Pig Did It-195 pages (5/1403 pages)
(2/12) The Center Cannot Hold-336 pages (6/1739 pages)
(2/24) Stones into Schools-379 pages (7/2118 pages)
(2/27) The Gathering-260 pages (8/2378 pages)
(3/6) The Quiet Room-270 pages (9/2648 pages)
(3/14) Sometimes We're Always Real Same-Same-317 pages (10/2965 pages)

If you would like to bid on the coasters made from melted Mardi Gras beads that I'm offering, with the proceeds going directly to the relief efforts in Haiti, then click here:

http://community.livejournal.com/help_haiti/822.html?thread=4263734#t4263734

I may not have much money right now, but I do have time and creativity and more Mardi Gras beads than I know what to do with. :-) I'll post pictures of the coasters I made my family for Christmas later.

(11/29) Home Safe-258 pages (51/13540 pages)
(12/1) Less Than Crazy-203 pages (52/13743 pages)
(12/18) Touched With Fire-260 pages (53/14803 pages)
(12/28) Get Me Out of Here-436 pages (54/15239 pages)

(10/8) Seeing Voices-159 pages (41/10927 pages)
(10/12) Shadow Syndromes-369 pages (42/11296 pages)
(10/26) Song Yet Sung-362 pages (43/11658 pages)
(10/28) The Escape Artist-283 pages (44/11941 pages)
(10/30) Undoing Depression-327 pages (45/12268 pages)
(11/2) Darkness Visible-84 pages (46/12352 pages)
(11/3) The Levee-211 pages (47/12563 pages)
(11/8) Moments of Engagement-233 pages (48/12796 pages)
(11/17) Why am I Still Depressed?-253 pages (49/13049 pages)
(11/19) Hurry Down Sunshine-233 pages (50/13282 pages)

(8/12)  Baghdad Express-202 pages (31/7862 pages)
(8/14)  Bloodletting-208 pages (32/8070 pages)
(9/9)    Listening to Prozac-313 pages (33/8383 pages)
(9/12)  Outliers:  The Story of Success-285 pages (34/8668 pages)
(9/14)  Turning Stones:  My Days and Nights with Children at Risk-363 pages (35/9031 pages)
(9/18)  Riding the Bus With My Sister-293 pages (36/9324 pages)
(9/26)  The Red Scarf-470 pages (37/9794 pages)
(9/27)  A Walk in the Woods-394 pages (38/10188 pages)
(9/30)  Against Depression-292 pages (39/10480 pages)
(10/4)  The Color Purple-288 pages (40/10768 pages)

I will be teaching grades 4-5 special ed at Kate Middleton Elementary School in Gretna next year.

As much as I resent how Chicago has treated us this year, as much as I resent what working in that environment has done to my hope and idealism and mood in general, as happy as I am that it is FINALLY summer vacation, it still hurts me so much to think of not working there next year.  Say what you will about the school, we had a good thing going.  Teaching city kids, damaged by Katrina and chronic undereducation the depths of which I could not imagine until I had to confront it daily, is challenging work, but it's also what I signed up for when I chose to become a teacher in New Orleans public schools.  I love those kids.  As a team of teachers we had so much energy, so much dedication, so much support for each other.  I doubt I'll find that wherever I'm teaching next year.  What we had was special, and I hate, truly hate, that Chicago had to screw that up and then they still have the nerve to get up at 8th grade graduation and pat themselves on the back for helping these poor backwards Southerners, these poor Katrina victims who can't help themselves and must need Chicago to rescue them.  The level of paternalism, the level of condescension they showed all of us continues to anger and frustrate me.  They had no right to treat us like that.

New Orleans has enough problems of its own without Chicago importing its own.

It wasn't until the last few weeks, since my sister and neice came to visit, that New Orleans really became home for me.  I have a stake in her future.  I am no longer the wide-eyed idealist I was when I first moved here.  I've learned a few things about myself.  I've learned I'm stronger than I thought and that it's okay to ask for help.  I've learned that teachers often learn more from their students than they teach them.  I know that whatever doesn't kill you does make you stronger.  I have no idea how I survived this school year intact, but here I am and in 3 days I'm out of here 'til the end of July.  Maryland to New Brunswick to Maryland to Michigan then back to New Orleans.

I'm rambling now and Lakeview Brew actually closed 20 minutes ago.  Suffice it to say that I wouldn't give up this school year for anything but I wouldn't want to go through that again either.  We survived.  'Nuff said.