Why I love teaching at a junior high

I love the reactions I get when I tell people I'm the librarian at a junior high school. I don't know if the accompanying look of horror is inspired by the person's flashback of their own painful early teen transition time, or if it's their media-slanted perception of what teens are like today.

I absolutely love working with kids this age and here are three reasons why, based on today's adventures:

1. Brutal honesty without meanness. Change your hairstyle, and adults feel obligated to compliment you ("Oh, your hair is different--it's cute!"). Kids, on the other hand, tell it like it is ("Miss Price, are you having a bad hair day?"). The seventh grader who asked me that at lunch had such a look of complete sincerity on his face, I had to answer, "You know Mitchell, I didn't think I was, but maybe I am!" I've been giggling ever since, and am rethinking my new 'do.
2. Sincere appreciation. Two kids who aren't my normal audience (i.e. never set foot in the library unless assigned to do so) both thanked me profusely for helping them with their projects today. It makes me wonder, if they're so shocked to find an adult willing to help them, how badly are we failing them?
3. Spontaneous amusement. What room of adults would laugh out loud when someone does an impersonation of the great and powerful Oz to try out her new classroom amplification system? I love using that microphone almost as much as I like using Lanschool to send messages to their computer screens ("I don't think the Laker Girls are part of your research project, so please close that window and start researching Utah geography.").

Writing: still working on a daily goal that will get me to my goal. Is it pages? Time limits? I'm still deciding.
Reading: The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Truly inspiring stuff for those of us who look cynically at books of inspring stuff. I need to re-read this book every year.

Top 5 fun things about today...

1. Unexpected early morning Saturday visitors.
2. Rare finds in used CD stores.
3. Two of my favorite movies back to back on the Disney channel, Tarzan and Hercules, both totally under appreciated.
   
4. 7 Guys for 7 Others, a.k.a. blind dating en masse.
5. Truth or dare bowling, without the bowling.

Writing goal update: 30 minutes of plot brainstorming on the topic of how on earth do I end this novel?

Drats! First slip-up

At least I slacked off on my blog, and not my writing! I look forward to sleeping in tomorrow morning to make up for some rather late nights when I was determined not to go to bed until I'd gotten in my 30 minutes of writing. It's amazing what a little peer pressure can get you to do.

Writing report: 30 minutes tonight and yesterday night. Some good character brainstorming and the beginnings of a good fight scene. And a reconciliation.

Juxtaposition

King Lear and Enchanted. Watched on the same night--quite the contrast. Glad I ended with the sweet syrupy stuff. I'd rather have dreams of waltzing than eye gouging, thank you very much. (Lear was impressive though--Ian McKellen is amazing, and the costumes were very cool.)

Pages written today: none yet. Timer starting now, 30 minutes less sleep tonight. Sigh.

The guilt-free feeling of meeting two goals today!

Ah, the joys of an evening well spent! My newly-found rededication to writing led me to revisit another hobby I've been neglecting. I popped in my East Coast Tribal bellydance DVD and danced for the first time in months. I'm sure my long-neglected muscles that only get used for things like ribcage isolations and Mayans will be screaming out in betrayal tomorrow, but it did feel good to let loose a three-quarter shimmy again.

Pages written today: three! two different scenes!
Extra curricular: East Coast Tribal combination #1 semi-learned, although I still can't get the arms right

Ah, ambiguity!

Two pages. . .how many ways can I measure my progress with that simple measuring stick? Is that two cleanly written and grammar mistake-free pages? Two hastily scribbled and raw pages? Double or single spaced? Margins? Font size? The quagmire of rationalization looms.

Increments of time seem less prone to such moral dilemmas. 30 minutes per day minimum is the new rule.

Pages written today: two, heavy on dialogue but heading in a good direction.

Things that do not count as writing...at least for my goal, anyway

1. Posting to this blog, as fun as it may be.
2. Discussing my writing, as fun as it...isn't.
   
3. Re-reading what I've already written (which inevitably leads to re-hashing it, rather than writing anything new).
   
4. Watching a film based on a young adult novel.
5. Discussing said film at length, and why poor Jasper was little more than scenery when we all know he's the coolest character.
   

Pages written today: two, of the very messy variety.