What Crosses My Mind

  • Examining The Past; Welcoming The Future

    I’ve read guides that suggest we look at emotionally impactful experiences of our past and face them head on so we might better leave them behind. It can be both frightening and exhilarating to revisit our lives, both the failures and successes. I ended my career early as a whole, and now am contemplating taking…

  • Next Chapter on the Stage

    Inspired by LitaDoolan – https://wordpress.com/reader/users/litadoolan Well, I think I’ll speak a little about theatre. My tenure just ended at a small school south of the cities. I began there three years ago and I’ve been through quite a bit in that time. Some people might not last as long as I did. At the beginning,…

  • Directing Controversy

    When I first chose to direct A Raisin in the Sun I wanted to put the show on because I had the right students to make it happen. The demographics of the school supported an all black cast of actors, and I thought it a wonderful opportunity to put on a timely show. Lorraine Hansberry’s script…

  • To Sir With Love

    Oh, if I might dream the scenes of Sidney Poitier in moments as a child. His, a beautiful grace, a magical sojourn for the eyes anyone a witness. I was actually on my couch having a nap when the news came across my phone. I closed my eyes for a moment and recognized that beautiful…

  • First Days

    There is a certain pull a potential a need to feel that rotating wheel of some significance the quest, we guessed, in first days the moment of truth perhaps or better suggested that moment when opportunity strikes that initial fever pitch ~ Let’s hang on gonna be a roller coaster doesn’t mean you’ll fall off…

  • A Teacher In Covid

    Already the interactions are painful, the loss of touching hearts, a lacking support we each carry our own  grief this virtual life apart.   Masks, cleansers, plexi-glass we are talking teenagers with opposing views, a society brought in from home, cannot imagine compliance, if you believe that well you’re an as … well, rather crass.…

  • Systemic Rhetoric and Schools

    As a young child I was taught the concept of there are central arguments with the reaction to George Floyd’s death over memorial day weekend, the spark that merits a broader response to the tragedy. One may realize it is difficult to conceptualize how to make change in the midst of such systemic reaction to…

  • Don’t Feel Sorry For A Teacher

    I run an immediate risk with teaching colleagues with such a title caught in the eye of the storm that is COVID-19. Our lives and the students we teach are forever changed, anyone, anywhere in the world will be impacted more directly than indirectly by this virus. We will all have to adjust to the…

  • The ‘Not Yet’ Reality of Racism

    A dear friend once used the phrase ‘not yet’ to suggest a descriptive moment in our lives that though I will not describe that context, I will explore the phrase as it pertains to our lives in America today. As I write this commentary, I notice a massive gathering of protesters in Boston to represent…

  • If Not For That

    We wake to the morning asking for our soul, at least for a few hours, protect the innocent, that sort of thing that eats away, asks you with a constant urgency. Do you have to be that way, could you maybe perhaps try it another way. Does it always have to be, the way you…