prayer, worship, roses and smut: just another day in my life

6:00 prayer was awesome as usual, but my friend (Pastor E.) kept hitting on some topics that had me thinking and remembering...I had a difficult time praying without tears. I gave my pitiful little 30 second contribution during the last five minutes and then immediately left...because I didn't want to be late to host my first prayer time at work. We're not allowed to pray together during the school day, but I've invited several folks to come and experience some worship and corporate prayer time during the fifteen minutes before our school day officially starts. Most forgot about it, but I'm not discouraged; at least I wasn't alone. I blasted some awesome worship music, and we (my friend Ed and I) jammed for a while! :o)

More happy news:

Today I got a dozen roses and a "welcome back" note from my principal. Wow! I've never gotten roses from my boss before. :o) I carried those perfumed, precious petals with me all day long. I have no shame.

Not-so-happy news:

We (teachers) were observed by the state dept. of ed., and, rather than sit at my desk pretending to be pristine and proper, I chose to teach as I normally would. :o)

My students were struggling with understanding Shakespeare's language, so we took a breather today. I wanted them to experience "translating" something so that, hopefully, they would realize that Romeo and Juliet really isn't impossible to comprehend.

At first my observer seemed impressed as I recited some middle English for the kids and had them pick out words they recognized (classes averaged three words in four lines of poetry). However, when I wrote the same words on the board, they recognized at least five words per line.

Miss Evaluator liked that part.

Then I had the kids break up according to rows, and I assigned two pages per group. They were instructed to read their pages aloud among themselves and discuss the meaning. I wanted a 3-4 sentence summary, but they only had 20 minutes because I wanted each group to share before the bell dismissed them.

Miss Evaluator liked that part too.

And then we had a discussion.

If you're familiar with Shakespeare, then you know that he was, um, shall we say, not exactly "G" rated. One of my students caught on when Romeo said, "Wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?"

YAY! They were thinking and starting to paraphrase!

That's when the woman's smile dissolved and her eyes turned into dark slits which seemed able to emit fire at any given moment. She transformed into a cranky, hateful entity who glared at me for allowing such filth in the classroom. (It wasn't quite that bad, but I'm embellishing to make the story more interesting, ok?)

Romeo and Juliet banter back and forth often. It's actually kind of cute how they tease one another.

Maybe one day I'll be able to say, with a smirk on my face, "Wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?" and my sweetheart will immediately smile because he "gets it" without needing an explanation. ;o) Maybe I'll meet a fellow English teacher or professor at one of the many conferences I attend.

It could happen...