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Showing posts from June, 2013

"The time has come," the Walrus said...

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For the past eight years I have worked as a Language Arts and Drama teacher at a small, public school for the arts in South Seattle. The school’s community is highly diverse and deeply impoverished. It is, as they say, a “high needs” school. My work at this school has been both incredibly challenging and rewarding. I’ve had students drop out, succumb to drugs, give up, go to jail, a few have even died. I’ve also seen students graduate, gain confidence, grow up, go to college, find their callings, and fall in love with learning. I’ve had students inspire me beyond what I thought possible. In short, my experience as a teacher has been intense. During this time, my life as a writer has also taken wing. I’ve snatched hours on the weekends to type feverishly in a coffee shop, and I’ve spent my summers frantically pursuing my "other" love. Since having my own children, this has become increasingly difficult, and like so many mother-artists, I’ve developed some amo