The month of November has been a difficult one.  I returned from the NCTE annual convention in NYC late Sunday night, inspired albeit exhausted from the four days I spent in the city, starstruck before such English education big-wigs as Nancie Atwell, Kyleen Beers, Janet Allen, Bob Probst, Jeff Wilhelm, and many authors I have loved from afar for quite some time now: Walter Dean Meyers, Jonathan Kozol, Christopher Paul Curtis, and Jerry Spinelli to name a few.

So I walk into school Monday morning - and I get there by 6:05, because I’m just teeming with ideas, ready to put some of that inspiration before the hungry minds of my students - and I immediately realize I’ve forgotten my keys - and my lunch.  I could go back, but then I wouldn’t be ready for the day by 7:30, when I pick the children up from the gym.  So I find the custodian and beg his apologies as he leads me to my classroom to unlock the door.  Mid-apology I take a step up the stairs and trip, spilling coffee all down the front of me. 

“I hope this isn’t foreshadowing the rest of my day!” I say lamely.

But, of course, it was.  Not only was the printer in a chronic state of debilitating “offline,” all three photocopiers were also defunct.  So when my team leader came in at 7:20 to inform me that the team has decided to do “lock down” or “single class instruction” for these next two days, I would be keeping my homeroom for the next two days, and did I have any packets of LA work for the other teachers to dole out? - I just about lost it.

But, as we teachers do, I composed and ruberized myself to be a paragon of flexibility.  So one of my classes knows poetry quite well, and the others’ unit will be cut from six weeks to four.  Although justice here seems to be lacking, there are - I suppose - greater tragedies in the world.

And the mandate gave me extra time to discuss my trip to New York with the students.  We discussed geography and history, and I read to them from the several books I’d had authors sign for them.   They were pretty impressed.  “You met the author of Bud Not Buddy AND Monster?!  Luck-eeeeee!” 

Tony is a student who sometimes stays after with me for mentoring.  He is not a great student, very disorganized, and struggles with anxiety because of some family problems.  When I was at the convention, I heard an author speak who I had never hear of before: Coe Booth.  She spoke about her first and most recent book Tyrell, a book written for the long neglected audience of African American, inner-city adolescents.  The main character, Tyrell, tells his story: dad in jail, mom verbally abusive, a little brother to care for, trouble in school.  Much of Tyrell’s story sounded similar to Tony’s.  As I listened to Ms. Booth speak, I thought: I’m going to have a book signed for Tony.

When I gave Tony the book on Monday, I stopped him as he was going into the classroom from bathroom break and held the book open for him.  He read the inscription:  “To Antonio, I wrote this book for you.  Keep reading.  Love, Coe Booth.”  He thanked me, sincerely, and trying not to make to much of it, I wheeled him back into the classroom and back to work.  I could hardly get him to put it down all day, and when he was doing his other packets (science, social studies, etc.), he kept it on his desk or in his lap.  (Thanks, Coe!)

What I’m most looking forward to this break, is sifting through my pages and pages of notes and hand outs from last weekend, and piecing together a truly inspired/inspirational poetry unit.  Also revisiting the memoirs, and doing some precious reading of my own.