pardon me.

please excuse my absence around these parts this week.  

i've got some writing to do.

scratch that.  lots of writing to do. 

as in, i've-already-written-98-pages-and-easily-have-fifty-more-to-go.

wish me luck!

Excuse me while I get on my soap box.

Every once in a while, I like to write about the things that really get my fired up; the things that I'm really passionate about (see here and here).  Last night, I spent an entire grad class talking and learning about critical literacy, or the practice of incorporating books that have some weight into your curriculum.  Books about homelessness, socioeconomic class differences, racial tension, even Japanese American internment camps during WWII.  The practice is meant to start young students on the path of becoming socially conscious people with a heart and mind for things like social justice.  When my prof asked for us to line ourselves up on a continuum from 1 to 10 with 1 being "I love this, I NEED to incorporate it into my classroom" and 10 being "It's not for me.", let's just say I was as far on the side of 1 as I could go.  

My time at Gordon shaped me into a lot of things, one of which was someone with a heart for social justice issues.  There are a few that I'm exceptionally passionate about (namely urban ed and getting clean water sources into places that have none), but pretty much any issue can and will tug at my heart strings (and yes, I have two pairs of TOMS).

Right now, I'm working on my M.Ed in Multicultural Education.  Eventually, I want to become a teacher in an urban center and maybe someday get my doctorate or law degree and go into policy writing or work for a NGO that champions education reform.  

But right now, in this season, I'm learning.  I'm learning what it means to be a compassionate and  effective teacher.  I'm learning how to get a first grader to understand that there is injustice in the world and that they can play a role in changing it.  And I'm going to classes that (finally) are reminding my why I'm staying up til 1 am writing papers and rearranging my schedule to do observations and jumping through hoops to find someone to interview for this or that.  

For the first time in a while, I'm remembering what God has called me to, and that answering that call, and answering it well, is what it's all about.

via