my current job:

needless to say,
it's not going so well.

i went to get certified to substitute in AZ.
$60 for the certificate alone,
another $70 for more fingerprinting/background checks...
(and no, DC's aren't good enough.)
oh- and it would take 4-6 weeks to get the info back to get a fingerprint card...

forget that option...

gee, i thought applying for 25 jobs on the east and having them all fail was a sign i needed to be here.... um.....hey Mesa,

show me the money!

...back to work we go...


i am loving this weather though,
and loving my life right now....
...in spite of the lack of job and things...

just in case you were wondering...

{TGIF - happy friday!!}


oh, if you noticed, its national pie day...
"you can't have a pie without coo-hwip!"

see what i mean?

i got an email from one of my students that just said,
"hi ms. moffat, we miss you at duke."
(when she replied, she let me know that the boys did their
"ms. moffat" dance for everyone at the christmas party... awesome.)

a friend of mine who teaches at the school IMed me this morning
and said that in response to:
"who would you choose for Time's person of the year 2008?"
a student put me... even funnier....

i think it is because they love that i am part black...
as evidenced here:

(note: I am new to this editing program...
there is one profane word that i tried to cover...
get over it. $--- happens, right?)

check it: a little directing project...

so, i helped to direct these crazy faces in a project called TextAlive.

they are one school of 15 that got a scene from a Shakespeare play and they come up with their own concept and then {today} they put em all together—mostly for parents and show-off purposes... but it was a big deal.

i guess i don't have to tell you that their scene was the best one there...

the Shakespeare Theatre Company stage (that they performed on)

it was a great success. ok, maybe i will stay another week.

...but then i really have to go...

...cause my mom can't put up the tree without me...

math? i don't teach math... but i see a problem...

one larger-than-life project due tomorrow
+
one huge apartment full of 6 teachers
+
planning for 4 classes a week
+
just plain being ADD...

equals

our other "married" student teacher (doesn't live here)
showed up to "work" with us
and asked how we were doing...

friggen great thanks...
just great...

totally on task and productive...

...and yes, we are all in the profession of teaching students to be great students...

who's ADD...?

what?

is that... a chicken.... over there...?

someone's throwing stuff...

you gonna build a fire or what?

no... but i will blog about it... to prove how good i am at stuff...

...prize to anyone who can tell me the tallest building in the world!


hoping your weekend is more conducive to productivity than mine thus far,

p • E • a • C • e

side note: my roommates all just came into my room laughing...
so... you read the blog already...?
"of course, we are working on that teacher work sample...
aka blogging... and I was thinking,
if we were in the hospital right now...
would we still have to do this damn project?...
just wondering"

Duke it out

reader: i am so fascinated by your life right now. oh please please explicate on what it is that you do in your fancy, souped up life on the east coast.

me: oh alright. calm down.


so, i have been here in DC for a few weeks now with the intention of teaching at this great private school for the performing arts. they have a handful of alumni that they claim, one being dave chapelle (who was seen by a friend of mine recently at the mac store... good to know he's on the good side) and they really are a great school. byu tried to freak us out by repeatedly telling us all of the horrible inner-city students' issues that we will see and how hard and different it would be from what we knew in our little "sheltered land" of p-town, utah, u.s.a, but i have to tell you... there isn't much here that is a whole lot different from anywhere else. shocker.

the school is different, the kids are different. but definitely not inner-city. many of the kids come from out of the city and they pay tuition to go to school here, the rest are covered by the city and those are the ones that might be considered "inner-city"... if you squint.

the kids are here to study either dance, vocal music, instrumental music, theatre, technical theatre, literary media, visual arts, or museum studies and they auditioned or applied for the program they are in. they treat the school very much like a university in that each of the students are basically labeled and identified by their "major" or "program" to which they belong so it very much feels like a mini-HFAC dropped in a much cooler place. they have all their academic classes in the morning, and then the afternoon is dedicated to their art. this means that yes, technically, my day doesn't really start until about 2pm, but my mentor teacher teaches a class on the "academic" side called "art & culture" that has absolutely no curriculum or real purpose as far as i can see, but it sure is fun so i go to that some mornings. the past few weeks we have been designing/talking about tattoos. and yes, one girl went and got hers last weekend. good thing she is 18, cause if/when her parents find out.... hell.

i am going to be teaching theatre history I and II, as well as help team-teach theatre styles which is a class that focuses on learning trends in contemporary theatre based on what the students find interesting to discuss and learn about. (another class that miss tia doesn't have to prepare for-- they basically create the syllabus as they go.) oh. that's the other thing. most of the teachers go by miss (insert first name here), so i am usually "miss meg" which honestly sounds better that miss moffat, which ends up being "miss muffin", "miss moffin", or "miss mo-phat" (which could be a term of endearment if used correctly... but often isn't.) i know, i should get married and fast before it is too late and my name sticks to me forever...

and then i will help teach the other teacher's movement for actors class. she teaches a handful of random things that the students don't exactly know why they learn yet, but i am sure they help them focus and things. i am going to start teaching yoga in that class, which will be so fun. i am planning on getting certified this next semester anyway to teach yoga, so that will be good practice.

i have a large report-type product i must complete within the next few weeks that analyzes the teaching and the students' performance based on a mini-unit i teach within one of the classes. it will not be terribly difficult, but is definitely a time-suck. other than that, i am looking at a few jobs i might apply for because i plan to stay here, but i am antsy that one will be harder to find than i wish...

i will say i love what i do now and i love that i am here and i love the people i am meeting/camping/dancing/going to concerts/chatting/eating crepes with... i am seriouslysoblessed.com to be here. sersly.

oh- and i fully taught for 3 hours straight today... and yes, i was awesome.

post script: updates and pictures on above mentioned events are soon to follow. chill, reader. ya know, sometimes you nag too much...

what do you watch at YOUR staff meetings...

this may be one of the most inspirational
speeches you've ever seen...





maybe i cried in duke ellington's theatre
watching this.

a 10-year-old had to remind me
why i do what i do... awesome.

bragging rights

yeah... this is the school i will be at in the fall...
foto by meg moffat

and hopefully teaching at shortly following.

i am starting to get so freaking excited
i can hardly stand it.

read here about the famous show that they put on last year....
{The Wiz}
their budget for this thing: $200, 000 dollars!
crazy donations from michael jordan foundation and others....
and many former stars and professional theatre practitioners worked on the project. the staff there sounds incredible!
i have to say, on the one hand,

i could not be more honored to be there
with such a high quality set of students and faculty...
not to mention the great programs at the school.
i mean, if they didn't let me teach theatre right away,
i am sure i could teach media literacy or creative writing....
and honestly—what would be so sad about that?!
on the other hand, it will be a miracle if they hired me....
i don't know what i could even bring to them that they don't already have.
guess i will have to live up the semester that i get to shine
and then sub for the rest of my life...

(cue charlie brown depressing music...)

foto by josh dalton

who taught me to

...choose with no regret....

or to reach for the gold ring

who made me fall in love with writing

and reach for my dreams

who taught me how to appropriately cook my starbursts

and to appreciate all things vintage
(and even supplied me with the most perfect vintage dress for a formal!)

Jeremy Lindblom- and the dress of awesomeness- wish you could see the back!

who let me into her family

Jake and i with Craig the day he returned from his mission. Me=ecstatic.

and with whom did i share a common obsession of caffeine

who taught me to see myself as who i could be...

when i had to write about going to college and becoming a teacher in your class,
i guess i never really thought i would get there...

and taught me to be about the journey...

Craig Marie Smith: i aspire to write, to love, to live, to share, to be, to teach, and to become...

...because of what i gained from you

love, Megoryan Marie Smith (Meg Ryan)

Mesa High will miss you.
When my mom asked me what you were going to do now I said, "Chello! She is going to go shopping and buy all the cool stuff she ever wanted and turn it into other cool things and then maybe sell it, or maybe just keep it... or maybe she will hang out with her awesome husband or a-freakin-dorable daughter... i don't know! Duh..."

as a side note/post script: i just saw "The Miracle Worker" (about Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller). It was beautiful and by the end, my show-going buddy (Jared Cardon- duh, who else to see shows with?!) and i were in tears. it was a compelling performance (Stephanie Brinholt) and i reveled in the idea that this woman will forever be remembered by the retelling of her story. Helen- you were an inspiration and went on to do beyond incredible things, include perform in vaudeville, write 14 books, and be the first woman to get an honorary degree from Harvard...
but Annie- you were her teacher.
as sappy as that might sound,
i love it.