Photographing

I wrote this song today. I hope I can perform it for my Arts Method Class this quarter.

Looking back
On photographs
From 2010.

It's hard for me
To quite see
Who I've become

You promised me
You wouldn't let go of this
But then he came
And you said you can't keep living...
In photographs

No running story
No big movements
We're just photographs

I want to kiss you
and like hell I miss you
We're just photographs

How fast it took
For you to get together
With herself

Now I'm here
I'm wondering if you still have our
Photograph

October, we spent under
a tree
A photograph
is all I have
to remind you that was me

How long it took
For you to get together
With herself

Now I'm here
I'm wondering if you still have our
Photograph

Come November
The leaves are dying
And you took its
photograph

Don't you remember
You made a promise
I can't read
In a photograph

Photograph
Your photograph

Forgetting

It's like forgetting the words to your favorite song, you can't believe it, you were always singing along.

I just scripted out my entire lesson last night. I am mid-lesson with my 6th/7th split class; Yesterday, we just did a lab on the spread of infectious diseases by doing a FAKE saliva-exchange lab. Today, we are collecting and graphing our data. Trust me, I almost always have my materials organized; so why can't I find the sheet where I am supposed to collect data?

I know. It's in the copier machine upstairs.

Step One: Recover.

I ask my class to put their eyes on the board. In the midst of my Prezi-infused lessons, I am about to go Old School with a marker and board. It will be okay.

And it was. Even more. I make a quick data chart on the board and start collecting my data by doing an old-fashioned raise of hands. Students are excited because some of them had the disease (we determined this if their solution turned Pink yesterday). Then there were the students who didn't have the disease (excited as well, of course, they didn't catch it!).

I collect my data. I do, what I think is a check-for-understanding, and using my Anchor Chart on "Graphing" quickly review the components of a graph. Title, X-Axis, Y-Axis...got it.

Every student with graph paper in hand appeared ready to start graphing. My mentor coaches from the sideline and asks:

"Aren't you going to model how to graph the points?"

I respond, "No...that's the "I do" part of the activity."

She gave me the look. The look that implied, "Cherita...I don't think this will work."

But I was insistent. I was so confident they could do it. I expected them to do it. After all, graphing wasn't THAT long ago...

She lets me do my thing. Fifteen minutes later, hands are raised and students are asking me to look at their graphs--they are colorful, they are labeled, and they are done...

CORRECTLY.

In that moment, I cannot describe what I felt. They completed a task that was doubtful they would complete. And at the end of that day, every single student turned in a Graph about the "Spread of Infectious Diseases" in our "Orange" tray, ready to be graded.

After class, my mentor told me she was shocked. She couldn't believe that they not only finished their graph, but did so with minimal guidance and simple circulation. She told me this:

"You believed in them...you said they could do it and wouldn't back down. And they did."

In that moment, butterflies flew throughout my stomach from the excitement that I believed in kids and my confidence was contagious. Students became confident in their work, and their work displayed nothing but confidence and knowledge. Retained knowledge, at that.

Moments like this will always overcome that initial moment of Panic.

Moments like this will make you smile for the rest of the day and have extremely high expectations of every other class. One of those classes then won't go as great as you planned it to. But you will recover. You will recover because you knew that you had success that first class, and it will happen again. It might not be today, or this week. But it will happen. And you strive for the goal to make that happen every day. It gives you confidence, and confidence is contagious in my classroom!

[My first capture of confidence in the classroom]

Believe

I still believe in summer days,

The seasons always change--

And life will find a way.

But today is Winter,

So I'll believe in that.

Merry Christmas.

Like

I can't like someone who thought that he's the only one that mattered while my heart got shattered.

This animosity is from high school. Their bad.

Thread

We made a plan that was subject to change

So whatever way it works out we both get the blame.

In the arms of this low.

This low.

Thread the light.

Belong

I belong where you are.

Noticing

Today I'm noticing that facebook is keeping track of my relationship.

Danser

Je veux danser à cette chanson. Maintenant.

Sleep

[A text I received from Jesus a few days back]

...Whee I'm going to sleep and I'm so happy because I get to hang out with you in a few minutes in my dreams. I love you...

I love everything about you.

Source: kimberlymy.tumblr.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Know

If you love her, let her go. She sings beautiful and s l o w. A tune that only caged birds know.

Stumbled across this song again. I forgot how much I love[d] it.

Drift

I was laying on my swing when I watched the sunset drift from color to color.

It was so beautiful today I couldn't let it go without taking a few pictures.

Without flash:

With flash:

Beautiful, either way.

Saying

I'm just saying, you can do better.

To the people who see the one they once loved with someone unimaginable. It's not jealousy, it's honesty.

Sail

And you say, sail to me. Sail to me, let me unfold you.

I listened to this today and in the news of a missing girl named Lauren Spierer from Bloomington, Indiana, I kept thinking of her. Please go here for more information. I've heard that somewhere around 2500 people go missing each day. That is heartbreaking, but Lauren's story hits close to home because she was a college student on her way home from a night out with friends as I often was. She's missing because she was just trying to get home, and I couldn't help but think how many times I did that walk myself. I always made it home safely, but she didn't. I pray that she is found safely, and I send my hope to her family.

On the floating, shapeless oceans
I did all my best to smile
til your singing eyes and fingers
drew me loving into your eyes.

And you sang "Sail to me, sail to me;
Let me enfold you."

Here I am, here I am waiting to hold you.
Did I dream you dreamed about me?
Were you here when I was full sail?

Now my foolish boat is leaning, broken love lost on your rocks.
For you sang, "Touch me not, touch me not, come back tomorrow."
Oh my heart, oh my heart shies from the sorrow.
I'm as puzzled as a newborn child.
I'm as riddled as the tide.
Should I stand amid the breakers?
Or shall I lie with death my bride?

Hear me sing: "Swim to me, swim to me, let me enfold you."
"Here I am. Here I am, waiting to hold you."

Breaking

Breaking hearts, one day at a time.
I sing this song for anyone who's had their heart broken, has broken hearts, or is currently breaking hearts.
You're not alone.

I am glad I currently and for a long time can't relate to this. There is beauty in love and my wish that all experience it.

Anyways this is not the full version, that of which I continue to work on. Also, it's lagging. Makes my expressions look funny(ier).

xo.

Smile

I know the way to silently make you smile with your eyes when you're trying to fight.

Dream

Did I dream you dreamed about me?

Were you hare when I was fox.

Now my foolish boat is leaning

Broken lovelorn on your rocks.

Sing to me.

Let

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1000 days.

I grew obsessed with knowing someone is obsessed with me.

It was almost unrequited love

At the beginning.

I invested 1000 days in seeking

A tale of requited love

Does it still make one obsessed if the recipient of the obsession is equally obsessive?

Is obsessive a forgiving trait

And are we under the impression

That obsession

Will never

Let me go.

Go there.

Never did I let it go

Never will I let it go

Never let me go

said I.

Stuck

I'm stuck in your shadow, letting you take control.

Under your spell,

Bound

and

Blind;

only you can save me.

Caught in your bed, hypnotized and only you can wake me.

Knowing

But I am not most humans.

My only weakness is knowing your secrets.

Keeping them close and holding them tight.

Bragging

There is nothing better than bragging about your awesome friends and making it onto a website that unites humans and ignites the power of multicultural friendship.

Take a look at the website.

Well worth any second, minute, or hour of your time.

With love,

the braggart of best friends