The Lady of Shalott

…Four grey walls, and four grey towers, Overlook a space of flowers, And the silent isle imbowers The Lady of Shalott…

…There she weaves by night and day A magic web with colours gay. She has heard a whisper say, A curse is on her if she stay To look down to Camelot. She knows not what the curse may be, And so she weaveth steadily, And little other care hath she, The Lady of Shalott.
And moving through a mirror clear That hangs before her all the year, Shadows of the world appear. There she sees the highway near Winding down to Camelot;…

…And sometimes through the mirror blue The knights come riding two and two. She hath no loyal Knight and true, The Lady of Shalott…

…"I am half sick of shadows," said The Lady of Shalott…

…She left the web, she left the loom, She made three paces through the room, She saw the water-lily bloom, She saw the helmet and the plume, She look'd down to Camelot. Out flew the web and floated wide; The mirror crack'd from side to side; "The curse is come upon me," cried The Lady of Shalott…



…Down she came and found a boat Beneath a willow left afloat, And around about the prow she wrote The Lady of Shalott…

…And at the closing of the day She loosed the chain, and down she lay; The broad stream bore her far away, The Lady of Shalott…





Excerpts taken From Lord Alfred Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott".

The Lady of Shalott was locked in a tower. She was cursed in that she could never look directly out the window. Everything she saw happening outside was through a reflection in the mirror, which she in turn weaved into her web. One day, however, she noticed Sir Lancelott and the sight of him caused her to leave her weaving and look out the window. Immediately the curse befell her. She knew it, and left the tower, floating down the river in a boat as she slowly died.

Too Much to Think About

I have too much to think about. I actually get lost sometimes because one thing will lead to the thought or inspiration of another thing and I'll get distracted from what I'm doing. I think it has to do with the intense focus of the Education Program. Sometimes I'm just mentally exhausted. I can only drive so hard for so long. I got a free book the other day. For my future classroom. Ok, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, too much to think about. Not hard, just a lot... a lot all at once...a lot to process...a lot to organize...a lot to think about, and plan ahead about...and I know I'm rambling, but this is all that's left of my poor emaciated mental capabilities.

The kids in my class are great.
My classes are great.
My cooperating teacher is great.
My homework is great.
And life is just doggone great.

227 Days and Counting.

A Momentous Occasion, Cause for Celebration

Today is a day of Reckoning for two reasons (hmmm, there’s that number again!). The first, being Teacher Assisting in my class of 22 fifth graders. Overall it was a good experience. I didn’t do much besides observe and take copious notes on all the morning’s activities. The difficulty in observation comes from trying to document the events without being clouded by personal judgments of those events. Personal judgments can rob a person of a true perspective of what is really going on. In order to observe as an insider rather than an outsider, I must document only facts and strings of conversation, and return to those raw observations to record my thoughts, feelings, and impressions of what occurred. That is the theory anyway.

I think this will be a good group of kids to work with and learn from as a future teacher. I really do love being in the classroom. I only had one sketchy moment while I attempted to help some poor girl attach her stretchy book cover over a beat up math book. I think it was too small. It really took some elbow grease, and I attracted a small crowd of children each with a brainy idea on how to get it on. I finally realized that I was in danger of destroying school property and gave up. The temptation to be a hero always must be weighed against the loss of dignity. This particular scenario was much too risky.

The second reason for us to Reckon this day is that it is September 5, 2006, the day LOST: Season Two hits stores. Yes, I have it already. After my lunch with the other teachers (to which I was personally invited), I rushed right over to Best Buy and bought it. For all the hardcore fans out there, I will pass along the new knowledge which I have gleaned from the exclusive bonus features.

Two new websites for the LOST fanatic: The ‘Lost’ Notebook is a plethora of collected facts, and The Fuselage is the official website of the Creative Team of the LOST show. You can check them out as you catch up on season 2 (or 1 if you’re that far behind) and gear up for season three.

Hasn’t this been a nice day?!

*edit And Daniel called from Africa!!!

Hop On the Merry-Go-Round

Have you ever sat around thinking and reflecting? Minutes turn into hours, hours into days, days into months. You stir and realize that nothing has really changed or been accomplished except that you are now frustrated and in a bad mood. I’ve never been so glad in my life to pull out of a season of reflection and rest than this one. I welcome the busy schedule, the balancing act of assignments and due dates, the research to conduct, the papers to write, the lessons to plan, the projects to execute. My mind will be busy on things that matter (and that I can actually DO something about) and I will once again be moving in some clear direction.

Most of all I will be distracted from the fact that I am steadily moving ever closer to the edge of the unknown. There has always been a plan, a next step, a clear direction of what I should do and where I should go. All that will disappear for me quite soon. I suppose everyone comes to that day at some point in their lives. You arrive there at the edge, but really every choice has lead there. It is the feeling of a free fall. I hope I will be brave enough to dive headfirst over that edge when the moment comes. Maybe something will be there to catch me.

This week I went to class, a Doctors appt., and a CPR/First Aid training. Next week I will start Teacher Assisting, go back to work, and begin assignments. I am so glad I had a week to get into my class schedule before adding assisting and work. I will be observing for the first few days in my 5th grade class I think. I have to draw a map of the classroom and list demographics for one of my classes. That will be my focus for the first couple days.

I have all my classes except one in town and will carpool with my dear friend Angela for the one in GV. Now that I’m in the College of Education the pool of people is much smaller. I know almost everyone in all my classes. The three classes in town are filled with all the same people because everyone wants to save themselves the commute to GV. I’ve never had three classes with all the same people. It got a little tedious when all three professors asked us to share an interesting fact and we had to think up a new fact for each class so we wouldn’t sound boring!

That does it for the boring life update. Consider yourself in the loop.