2013 Wrap

Wrap-up of 2013…Leia Brooks style!

The Christmas lights are starting to come down, the gluttony of holiday eating has passed, and now New Year’s Resolutions are being decided upon.  Yep, I have waited an appropriate amount of time to bombard you with one final end of the year highlight reel about my life.  I have finally accepted the reality that this is not my Christmas newsletter, but my end-of-the-year wrap up.

 Purple Cow 2013 featuring selections from "Wop", "We are Never Getting Back Together", and "Hot Cheetos and Takis" - I'm in the blonde wig

During 2013 I completed my 13^th year teaching at Hickman High School and began year 14.  Fortunately I was able to continue team teaching World Studies with my great partner teacher Lindsey Troutman.  I am also teaching one section of Humanities this year and two sections of English 10.  Because I have so much extra leisure time when I am not planning and grading (ha!), I have added on some extra duties.  This year I am one of two faculty sponsors of the Hickman Review, which is an art and literary magazine created by high school students. I am also continuing to sponsor Trireme, an honors organization for senior girls who commit to volunteering 4 hours a month.  One of the great joys of working at Hickman is seeing the incredible altruism these high school students exhibit.  Every year the student body raises over $40,000 for charities including the True Life Film Fund, the Red Cross, Special Olympics, and the Voluntary Action Center of Columbia.  And, we find awesome ways to raise these funds, like our Purple Cow lip sync contest.  In 2013 my group members and I were unable to retain our title as champions, but another teacher group proved that HHS teachers school the students when it comes to making an idiot out of ourselves on stage while lip synching!

My travels this year were not as expansive as years past, but I did get to move about for work and for my own leisure. I have continued working with the Missouri Writing Project, specifically with the Scholastic Art and Writing awards and I got a chance to introduce author Matt de La Pena at the annual Write to Learn Conference at Tan-Tar-A.  This was a great honor and my students were very excited to know I got to meet the author of so many books they enjoy (We Were Here, Mexican Whiteboy, and Ball Don’t Lie).  I also got to travel to the East Coast, presenting at NCTE (National Council for the Teachers of English) in Boston right before Thanksgiving. Though I didn’t get to do many “touristy” things, I did get to experience the original Boston Cream Pie at the Omni Park Hotel and I was able to walk part of the Freedom Trail.  There were also some great meals spent with colleagues at Durgin Park and Mr. Bartley’s.

I was also able to indulge in some non-nerd down time.  In July I road tripped with 10 friends (Danielle and Josephus Johnson, Ryan and Jayme Pingrey, Matt Foster and Carolyn Chipley-Foster, Dana and Brian Sleeth, and Susan and Grant Elliot) to Seacrest, Florida where we rented a beach house called “My Blue Heaven”.  With the ocean a 5-minute walk away and the 60,000 square foot pool a 4-minute walk away, we didn’t spend much time at the house.   On our last night we chartered a boat for a 3-hour sunset cruise where dolphins frolicked around us (and we participated in the mandatory “I’m on a Boat” reenactment).  This was the epitome of a relaxing vacation with great friends, good food, and the creation of a new drink (Sunrise on Seacrest). 

The Seacrest Crew on our Sunset Cruise

This was my second group trip with Matt and Carolyn (we went to Dauphin Island, Alabama in 2011) and they proved to again be great travel companions.  Matt suddenly and tragically passed away in October, which has made the memories of the trip bittersweet.  I am grateful for the wonderful times we had on vacation, at tacky Christmas sweater parties, and on the softball field. 

I wish you all joy, hope, peace, and happiness in 2014.  And of course, I wish you a year full of good reads.  Here are my 10 recommendations for your to-read list.                (* indicate book club selections)

1.   Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple:  A beautifully written, heart-warming and hilarious story of an agoraphobic, her husband and daughter, and a fateful trip to the Antarctic.
2.  Gulp by Mary Roach:  From the same woman who wrote Spook, Gulp chronicles the ins and outs (literally) of the digestive system.  Sounds ridiculously academic and boring, but it is incredibly fascinating and written with an appropriate amount of levity.

3.   *The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman:  I was moved to tears by this book.  A lighthouse keeper and his wife live on an isolated island off the coast of Australia, struggling to have children.  When a dead man and an infant wash up on their shore, they struggle with telling the truth or accepting the child they have tried for.

The Light Between Oceans - Book Club selection for November 2013

4.   *Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn:  If you haven’t read it yet, do so before the movie comes out.  This is a thriller you cannot put down.  On their 5^th anniversary Amy goes missing and her husband Nick is the prime suspect.

5.   Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan:  Disclaimer - John Green is my nerd crush, so I love everything he does.  This book tells the story of two high school boys (both named Will Grayson) who fortuitously meet in Chicago.  Poignant, hilarious, and resonating with truth.

6.   Fall of Giants by Ken Follett:  Follett is not known for his brevity (this book is around 900 pages), but he begins his Century trilogy by exploring the lives of families throughout the globe in the early 1900s.  From Russia, to Wales, to D.C., to Germany Fall of Giants shows us the historical causes and impact of World  War I by setting it within fictional families.

7.   World Without End by Ken Follett:  The second part of the Century Trilogy centers around World War II.  A second generation of characters introduced in Fall of Giants show just how interconnected we all are.

8.    *And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini – From the author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns comes another beautifully written book.  Chronicling a family through 50 years, switching perspectives throughout, Hosseini proves he is a master storyteller. 

9.    Frankenstein by Mary Shelley:  I teach this to my World Literature class and every year I am amazed by it.  Shelley was only 17 when she began this work and it still resonates 180 years after it was written.  If you think the monster’s name is Frankenstein, read the book.  And then come see me and an amazing cast in Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein at Columbia Entertainment Company in February. http://www.cectheatre.org/

10. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling:  Mindy has become my hip, Hollywood alter-ego.  She is smart, funny, and ridiculously adept at pop culture.  Be prepared to laugh out loud with this collection of creative non-fiction.

Leia