People have been asking me what is going on with the charter school. Things are moving along. We will be awarded our charter at the DESE board meeting today, which means we are the real deal, legit, and authentic. This also means we are going to start enrolling. Spread the word if you know of a family with current fourth and fifth graders in St Louis City who want a rigorous, college-prep education for their child. South City Prep wants ‘em. We are in lease negotiations on a temporary home (two years) in a great location, so I’m excited to announce that when we can. You can read our first bit of press in the St Louis Business Journal. We’ve also hired our Head of School and hope to continuing hiring in the next 2-3 months. If you are one of those people who graciously offered to volunteer for the school back when I didn’t have anything for you to do, here’s a heads up: hide yo’ kids, hide yo’ wife. I’mma coming for you soon.
Last week, a team from SCP, including myself, visited three high-performing charter schools in the New Orleans area. Because of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has a huge charter school populations. More than half of their public schools are charters. We saw some downright awe-inspiring schools getting incredible results, and I left feeling really inspired and motivated about what’s to do to get ready to educate kids.
I have learned so much through this process, particularly during our visits to high-performing schools. I’ve seen, over and over in our visits, programming implemented the right way, with all stakeholders intensely-committed to educating kids. I’d seen bits and pieces tried elsewhere, never with the dramatic results these schools are getting. I’m completely rethinking how I think we educate teachers. Before, I knew that we were doing it wrong, but I didn’t know exactly how I would train teachers differently. This is something I could expound on at length but I’ll still stand by what I’ve said before, which is that it should absolutely be harder to become a teacher. I’ll also say these schools weren’t perfect, but there’s a lot we can learn and play with when designing programming for our school.
While in New Orleans, also got to scout some eatin’, and I would highly recommend Cochon if you are in New Orleans. We had an outstanding meal that surpassed my expectations, and I would undoubtedly visit again when I return to the city. You should go there if you get the chance. It’s a great place for people really into food to take their less-adventurous friends and have a meal that satisfies everyone. Totally approachable food that was still exciting.
Unrelated to anything serious, I’m a finalist for the RFT’s Web Awards in the category of Best Personal Blog. I’m going to lose to up against my friend and fellow Church of Burger Priestess Stef Pollack of fantastic The Cupcake Project. So many of my friends are up for awards, which makes me a member of the cool nerds, I guess.
Thank you so much to whomever nominated me, unless this is some weird elaborate prank to humiliate me, like on Carrie. Because if it is, me and my dirty pillows will have no problem sourcing heritage-breed pig blood that I can and will telepathically hurl at my would-be humiliators. I also still have a pig head. So, basically, JUST TRY ME.
Check back next week to see if I “win” or not. I hope, like all situations I find myself in, it involves a giant check.
I’ve struggled to write about anything political in this space for a long time, mostly because I’m disillusioned. As much as I want to satisfy all my Tea Party stalkers by regretting my support of Obama, I don’t. I actually think he’s doing a damn fine job considering the craptastic hand that was dealt to him by the Bush Administration and a Congress full of people who ironically don’t believe in government’s ability to function so they completely hinder government’s ability to function as a kind of “I told you so”. That’s what’s disillusioning. I don’t 100% support everything our president has done thus far, and I’m certainly frustrated with what he hasn’t done. But my anger is directed elsewhere. → continue reading
The world would be a better place if people did more nice things for no reason. Yesterday, I was plum tickled that some dude smiled and waved me through a stop sign. Seriously. I am easily affected.
ANYWAY, you should totally do something awesome for someone else. I will even tell you two awesome things you can do without even getting off your computer.
1. My ladyblogging Kelly who works in education (not to be confused with my other ladyblogging friend Kelly who works in education) is asking folks to throw a little support to Mr. C, a special education teacher looking to make a difference in his classroom by using iPods and iPads as a replacement for his busted computer situation. I’ve written before about how great Donors Choose is, and if you are looking for a way to give a small amount of money to a very worthy cause, this is your chance. Please think about helping out Mr. C and his classroom. If you can’t donate, you can vote for Mr. C and his project to get funding through Limeaids for Learning.
2. Another blogging friend, Jason, from Outnumbered, just wrote a children’s book. If you were at BlogHer, you would remember Jason as the lone dude who spoke at the Community Keynote. He also let me ride a scooter in his office, because that’s the kind of guy he is and the kind of office he’s got. Not relevant. He wrote a children’s book, called Do Witches Make Fishes?and Jason is donating all the proceeds from the sale of the book to the Garden of Dreams Foundation. About the book:
Do Witches Make Fishes? is the moral tale of a young boy who favors candy over his mother’s outlandish but healthy dishes. When faced with an ultimatum from his mother, the boy has to make a difficult choice. What ensues is a series of extraordinary and fantastical events that will take the reader on a magical journey through the imagination of a child. In the end, you will find yourself asking, Do Witches Make Fishes?
So, yeah, if you have a kid in your life, you should probably buy them this book and then read it to them and feel warm and snuggly all over.
Other awesome things you could do would be come over and patch up the giant hole in the drywall that Neko scratched or bring me a grape snocone. Just suggestions.
Thank you to everyone who commented on my questioning Catholicism post. For the most part, things stayed respectful and I appreciate everyone who shared their personal stories. You guys rock. For the sake of fairness, the Christians are next, because I just watched Waiting for Armageddon and that noise will stop you dead in your tracks. My friend Christine e-mailed me and said, “You know who I feel bad for in the whole Catholic scam…Jesus. That dude has a lot of fucked up shit happening in his name and he’s not even around to be like, “Hey. Don’t do that. Thanks, bro.” And that’s how I feel about Waiting for Armageddon, but with the Christians. It’s on Netflix Watch Instantly if you want to prepare yourself for my eventual rant. I was raised Lutheran, which is totally Catholic-lite and not really into fear-based end-times chatter, but I’ve read some of the Left Behind books (shut it, I was in high school/early college) and so I have opinions, and they involve Kirk Cameron. → continue reading
My trip to New York was a whirlwind of awesome. That pretty much sums it up.
There are fewer things better for the mind and soul than having high hopes that people you admire will like you back should you meet them and those hopes coming true. I think many of us still hold on to feelings of rejection from middle school or high school, and those can resurface at events like BlogHer. And when people aren’t snobs, and instead embrace you willingly, with arms oustretched, and shower you with positive thoughts, well, it’s nice. It’s better than nice. It’s fan-fucking-tastic. I finally met so many awesome, amazing people I’ve been sharing my life with online, and they were smarter, and funnier, and more intelligent and fun than I thought possible. And when I met these people, they gave me giant, genuine, real hugs. The level of positivity and emotional generosity is unlike anything I’ve experienced.
**If you are not going to BlogHer, or do not care about BlogHer, or think us ladybloggers are nutso, this is probably not the post for you. Go look at this instead.***
Dear Baby Jesus, the interwebs blew up this week with BlogHer hubbub. It was like the announcement of the Voices of the Year was some kind of signal for everyone to start freaking out about the conference all at once.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m stoked. I’m pumped. I can’t wait.
Great things happen at BlogHer. At its heart, the BlogHer conference is about celebrating the writing of women and the community that surrounds those women. And that’s why I go. I have always been a writer and I will always be a writer; it’s something I do for myself because I love it. The internet allows women writers from all over the world to engage with and support each other. It’s a little like college: no matter who you were in high school, you can find your niche. You just have to look hard enough. And I’ve been fortunate enough to make several real life friends across many niches from my experiences blogging. → continue reading
I was totally humbled and thrilled to be named a finalist in the Life category for this year’s BlogHer Voices of the Year contest. I may have peed a little. For those non-BlogHers, members submit posts in one of five categories that they feel were the best posts they’ve read over the past year. Each category is narrowed down to 20 or so finalists, then three are chosen to read at the Community Keynote at the annual BlogHer conference. → continue reading
Sunday I turned 30. Truth be told, I have relatively little anxiety about it. I was too damn stressed last Thursday and Friday, what with the complete failure of my hard drive on Thursday and (delayed) travel to school on Friday. I have a lot of friends who are older than me, which must be because I’m so mature I pronounce it matoor, so it just wasn’t that big of a deal. I’m lucky to have the life that I have; it’s a damn good one. And, I lost 15 pounds in the last three months.→ continue reading
When you go to a conference like BlogHer, bloggers usually have cards they exchange with their blog URL, e-mail, Twitter name, etc. Last year I got minicards from Moo, which I liked, but I didn’t have a logo or anything, I just used images from Moo. I really didn’t think too much about what I put on them.
I decided to get new cards for BlogHer because I’ve been writing at different places since I got my last ones. My ladyfriend and fellow Food Blog Mafia blogger Iron Stef is an awesome graphic designer. She created the logos for FBM and the Church of Burger, which you can see to your right in my sidebar. Stef created card designs for me, incorporating all the relevant information AND used an icon of my fist tattoo. Check these out: → continue reading
So, remember when meeting someone you met online was, like, kind of sketchy and possibly dangerous? And there was a distinct possibility that the person you were meeting would either be a teenaged LARPer or Chris Hansen?
"Your new hair makes you look like David Bowie."--one 6th grader to another, renewing my faith in the cheeldren. http://www.twitter.com/kbestoliver3 mins ago
