I tried.......

I tried, couldn't do it, so..........I let it go!

Life is too precious to spend time doing things that do not bring you JOY!!!!!

Happy Tuesday!!!!!



One Year of Blogging!!!! Yaaaaaaaaaa

I am writing this post to honor all of the people who faithfully read this blog, those who read from time to time, and those who read when I prompt them. I don't care what makes you read, I am just happy that you do.

It's my One Year Anniversary, and I am so happy to be here in the world of blogging!!!!!

Happy Anniversary to Me!!!!!!!!!!

Me and My Nook Forever!

By the way, feel free to go to the top right of this blog and where it says follow by email, put your email address in, and every post will be emailed to you directly!

Great feature right?

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND!

Oh My God! She Did it Again.

The Honorable Toni Morrison

I just finished reading Toni Morrison's new novel titled Home, and all that I can say is that she did it again. I mean "She really did it again." As I was reading the novel and now, as I am writing this post, my heart is truly on fire. I can't say how much I love the writings of Toni Morrison. I really believe that her writings portray her most private thoughts, and I really want to meet and get to know Toni Morrison. Toni Morrison, Toni Morrison, Toni Morrison........There is something GREAT and SPECIAL about this lady, mother, writer, professor, Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winner etc.

With the reading of Home, I am convinced that Toni thinks a lot about the importance of taking a figurative and/or literal journey, women doing some type of self discovery, and she definitely thinks about why people are the way that they are.

In Home, the main characters Frank and his sister, Ycidra, known as Cee, both took a journey that had to be taken for their growth. The only way to really understand themselves and their lives was by taking a life journey. Their stories portray that through the pain comes peace. I know that sounds like another cliche, but when we think about our lives, some of the growth that we are forced to have comes from pain. I remember when my father died, through that pain, I learned that I could stand on my own and take care of myself, and I did not need my safety net, my dad, as much as I thought that I did. I was ready to fly on my own!

When Ycindra, known as Cee, was coming back from her life journey, Ethel Fordham, a lady "which soothed and strengthened her the most" told her over a plate of oven hot biscuits and a jar of blackberry jam:

"See what I mean? Look to yourself. You Free. Nothing and nobody is obliged to save you but you. Seed your own land. You young and a woman and there's serious limitation in both, but you a person too. Don't let Lenore or some trifling boyfriend and certainly no devil doctor decide who you are. That's slavery. Somewhere inside you is that free person I'm talking about. Locate her and let her do some good in the world."

Ethel and other women in the novel serve as guides for Cee to self-discovery.

If you saw the movie Beloved or read the book, the above quote reminded me of the speech that was given by Baby Suggs when she tries to teach her followers to love their voices, bodies, and minds.

Baby Suggs from Beloved.

Home is only 102 pages and in these few pages, the reader learns a lot about Frank and Cee. Toni develops these characters and many other secondary characters in 102 pages, and it's a lot of information but not too much. It's just enough too make the reader really understand why the characters do what they do. Developing characters through different characters' perspectives is something that Toni does in quite a few of her novels, and it really makes us love and identify with the characters, even the bad guys. Frank, one of the main characters in Home, did something really bad in the Korean war, but with the way that Toni explains why he did what he did, it just doesn't seem that bad.

Everything, and I mean everything, in Toni Morrison's books are important. She is a master with words and every word should be read with care. Read and reread Home and think and grow.

I am only scratching the surface of what is in the 102 pages of Toni Morrison's Home! You've got to experience Home for yourself.......

On a side note, Toni is 81 years old and is still doing what she loves. We must find what we love to do, and do it until we die.

"Suck All the Marrow Out of Life!" (Henry David Thoreau)

I had to add Stephanie Mills singing Home, because that's what's on my mind.

An Apple for a Teacher

I know that I have said it before, and I must say it again: "I teach some of the greatest students in the entire world." Saying this does not mean that they do not have typical teenager behaviors such as loving to laugh, talk, and be silly etc. However, laughing, talking, and being silly are not necessary bad behavior is it?

The end of the school year can really test the patience of teachers and students. Yesterday was the seniors last day, and I must say that the last two or three weeks with them has been what I call "A True Test of Patience." Not that they were disrespectful or anything like that, but they were mentally through with school, meaning that it was very difficult to get them to review for the AP exam or do anything that was academic related. So, I had to try and review creatively and just let the end of their school year "Sail On."

The underclassmen have about four more weeks and they are trying to hold it together. What is working to our advantage is the irregular schedules for standardized testing. With the irregular schedule, we see the students sporadically. After the standardized testing, we try and review for final exams. After exams, all of the pressure that is built up over the school year is released, just like a balloon when all of the air is released from it. Oh, the joy of the end of school!!

Teacher Appreciation Week was the week of May 7th , approximately two weeks ago. Last Thursday, a week after teacher appreciation week, I was feeling a little overwhelmed with trying to get the seniors to finish up those last few things before they stampeded out of the school doors forever.  One of my freshmen, one week after Teacher Appreciation Week, approached me as she was urgently digging for something in her book bag. She said "Ms. Stallworth, I forgot to give this to you last week," and she pulled out a red, shiny apple. Being pleasantly surprised, I stopped, gave her a huge hug, and "eased on down the road."

The apple that she gave to me looks very similar to this one!

The apple was given to me a week after teacher appreciation week, but it was right on time :)

See, I do have some of the greatest students in the world!

Everything is gonna be alright!

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

My student Emily who is going to West Virginia in the Fall.
Today is her last day of high school!



If a high school English teacher gets the opportunity to teach just a few students who really love literature in her career, than I would say she is a lucky person. This year, I felt like one of the luckiest teachers in the entire world, because my student, Emily, really loves to read and loves to share what she reads with the teacher, me.

Emily is the student whom I saw reading The Hunger Games, and I knew that if Emily was reading it, then I must give it a try, and you know how I feel about The Hunger Games; I absolutely loved it. I trust Emily's recommendations.

One of the assignments this year was for the seniors to do a thirty minute presentation on a novel, and I wanted them to own the novel just like I own Their Eyes Were Watching God, Sula, Song of Solomon, Lord of the Flies, books that I teach often and really, really know. Emily chose to read and do her presentation on The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Her presentation was so impressive, and it made me really want to read The Road. The next day, Emily gave me her copy of The Road to borrow. (Boy, was I excited.)

The Road is a futuristic book about a father and his son living in a world where no one will be able to survive long term, because the earth has experienced some type of catastrophe and all vegetation and all almost all animals, including humans, have been completely destroyed.

This book made me think about the theme of "Humans desire to survive is very strong." Even though it is inevitable that there will no longer be life on the planet, because there will soon no longer be a food source once all of the people die, yes, people are eating other people in this novel.  The few people who are left are still trying to live as long as possible. I wonder if this implies that people love life or people are afraid of dying!

I really loved this book, because even though it is written with no chapters and in fairly simple language, it is still a page turner because McCarthy does a great job of creating suspense by helping the reader to identify with the characters and want to see people, whom we feel that we know, survive.

However, you do not have take my word that this is an excellent, here is what the critics have to say:

"His tale of survival and the miracle of goodness only adds to McCarthy's stature as a living master. It's gripping, frightening and, ultimately, beautiful. It might very well be the best book of the year, period." —San Francisco Chronicle

"Vivid, eloquent . . . The Road is the most readable of [McCarthy's] works, and consistently brilliant in its imagining of the posthumous condition of nature and civilization." —The New York Times Book Review

"One of McCarthy's best novels, probably his most moving and perhaps his most personal." —Los Angeles Times Book Review

"No American writer since Faulkner has wandered so willingly into the swamp waters of deviltry and redemption. . . . [McCarthy] has written this last waltz with enough elegant reserve to capture what matters most." —The Boston Globe

"There is an urgency to each page, and a raw emotional pull . . . making [The Road] easily one of the most harrowing books you'll ever encounter. . . . Once opened, [it is] nearly impossible to put down; it is as if you must keep reading in order for the characters to stay alive. . . . The Road is a deeply imagined work and harrowing no matter what your politics." —Bookforum

If you are really busy and do not have a lot of time right now to devote to reading, but you want to read something that is a quick, page turner, then read The Road!

Thought for the day!

I borrowed this :)

Happy Tuesday!!!!

Women Rock!

 My mom and sister Dorothy!

Reading this blog, it will seem as if I watch The Oprah Network quite often. I know that I refer to things that I have seen on her show quite often. But, actually, I rarely watch TV, and when I do, I really want to watch things that may add positively to my life. To this end, I will switch over to OWN, and it seems like I always end up watching something that makes me ponder.

A few weeks ago I was randomly changing channels, and Oprah was doing an interview with Gloria Steinem. I love Gloria Steinem!

Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem is a name that is closely related to the Women's movement. Being a woman of color, I have wondered over and over, did women of color really have a place in The Women's Movement? All of the women that I know worked. My mother never worked outside of the home, but she worked in our acre garden just as much as my father. And, she went a step further than he did, she not only picked the food, but she canned food, cooked, washed, pressed hair etc. 

However, after watching Gloria's interview with Oprah, I had that light bulb moment. Gloria's movement seem to not be about women just working, but about women having the right to enjoy many things that just were not afforded to women such as the right to compete in marathons, to bike competitively, to play tennis professionally etc. I love to bike and run, and I like to do these things with women and men, and the thought that there were women who were not allowed to do these things along side other women and men really baffles me. I wonder if the suppressors used the same logic to suppress women that they used to suppress African Americas? Hmmmmmmmm

Today, on Mother's Day, I am writing this post to celebrate women and choices. The choice to have children, to not have children, to get married, to not get married, to be an Olympic athletic, to bike, to run, to laugh, to dance, to get a driver's licenses without her husband's signature, buy a house in her own name, to be damn happy, to throw up the middle finger at anyone who dares to say "Women shouldn't be doing that?"

Today, I am paying homage to my mother who decided at 76 years old to buy a house in her own name; my sister, Dr. Dorothy Reed, who decided to "take the road less traveled" and attend and graduate from Tuskegee Institute, sparking a family tradition of college educated women; my sister, Tracy, who had the audacity to decide that she would start and pastor a church in the South; Zora Neale Hurston who decided that she would abruptly leave the man whom she loved in order to pursue her writing passion; Billy Jean King who was determined to play tennis competitively; Hillary Clinton who decided that a woman can be taken seriously and even one day be The President of the United States; Sojourner Truth who had the courage to stand before a whole lot of men and boldly state "Ain't I a Woman." 

Today, I want to send a special shoutout to two of my co-workers, Erica and Angie, and the countless other women who made the choice to spend the morning biking, with me, along side of many men, women, and children of all different backgrounds on Mother's Day.

The official ride logo!

In front of The White House!

In Front of the Air Force Memorial!


Terria: soror, friend, and biking buddy made the decision to do the ride today!

We ran into another co-worker and his girlfriend at the end of the ride!

Women, we don't have to wait to be celebrated; we can celebrate ourselves!

Women Rock!

Happy Mother's Day!