It’s Tuesday morning and we sleepily file into 467 Corbly Hall in anticipation of the coming day. Amy is coaching Kathy and Sarah and they review their game plans for their big day. Others are mingling and talking over game strategies, especially of upcoming demos. Finally the tip off. Peggy informs the team that t-shirts and polos can be purchased to boost team spirit. Melanie reported that Eddy has been admitted in Cabell Huntington Hospital as a result of a folded colon and may be facing surgery. Our thoughts and prayers are with her and we will be sending flowers or something to let her know she is missed by all. Jennifer actually had an explanation of Eddy’s condition and Bonnie was truly amazed at the depth of Jennifer’s knowledge about a broad range of topics. The prompt is given and the topic for today is take yourself to/back to the place/time where/when you are/were the happiest. Writers began throwing around ideas and scrambling to put pen to paper.
Marsha had a really bad headache today and she is not into drugs, but she bravely played the game and read her writing first. She is happiest now and says good things come to those who wait. Now that she is grown she has a ball with her sisters and has adult fun with them. Not drinking and cursing but picnics, art museums and relaxing by the pool. Seven years ago was also a happy time because her husband came into her life. She struggled to find a song to fit this occasion but couldn’t quite come up with one.
The ball is passed to Joseph who revealed his split personality. His writing alternated between childhood memories and adult memories. Life for him was simpler before his kindergarten days. He remembers visiting the country often and sharing their leftovers at Papaws house. Camden Park seemed like it was so much more fun and everything was better during that time. Every summer they went to different Vacation Bible Schools but his aunt’s was the coolest because it was during the day and he could get it over early and have the rest of the evening to himself.
Play continues and a substitution is made. Jennifer enters the game with only bad memories. She wonders why it is always the trash she recalls during Writing Project. Then she asks “What if I am crazy and other people know it and I don’t yet.” She states that she is not sad, depressed or even the bitter ex-wife, she just has trouble finding a happy thought. Finally, she found it and it has a name, Trey. They bake together, laugh together and fight over the batter bowl. Her second happy thought is being warm, secure and safe inside during storms. It makes her smile even now. She loves it when the house stands and protests against the storm.
Sarah makes her presence known on the court and is the next to contribute to the game. She is very busy on the weekends with various household chores but occasionally she can stay home and sit on the big red couch leafing through hardware catalogs. “How I love a clean kitchen” she exclaims. She also walks the dog and imagines the theme from Rocky as they saunter along letting the dog hike his leg on the vegetation along the way. In the evenings she can get together with friends for corn hole and hot dogs. She says “This is when I’m the happiest, when my time is mine.”
The ball is passed to Melanie who recalls playing piggy toes with her husband, son and the dogs all in the same bed. She is happiest when they are all home playing together. She laughs about the new trick Chris taught Elliott this morning and realizes the importance of making everyday the happiest.
Robin makes a steal and shows her off her skill next. She would like to say that her happiest time was a white wedding day, but no. She was happiest when her children came into the word but was terrified of the responsibility. She can imagine one of her children lying on the psychologist couch talking about mother issues. She finally fulfilled her dream of becoming a teacher but was terrified of accountability. Fear wrapped its tentacles around her. She concludes that she is happiest now and her children are growing into wonderful, smart, funny and kind people but her happiness is laced with fear that it will end.
The ball bounces to Heather who runs with it to a place where she remembers Grandma’s house, a quaint country home. At Grandma’s she could run through cornfields watching for snakes, catch crawdads and walk through strawberry fields. She learned crocheting too all while watching Days of Our Lives. Poppy worked in the shed making doll houses. It was the perfect life with a taste of new but a flash of the old. Tears came to Heather’s eyes as she reflected on the strength inherited from her grandmother. Other happy moments she recalls were graduating from college, her children’s birth, divorce and seeing Jon Bon Jovi.
Bonnie is next on the line to recall her happiest time. At the tender age of seven or eight her dad built a wonderful play house. It was huge, at least a 10 x 10. After a while she and her sister grew tired of their new play area and so it was transformed into a detective agency. They began with easy cases like finding dad’s keys and baby blankets but graduated to more difficult ones. Mom finally wrote a case that seemed unsolvable but was cracked when a cabbage patch doll was dug up from the yard. Bonnie remembers good days when she goes home.
Squaring up to shoot, Amy says we never really know when we are happy. “How sad. It is the ultimate human tragedy that we don’t realize our happiness. We choose to be happy but stuff gets in the way” she says. What she really wants to write about is demos and continues in this thought by considering how her role can be improved. She liked the effectiveness of the old way of how the group talked to the presenter after the demo because lots of ideas were shared and generated. Immediate responses were given but there was no time to develop thoughts and it was easy to get side tracked. Another drawback is that the presenter is often emotional and defensive after the demo and doesn’t receive the feedback in a positive way. She really likes the response groups and the collaborative letter because it gives the presenter a cooling off time before hearing how their fellows felt about the demo. “I’m really going off on a tangent” she concludes.
Diana rebounds the bouncing topic and brings thoughts back to happy times. She feels like she is happy most of the time and like the Apostle Paul has learned to be content in every situation. She can’t decide if she was happiest when she made her commitment to be a Christian, when she was in love or when her children were born. She is also very happy when she masters a new skill on the computer. She declares that the happiest time is yet to come when all of this life is past away and we move to a new plane of existence that is called Heaven. Oh such deep thoughts.
Greg receives the pass from Diana and sprints to the basket to score. He declares that he is happiest now and doesn’t let problems and issues of the day get to him. Troubles seems to work themselves out he says. He just accepts the fact that some things are out of his control and he has learned to put anger and worry in their places. He has discovered the value of giving thanks for what he has.
The game comes to Mike’s corner of the court and he says that he is also happiest now because he is doing what he loves with who he loves. It doesn’t get any better than this. He wonders if this is really him talking or the Prozac. He is looking forward to vacation with lots of family where he will swim, ski and check his mail at the local post office/tanning salon.
A fast break to Kathy takes play to another level. She has found that happiness depends on our circumstances. She looks back wistfully to when her children were young. Those were happy days when she cuddled with them, played, read, talked and blew bubbles together. Sometimes they would hang out with daddy at his new business. Steven was ill as a baby and spent days in the hospital. During the same time Rebecca started bed wetting. A friend named Carol gave Kathy some good advice saying that the sheets would wash, be patient and don’t wish a day away. Now Kathy passes this same advice along to her daughter. Time is what life is made of, life is short as it is.
I was no different than everyone else, agreeing that my happiest time was in the present. I have been blessed to be where I was meant to be and can’t wait to learn from my students. We all just need to know that we are important to God and each other.
A turnover in the game brings us to Ian who reminisces about a broken water heater. The landlord sends someone to fix the problem and Ian, being the concerned tenant that he is, checks on the man to see how he is progressing. As he peeks in the storage room, he finds the man in the middle of a fit, jumping up and down like Rumplestilskin, cursing the broken water heater. This was Ian’s happiest moment. Kim amused at his strange tale, says, “Ian you are hilarious.”
Peggy scores a three-pointer when she found her journal. She relates that picking a journal is an ordeal because it has to have just the right cover and closing mechanism. She asks the team if they have ever lived somewhere and wanted to leave but then found after you left that it was wonderful? Graduate school was her happiest time. She enjoyed every minute, spending eight to ten hours writing her thesis. Those were truly the best years of her life.
Players take a breather while they listen to Kim tell about her happy honeymoon on the Mexican Riviera. Her pseudo wedding was picture perfect but they soon realized the ceremony should have been earlier in the day because everyone was drunk. The minister/singer couldn’t remember their names, so they assumed the identity of Pam and Ron. She is not sure if her nuptials are null and void but the rest of the honeymoon was great.
Delores receives the pass and admits she is living her happiest time now. Her kids are adults most of the time and she is married to someone she loves, likes and respects. However, her state of contentment didn’t come easily. She had many lessons to learn such as shedding self-centeredness and learning to hurt and be hurt. Now she is a better more refined version of the selfish adult she once was. She wants to exit this life saying she wouldn’t change anything about today, she used it wisely.
Ian read the ethnography for yesterday and we chuckled as we remembered our comments.
The coach called a time out and many of us took care of shirt orders during our break.
After the break, play continued with Greg presenting index cards as study and writing tools. He amused us with tales of strange student behavior and heads nodded as if they understood all about this subject. Greg related how his thinking was limited because he works with special needs students and he did not see their potential. Trying to get them to write sentences or even words is sometimes challenging. He found that if assignments are broken into smaller pieces they students are not overwhelmed and can manage to complete them. Sometimes they only write one word on an index card and sometimes they will write a complete sentence. Students can use these cards as study tools creating games they can play with a partner. The handouts Greg gave can also serve as a written record of student progress. As students become comfortable using index cards they can graduate to a bigger card and then eventually a regular sheet of paper.
A discussion about inclusion erupted and everyone seemed to have an opinion on the subject. Diana suggested that we all consult our county special education specialist to learn about the laws governing these types of issues. Coach Peggy finally called a time-out and teams fanned out into their own positions to draft our letter to Greg. During our group’s discussion we learned an interesting fact about Mike’s life that we never knew. Believe it or not he was a cheerleading coach! More details will be given later.
Lunch was provided by Greg. Wow! What a day Greg! A demo and lunch in the same day.
After lunch a new game began with Robin presenting pre-writing strategies. She says Dr. Lumpkin made her cry more than her ex-husband and this led to her introduction of Murray and Atwell. Some were not familiar with Atwell and she gave a nice overview of her writing workshop hero. Robin went on to explain how she came upon the idea of this demo and describes her co-teaching experience as the blonde leading the blonde. Her students were constantly moving away and then back again and it was difficult to keep up with what they had learned. Then she was informed she would be in charge of preparing her students for the 7th grade writing assessment. Her colleagues advised her to forget Murray and Atwell and stick to the three by five essay. They went on to say if she wanted to teach the Atwell style and get creativity in student’s writing perhaps she should get a job teaching high school. Robin distributed a list of possible writing territories and we chose three that we liked and thought about what we might actually write about these topics. Kathy shared about an eventful and expensive year in her life and Bonnie can’t forget about porn and something about a PSP. I didn’t hear all this story. Amy recalls throwing up in the hall while Joseph remembers trying three times to pass music appreciation. Melanie considers a violent attack on her cousin involving a doll and this triggers a memory for Mike when he and his brother were encouraged to fight by his parents. Robin emphasized how important sharing is to the writing experience. After brainstorming and choosing a topic the next step is mapping. Robin modeled this on the board by mapping an event on a church canoeing trip. This strategy can also be modified for different learning styles by having some students draw pictures. After brainstorming and mapping we moved on to writing the memoir itself. Samples of student work was reviewed and Robins demo ended with applause from her fellows.
Another time-out was called and players refreshed themselves for the final quarter.
Teams huddled once again in their writing groups to draft our letters for Robin’s presentation. After the letter was completed, we read and responded to our teammate’s work created thus far. The last play of the game was to complete our exit slips. We responded to the prompt about our happiest moments concerning technology. Many people felt those two words didn’t even belong in the same sentence, but as usual we had a lot to say on the topic.
This was the end of a well played game and the team congratulated each other on a job well done and went home winners.
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