2014 Year In Review

Well, I was feeling pretty ambitious last year when I set the goal to post here once a week. It's what all the successful bloggers say: you have to post quality content regularly.

Last year I was able to do it. I posted over 50 times but most were part of the 52 poems project I was doing.

Mom... 

But I'm not beating myself up about only posting 20 times. It was a tough year full of change and new understandings of family and life and death.

Thanks to all of you for still reading along. I know I haven't been the most reliable, but your readership and feedback has helped me through some tough times this year.

So, here are the top three posts for 2014...

3: It has been a rough year to be an educator. Public education continues to be assaulted by a "reform movement" attempting to discredit and privatize our public schools. It's not all that different than it has been over the past ten years. But this year, with the rollout of national "Common Core" standards and their assessments, I have had to make more concessions than I'm comfortable with. Fortunately, many parents are beginning to voice their concerns over testing and standards. This post about opting out of testing was my third most popular this year. 

2: This post, Summer Stock, captures the time I'll remember most about 2014, even though I hoped fall would help me forget. This post captures the end of the school year, the loss of my mom, and the summer that followed.

1. This year I turned forty and rather than the huge challenge I first considered (a solo run at the Pole, Pedal, Paddle) I set out to celebrate least forty times. Happy birthday to me and a huge thanks to all who helped me ring in #40, and for making it my most-read post this year so I get to feel the birthday love all over again. Forty is fine and fabulous and lots of other f words my baby-brain is currently withholding from me. Here is my top post of the year: Forty is Starting to Look Pretty Amazing...

Four Week Countdown to the Close of 2014

The year is winding down, and it's amazing how much change a year can bring. I set some ambitious resolutions for 2014 and I've checked in with my progress a couple of times, once in April and again in July. I was behind then, but since then, well... in some ways the wheels came off. I still have four weeks left which makes me wonder, how close can I still get to these goals? 

I didn't set a goal for spending 
time with this girl... but we did. 

Writing Goal: Finish high school memoir draft of Notes from a High School Feminist (50,000 words) and revise YA novel: Rice Paper Superheroes. 

Progress: I finished the draft of the high school memoir: 52,000 words, but it still needs of a good deal of revision. I haven't revised Rice Paper Superheroes yet (boooo) but I did draft a new memoir in verse: Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop (30,000 words) during NaNoWriMo last month.  

Reading Goal: Read and write short annotations for 50 books in the year. 

Progress: Aaaargh! I am stuck on number 32 which means I'd need to finish a book every couple of days in order to finish in time. Realistically, I think I could still get to 40. Wish me luck.  

Publishing Goal: Submit work at least once a month and publish one blog post per week. 

Progress: I have failed tremendously here. I've only published 24 blogs (I think this is 25...) and I haven't sent out work regularly. I think I might need to set a rule for myself that I can't work on new essays/drafts until I submit something and I should really submit once a week instead of once a month in order to get some momentum. Yes. That's what I'll do for these last four weeks.  

Fitness Goal: Run 500 miles in the year. 

Progress: I changed run to walk once I got pregnant so I'm at 417 right now. 83 miles in 4 weeks is possible...

So, grief played a role in some of my falling behind. Pregnancy played some as well and last time I was pregnant my mind turned to mush as did my muscles. So at least these goals helped that from happening again. And still, I'm close and we'll see just how much I can get done in these last four weeks of 2014. 

Books! Books! Books! Titles #21-30 for 2014

Ok, so I set out to read 50 books this year which is about 30 more than I've ever read annually before, so I should feel good about getting this far. But I hate being behind! I hate that I'm not on pace to reach my goal! I'm trying not to freak out, though, and I'm still going to try to get as close to 50 as I can.

Here are my next 10 titles. It was a time to finish some series, explore new authors, and fill in some gaps (books I should have read long ago but never did).  The first 10 are here and the #11-20 are here.

21. Excavation by Wendy C. Ortiz 
In the same vein as Lolita, Ortiz explores how her world shifts when her middle school English teacher initiates a relationship with her. With occasional notes on her “excavation” as an adult, we get a break from the intense world of a teenager struggling to make sense of a life where the adults let her down. A wonderful reminder of how nonfiction can help us make sense of complex colors that shade our relationships.  

22. Insurgent by Veronica Roth 
The second book in the Divergent series picks up right where the first book ended. Tris must quickly come to terms with her own decisions and the loss of her parents. The plot moves quickly and despite some decisions and lies from Tris, the payoff at the end was worth it. 

23. Allegiant by Veronica Roth 
The third book in the Divergent series suffered from some slow pacing but I was glad I made it to the end. Although surprised by the denouement, it makes sense. So much better than the way The Hunger Games ends.

24. Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai 
This novel is verse is a book I’ll be teaching for the Engage NY Common Core lessons. Love the book. It leaves much unsaid and captures just how little I know about the Vietnam War from the Vietnamese perspective. It’s a beautiful refugee story of escape, family, and home. 

25. if i stay by Gayle Foreman 
Read this because one of my students was reading it for her summer assignment and a huge billboard went up nearby for the movie, so, why not. The hospital scenes left me wrecked, especially toward the end when her grandfather lets her go and then again when she finally decides (spoiler alert) to stay.

26. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 
A dystopian novel set in a civilized London where thought or discontent is no longer a necessary part of life. Sex is entertainment and real connections to others is an unnecessary inconvenience. This world is set in contrast to New Mexico, where an indigenous culture exists. A savage and his mother who return to London to take in this brave new world. Parts of this were tough to get through, but I’m glad I read it to inform the modern dystopian lit I’ve read recently.

27. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare 
I hadn’t read this comedy before and since our school is producing it this spring and our students will all be reading it, we took 75 students to see a free production in Griffith Park. A quick tutorial from a couple of colleagues, seeing the performance, and then reading it gave me strong sense of Shakespeare’s  take on the ridiculous constructs of love and gender.

28. The Tempest by William Shakespeare 
Hazel hosted a reading of this on a lovely late summer evening. I played Ariel and performed Shakespeare for the first time. It was good fun and this final work by Shakespeare still holds some of the most amazing language and story-telling. The imperialist messages still hold true 500 years later.

29. A Midsummer Night’s Dream William Shakespeare 
So after my little Shakespeare stint, I realized I hadn’t logged Midsummer which I taught and saw performed at school last winter. I need books and this counts. It’s definitely one of my favorite Shakespeare comedies and “Though she is little, she is fierce” are words to live by even though this cat-fight is over a stupid boy. 

30. The Giver by Lois Lowry I’ve been urged to read this by a former colleague for years and just never got to it. Another dystopian tale, this world is one without memory or pain. The idea of one person chosen to receive all of the world’s pain is intriguing and I’m not sure what I think of the ending. The idea of a world of sameness will haunt me for a while and I'll probably read more in this series. 

One 20 more titles to go...

Mid Year Report

Ok, I am clearly behind on my blog posts, but here's where I stand on my yearly goals so far:

I started the year with an ambitious set of goals and the year is halfway over! How am I doing?

Writing: Finish high school memoir draft (50,000 words) and revise YA novel: Rice Paper Superheroes.

Progress: Still drafting the high school memoir: 37,500 words. I'm using July as a Camp NaNoWriMo to get this done. Then I'll I need to finish drafting Rice Paper Superheroes.

Reading: Read and write short annotations for 50 books in the year.

Progress: I'm still behind. I have 19 finished and a bunch of these were long, non-YA titles so I'm ok with being a little behind. Americanah and A Tale for the Time Being were worth the extra weeks I took to read them. I still have a solid month of summer to catch up. That means 10 books this month which is ambitious, but doable.

Publishing: Submit work at least once a month and publish one blog post per week.

Progress: I suck at submitting. I don't know what I need to do to get going on this. Any suggestions? As for blog posts this is number 19 so I'm just a little behind.

Fitness: Run 500 miles in the year.

Progress: Yes! I'm ahead on this one. Granted, I'm walking most of these, but still I'm getting the miles in with 261 miles through June.

All of the goals are still within reach. Just have to keep putting in work!