A Summertime Return

The school year is lifted and its time to write. First of all, to you.

This week’s guest writing buddy was Leo K.

Let’s see, the last Green Room post clocks in around…March. That’s not especially attentive of me, is it?

And yet, I assure you I wrote plenty since then! Like a prologue to The Blue Beacon’s sequel! And—after a breakthrough on a vital third rail of the story’s framework—the early chapters of the memoir flitting about my head for the last ~10 years! IYKYK. I also wrote a lot of other stuff, like emails to parents and administrators and other teachers and students and lesson plans and report card comments and assignments, including some based on The Blue Beacon. And now summer is here.

So I focused on teaching and my writing went underground and I feel sad to have left this garden to grow wild awhile. It’s a far cry from last year, when the Kickstarter campaign was barreling onward and I was posting a lot.

Still, subscribers here keep rolling in! The Green Room grew by 9.7% over that idle time! So I’d like to thank the loyalists and tenderfoots alike by writing more often, like little posts I can fire off in a day.

One big story I’d like to tell you is about the sixth grade class I taught for most of the 2023-2024 school year. What a riot of hellions I faced each day! And yet, wow, leading students through most of a year was a great and glorious experience in community. Many of you prayed for me to find the right role, and God provided. Thank you.

Will I teach next year? I don’t know yet. My role was first as a long-term substitute in the fall, and then as a 6th grade homeroom teacher from Thanksgiving through June. My rookie year felt personally rewarding and I believe I had a quality impact on the school. I liked my students and most liked. I enjoyed what I learned of the art of teaching and hope to continue on.

Still, my lack of experience means a position next year isn’t assured, and I’m ambivalent about chasing the educational dragon. While an open summer feels deeply pleasant right now, it’d be moreso if I was on a steady payroll. So I’m whiling away my early vacation weeks awaiting news on returning to teach, looking for other schools to substitute at, searching for work elsewhere, and writing. Like to you folks!

So that’s the news today. To newcomers, welcome and thank you for subscribing. I hope you find joy and light in this little corner of the literary world. To those of you who’ve hung around, thanks for your longstanding support. Here’s my latest summertime jam, which I like to listen to while running around tender (on errands).