Please feel free to ask me why I now believe that this page (created in the summer of 2012) is absolute garbage. Like a burning dumpster full of nasty diapers from some mean babies who ate lots of asparagus.
Note: Just the part about being an "activist" is garbage. The part about travelling the world and doing handstands is legit although I can't do very good handstands now that I'm old.
Note: Just the part about being an "activist" is garbage. The part about travelling the world and doing handstands is legit although I can't do very good handstands now that I'm old.
One of my great skills is being able to relate just about anything to my teaching. That picture above is one of my favorite shots of our universe. How does it relate to my teaching? Because that galaxy isn't our own Milky Way. There's a whole mess of galaxies beyond our own the same way there are all kinds of opportunities beyond the walls of my classroom. Opportunities for myself and for my students. On this page, I want to share my experiences seeking out international adventures to better myself and the volunteer efforts I've involved myself and my students in to benefit our community and our growth as citizens.
As A Volunteer And An Activist
Relay For Life Charlotte High School had a very vibrant connection to Relay For Life. One of our social studies teachers started a student-staff basketball game fundraiser, Hooping For A Cure, a few years before I joined the staff and it annually raises over $6,000 for Relay. As an intern, I was not interested in embarrassing myself on the basketball court so I decided that being a part of the teacher cheerleading squad was a great idea. Thus my illustrious career as a participant in Relay For Life began with cheers for the (winning) team and a halftime ribbon dance like Will Ferrell in Old School. My commitment to the organization would only grow over the next few years. I joined our school volunteerism club, Teens Take Time To Care (4TC), in my first year as a paid teacher at Charlotte. Supporting Relay For Life was one of our main objectives each year and I became a team captain. The first picture is of me with the cheerleaders again at my second student-staff game. I'll explain the mohawk later. I was the announcer of my third student-staff game. It was great fun to announce but I couldn't pass up an opportunity to get involved in the halftime show as well. In the second picture, you'll notice a competent and very hireable social studies teacher shaking his groove thang with the cheerleaders. The song was Beyonce's "All The Single Ladies". The video will remain hidden forever. Unfortunately, I missed my first Relay as a team captain. Had to go to my sister's lame wedding. But in my second year as a team captain, I was able to attend and to make some amazing contributions. The third picture is of me (the stunning blonde) just before I won big in the Miss Relay competition. My students dressed me in drag, drove me around town, and I collected around $500 in under an hour for Relay. I also got to host our Minute To Win It competition, make capes for our team lap, and I ran a lap in my high heels after Miss Relay. |
Help Charlotte Help Haiti One of the efforts I was most proud to have participated in was 4TC's work to raise funds and gather needed materials for the people of Haiti following their devastating earthquake. We were also given the chance to participate in a competition held by local radio station 97.5 NOW FM and we ended up placing first in our division! We raised over $2,000 in a month by taking collections in each classroom and through creative means as well. Pictured to the right are two images of one fundraising effort in which I allowed students to wax my legs for a donation. I have to admit that we didn't raise as much as I had hoped with this event alone but it did draw attention to our cause. Collections rapidly increased after I endured the searing, dreadful pain of having my legs waxed by amateurs who enjoyed my suffering a bit too much. But I wasn't done humiliating myself just yet. As an incentive for donation, beyond the accomplishment of helping your fellow man, I promised to shave my hair if we reached a certain amount. At the end of the competition, my hair was sculpted into a mohawk in front of the student body because they had surpassed the $2,000 mark. I dyed it pink that same night because the student-staff basketball game was the next day and our big focus was on breast cancer research. |
Pennies For Patients In my last year at Charlotte, 4TC raised over $900 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This time the brilliant idea for a fundraiser was to duct tape me to the wall and let students pay to hammer me in the face with plates full of whipped cream. I will admit that most of these things were not my idea, but I am more than willing to allow myself to be subject to such abuse in the name of a good cause. Okay, maybe a few of them were my idea. But I also included this as a cautionary tale. Whipped cream smells terrible if you don't thoroughly wash it off within an hour or so. I'm serious. It is horrible. |
The International Generosity Summit As word of 4TC’s efforts (specifically our continued abuse of me to fundraise) spread through Charlotte, we were invited to join a local group of government, business, and religious leaders from the community who are motivated to further Charlotte through a variety of means. In the past few years, this group of people - known as Can Do! - has started several events to spotlight the great things about Charlotte, supported local institutions that enrich our community, and sponsored fundraising efforts for a variety of charities. One such effort by Can Do! is Generosity Across Borders. I joined this effort a few month before our first major event. The goal was to bring students as well as government, business, and religious leaders from across the world to Charlotte for an international summit on how to insert generosity into everything that you do. Unfortunately, the United States government made the entire effort difficult and we were unable to get visas for all of the interested parties. Not only that but the president of Burundi was unable to attend as he had promised because a civil war broke out in Burundi the week of our event. But the Summit was a great success and we had several students from Ghana visit along with several leaders from Kenya and Nigeria as well as the American ambassador to Burundi. The International Generosity Summit included seminars to discuss generosity and cultural differences, a pizza-making party for the students and other fun events like bowling together, a charity soccer game, and a massive effort to package and distribute 50,000 pounds of food to those in need in the local community. My responsibilities included running the charity soccer game and facilitating a presentation by our African guests at the high school. |
The video above is something I whipped up the morning of our African guests' presentation to the high school students using pictures and video taken by Charlotte students. The ambassador from Burundi talked about international relationships and working hard, we watched my video, and then I moderated a question and answer session between our students and the students from Ghana.
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As A Handstand Professional And World Traveler
@ the Duijiangyan Irrigation Park in the Sichuan province of China Remember how I missed my first Relay For Life to attend my sister's wedding? Really? You've been paying attention. Thank you. The day after my sister's wedding, I flew out to China for a five week adventure. I was very fortunate to be accepted into a Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad through Towson University in Maryland. If you want to read more about my trip and see some more pictures than are provided here then you can check out the blog that I kept while abroad for my students. In Sichuan province, I busted out my first handstand of the trip. Looking back, I'm surprised this was even possible given that my taste buds loved every second in Sichuan but my digestive system did not. @ St. Peter's Square in Vatican City Over the spring break of 2011, I was a chaperone on a school trip to Italy. This handstand was not very pretty but I was too excited to care on my first full day in Rome since it took so long to get there. Why did it take so long? Thank you for asking. One of our students forgot her passport on the plane from Detroit to Frankfurt, Germany. I had promised to always hang back at the end of the line so I was the chaperone stuck on the other side of the international line when she realized it was missing. We got the passport back just as our plane was scheduled to leave so she and I were stuck in a German airport for six hours until the next available flight to Rome. Good times had by all. @ the top of the cathedral bell tower in Florence, Italy Our second day in Florence we were free to explore on our own. We'd been promised an opportunity to climb up into the dome of the cathedral but it was closed that day so I opted to ascend to the top of the bell tower. It was an even more amazing experience because I was accompanied by many amazing young people. On our trip, we were with two other groups. A very small group from a California charter school and a much bigger group of middle school students from Alberta. Almost all of the middle school kids wanted to go but their chaperones didn't feel up to the ascending the nearly 300 feet to the top. As the "young and spry" chaperone, I was more than happy to escort the youngsters and to tell them all of the interesting facts that I knew about Giotto's bell tower and Brunelleschi's dome, which you can see in the background. |
@ Cloud Gate (the giant reflective bean) in Chicago's Millenium Park It all started in Chicago. The summer after my internship, I spent a week in Chicago after completing an interview with the Peace Corps. I ultimately decided to accept a job at Charlotte rather than waiting for a Corps assignment but this handstand was the start of something huge for me. From this point on, I did a handstand whenever I went to a new place. Students always ask why and I was able to come up with a silly reason that actually took on a life of its own. I live my life like I do a handstand. I throw myself into it with all that I have (seriously, my handstands are pretty awkward) and I often fall down but I always get back up and try again. @ the Forbidden City in Beijing You would be more impressed with this handstand if you could really see just how uneven all of those bricks are and better understand how brave I must be to have attempted it. @ the Colosseum in Rome It was amazing to see a historical structure that I've been studying and teaching about for years. Italy and China were vastly different experiences for that reason. In China, everything was so new and fascinating. In Italy, everything was familiar but right in front of me so I could examine and explore it all in a new context. @ the Adriatic Sea near Venice, Italy My dad, sister, and I are competing to see who can visit the most countries and continents first. Right now I'm in the lead but I have another goal that we haven't discussed. I want to submerge myself in as many large bodies of water as possible. So far I've been in all of the Great Lakes, the Atlantic Ocean, the Adriatic Sea (counts as the Mediterranean), and the Pacific Ocean. Some people might say that I shouldn't count the Pacific Ocean since I was only a toddler at the time. But I was also wearing a yellow speedo so points for style. |