Community Group Holiday Meal(s)

I like to call our community group the "no kids" group since none of us have any children (yet!). We do get to keep the kids on rotation, which is  I love meeting weekly to share a meal and life with all of these wonderful folks! Kristi and Nate hosted both our Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings. 

Between our Thanksgiving and Christmas meals together we collected money and bought gifts for a family that Amanda works with who are in need. The pile of gifts that was delivered was huge. We had a Dirty Santa gift exchange at our Christmas gathering. I'm going to do a post on my holiday crafts where I'll share more about the gift I brought. This series of photos shows the journey of the blender that I began with and did eventually take home with me. 

Since we didn't get a group shot, this is how I make up for it:

I adore each of these people. We can have real discussions and talk through our differences. We laugh at each other and with each other. The last six months have been crazy for me and it is important to have friends that will let me talk about education when I need to (most often) and who I can get a break from talking about education when I need to.

December Birthday Party

As I catch up on posting on my blog, I felt this is an appropriate Christmas Eve post. Happy Birthday Jesus! [and other late November and December MTR birthdays]

 We had a little party to celebrate where the whistle orchestra was formed.

So to bring in the holiday properly, here is the whistle orchestra version of Joy to the World (that was performed for all of the selection weekend attendees a couple of days later)

Happy Birthday Jesus! You are our joy!

MTR Fall Selection Weekend

Last weekend we hosted 50-60 applicants to show off Memphis and interview them to be residents next year. It was a busy weekend, but much more relaxing to already be a resident going into the weekend. A big part of selecting from the pool of applicants is determining if they are a good fit for our community.

They need to be okay with being greeted at the airport like this:

And taken to a school that is packed up to be moved for renovations:

And participating in singing Joy to the World (and being part of next year's resident whistle orchestra):

We love our community, which helps us to be able to work so hard to love our students. Here is a glimpse into each classroom MTR has a resident placed this year:

I adore each one of my fellow residents and hope they are all enjoying this break as much as I am. I am excited to add to our team, whoever our leaders selected!

St. Jude Marathon Weekend

Now that I have a new look for my blog, I am actually going to post. My title is a little sneaky. I did not run a marathon or even a half marathon (this year...)

Earlier this month all of the MTR residents and staff raised money to support St. Jude and participated in one of the races. Green shirts - 5k, Grey shirts - half marathon, Red shirts - full marathon. 

Here is the 5K crowd:

I ran the 5K and improved my mile time by over a minute since running the Youth Villages 5K in April.

After running, I hopped around the city to cheer on the half and full marathoners.

There are many parallels between training to run a marathon (or 5K) and training to be a teacher. Long, hard hours of diligent training and lots of hope and stamina. Along with some cheerleaders as support.

I'm really proud of our team! It was a beautiful day for MTR, the kids of St. Jude, and Memphis!

Arkansas Football

**UPDATE: By far the best part of my day Monday was when one of my students came into 3rd period and said, "Ms. Boyd, did you see the Arkansas game this weekend?" And we discussed the awesomeness of Ryan Mallet and my student's hopes that he'll be drafted to  his favorite NFL team next year. I'm just proud that he knew I was a Razorback fan!

Just one of many things I'm thankful for this year:


Although I'm more than a little jealous that both of my sisters will be in New Orleans the day of the Sugar Bowl.

Fall Concerts

This fall I have made it to a couple of concerts with my roommate:

First up: Kris Allen, gotta represent Arkansas. One of my favorite parts was that he covered so many songs. Yes, Kris you can play Michael Jackson for me anytime. Recently Frase blogged about 6 degrees of Arkansas. Not only does she connect me to Kris Allen, but also her husband grew up with Cade Mills, a good lookin' member of Kris' band.

Next Up: Darius Rucker and Brad Paisley (thanks Sean for choosing Harry Potter so I could go:)
Much to our pleasure Darius performed 3 Hootie songs. The teenagers next to us had no idea who Hootie is. Please tell me that is as shocking to you as it is to me.

Brad recently won Entertainer of the Year and certainly didn't leave us expecting more. Sarah and I are both big fans of covers, and I was SUPER excited to experience another cover of Single Ladies this fall. Here is Brad's version:

Waiting for Superman

The last few weeks have been really tough for me. I knew it was coming as graduate school assignments increased and I am teaching more and more. This break for Thanksgiving has been great so far, even with the homework and planning mixed in. My mom had recorded Oprah the week that two shows were focused on Urban Education and the documentary, Waiting for Superman that came out this fall. Watching the clips from the movie again and the interviews helped me to regain focus in depths of fighting for justice in urban education.


I don't always agree with Oprah, but fully support this quote: "To everyone who thinks, 'Well my kids are doing okay...' Well this is your country. So when other kids in your country aren't doing okay, you have to have the vision to understand when other kids in your country don't do okay, eventually your country won't do okay."


In his “I’ve been to the Mountaintop” speech the night before his assassination, Martin Luther King reminds us of the point of the familiar story of the Good Samaritan.  The question we often ask (often in response to fear) is “what will happen to me if I stop and help him?”  The point of the parable, says MLK, is that Jesus wants us to ask “what will happen to him if I don’t stop and help?” (Thanks to David Montague for the reminder of the relevance of this quote)


Jason Kamras said in Teaching as Leadership, “We cannot rest until each of us would be satisfied with randomly assigning our own children to any public school in the nation."


On Oprah, Newark, NJ mayor Cory Booker says that when American school kids recite "liberty and justice for all" every morning, it is not true. "Democracy is not a spectator sport - everybody has to be in the game and making sacrifices."