|
Back to
Holiday Letters
December
2007
Dear Friends and Family,
Darryn and I are a lot alike.
It's been that way for fifteen years. 2007, however, brought
to light one of the ways in which we are fundamentally
different.
 Darryn grew up in the same house he
was brought home from the hospital in. He likes staying put,
growing roots. When I moved to New Zealand, he gave me a
woodcut print that he made depicting a lone tree on an island –
the tree is small and white against the night, but its roots
fill every inch of the earth beneath, branching a web ten times
as large as the trunk standing above ground. That’s
Darryn…where others might just see the tree above, I’ve just
been lucky enough to know the vast expanse of roots below. Over
the last ten years in Charlotte, Darryn has developed a lot of
roots. We have some great friends here, and Darryn loves the
people he works with at The FWA Group. They’re a solid firm with
lots of young people with similar interests – alternative music,
technology, and playing gags on people's birthdays. He passed
all of his exams and is now a fully licensed architect. He even
has the initials after his name, Darryn Bouknight, AIA…no more
calling himself an intern. Earlier this year
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS), one of the largest school
districts in the US, held a competition for local architecture
firms to design their new prototype middle school. Darryn’s FWA
team won, so Darryn as been very busy as the project’s lead
architect, working on plans for two new middle schools to be
built in 2008. When he's not working, Darryn spends a lot
of time researching, finding, and listening to new bands.
He has enough tracks stored and organized on our home computer
that he could listen to his collection for one month straight,
24 hours a day, without repeating a song. Check out
Darryn's Music Picks for 2007.
 I’m
a little different. When I was a kid, it seemed like we moved a
lot – new house, new friends, new culture to learn and adapt to
– and I liked that. All my life I have associated change with
growth. Darryn and I have been in Charlotte for ten years, and
by my clock, we’re due for a change, so in 2007 I started that
change by resigning from Piedmont Open Middle School where I
taught successfully and happily for ten years, and moved to down
to South Carolina closer to USC, where I plan to start my PhD.
Our parents were ill this past summer – my dad with prostate
cancer, Darryn’s mom with complications from her MS, and
Darryn’s father with complications from hernia surgery – so it
was natural to come down and stay at home, to help
and give moral support. I wasn’t going to teach. I was going
to let the 2007-08 school year start without me and explore
other options, but it got to be August and I got nervous and I
succumbed to the siren call of the new school year by taking a
job teaching English II and IV at
Mid-Carolina High School, a
small rural school right near my parents’ house. So, I too have
been busy. I love to teach and I’ve discovered that it wasn’t
Piedmont making me work a 60 to 80 hour week. It was me. I do
the same thing at Mid-Carolina.
 Of
course, I’m still very busy outside of school. This past year,
I’ve spent a good deal of time in Washington DC on a special
subcommittee of ASCD’s Leadership Council, helping develop
recommendations to revamp the organization’s governance. In
April, as one of 18 nationally recognized teachers, I helped put
out a fairly controversial report about pay for performance for
teachers. I've been interviewed twice on the radio
regarding pay for performance, and I’ve presented some of my
current work on using data in the classroom in Anaheim CA and New York City. Most recently, I was honored to
be one of headlining speakers at Indiana ASCD’s conference in
Indianapolis, along with James Popham, one of the greats in
American education. Little did we know that a lack of parking
from the Colts’ game that Sunday would make everyone late for
our
presentations. I am finding my way – I have it in my head to
write and start my PhD. I just haven’t found the time to do
that yet, but I will. It’s coming.
 That’s
where we are. Darryn still spends his weeks in Charlotte, where
we still have our house and our pets,
Spot and
Sammy. I am in
South Carolina. We spend time together every weekend I’m not
off somewhere working. Trying to be subtle, I’m pulling at his
roots, and looking toward our future, he’s beginning to plan for
change. 2008 holds a lot of transition and potential for us. I
can’t help but be excited.
I’m also grateful. It’s a gift to
get back to family. Most evenings, Dad and I trade stories and
watch either The Unit, which Dad enjoys as I add witty
repartee about the macho antics of the main characters, or NFL
football. (I have a l ot
to learn. I started the year not even knowing what a first and
ten was. In South Carolina that’s a sin...literally.) Mom and
I have been working on house projects together, generally finding
that we are both over-ambitious. On Thursday evenings, I often
travel out to Newberry and visit with Darryn’s folks. Darryn’s
mom has been in White Oak Manor, a nursing home right next to
the family house, for a year now. His dad, Rudy, and I have
been spending a fair amount of time together, to the point that
he’s becoming a little more hip, if not more of a talker (he’s
not), and I’m becoming wise to the ways of small town Southern
life. My brother even taught me how to shoot a gun for the
first time in my life – another South Carolina requisite.
I've also taught myself how to
design and publish websites this year, as you can see.
Darryn and I have this one, jendarryn.com, and I also have one
for my professional work,
artofeducating.com. For
Christmas, I also started one for my dad, an American muscle car
enthusiast and diecast model collector, to showcase his model
cars. That site is called
petecars.com.
 My
brother, Chris, and his wife, Tricia, gave birth to their first
child in January 2007 - Mary Ellen Morrison, the cutest baby in the
world. She very ably added to the chaos and stories
created during Christmas this year. Ben (my sister’s son
who is now almost three) was
overwhelmed at the abundance of gifts and by his little cousin,
Mary Ellen, being much more interested in his toys than her
own. Mom had to buy a new kitchen table to fit everyone…kids,
spouses, and the guests we always seem to add into the mix.
Susie’s husband Danny and I call it the Conference Table.
Darryn and I will be spending New Year’s down in Charleston with
Susie, Danny, and Ben where we plan to eat fabulously and pop
the Dom Pérignon I gave
Darryn for Christmas.
Happy New Year everyone. We wish
you peace, joy, and progress in 2008!
Best, Jen
 Pictures from top to bottom
= Entrance
design for new CMS middle school prototype to be built in 2008
=
Computer-generated front view of school
=
At Mid-Carolina football and pick-up
trucks reign supreme. Pictured here are the three boys
with the biggest trucks in the student parking lot: Blake,
Michael, and Ben.
=
I park my little red Honda right outside my trailer/classroom at
Mid-Carolina.
=
That's
me being incredulous at the busy-ness of my life.
=
Spot and Sammy
are best buds, on and off the couch.
=
Darryn's father, Rudy, and two aunts, Doris and Ruth, came over
for a holiday dinner at my parents' house. That's me and
my father in the back and Darryn to the left. Rudy didn't
make it into this one.
=
Susie, Ben, Mary Ellen, and Tricia are opening presents
Christmas morning.
=
Mary Ellen takes a break.
= Our friend
Jason's mom hand sewed a beautiful coat for Spot this December.
He is cold-natured and he loves wearing it, despite the fact
that it's a little fashionista for country living. The coat features brown spots, just like Spot.
Back to
Holiday Letters
|
