1. Slaughterhouse Five–Read and annotate Chapters 6, 7, and 8.

2. Have a wonderful holiday break! Here’s to all of you! Here’s to rockin’ like Dokken! Here’s to your conversations, cards, letters, and emails… In them, you’ve made me laugh, think, and you’ve made me sad, in the most wonderfully human way imaginable. As I am a sentimental sap, I leave you with this:

At times collectively, at times individually, here’s to…our knowing smiles, your authentic thirst for knowledge and wisdom, your tears inspired by life and literature,  your manifold high fives celebrating our awesomeness, your common decency that kindles the fire of hope, your awkward waves that baffle me to this day yet remind me of your authentic individualism, your company as we aim for productivity, the look in your eyes as you have come to an understanding beyond any quantification, that look in your eyes at that very moment that your heart and mind unite in understanding, your willingness to awaken and be touched by the literature, your willingness to tackle every challenge that I place in front of you, your beauty of spirit, your wonderful tendency to ingest the intensity of my classroom with a charm that has stolen my heart, the class and self-respect with which you greet the world every day.

Here’s to our smiles, I will also leave you with this:

“To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one’s self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived—this is to have succeeded.”

This is water…

HAPPY NEW YEAR!