As We Head for the FINISH!

Tuesday, June 7th.  It's 5:00 AM.  Toward the east the day brightens, nearly sunrise.  I love this time of year.  The days are getting longer and warmer as we near summer break.  And yet, with one week remaining in our second graduate course, I am aware of all I have yet to do.  Endless strings to pull together to stitch up the products I've been working on.  In education, we frequently hear the term "learning styles" bandied about.  What we hear less frequently is "working styles."  Over the years I have come to realize my working style: it's a mess that all seems to come together in the end.  Whether it's writing I produce or a lip-sync production with umpteen million kids for Competition Day at school, it always looks like a train wreck until it pulls into the station.  This is comforting to know since, six days away from the end, my work looks as if it will never end.  With all this technology, I envision making popcorn -- old-school style, where you'd have to wait for the oil to heat first, then the kernels of popcorn to reach that magic temperature, then "BANG" -- popcorn's there!  My creative process works similarly.  There's a gestation period where my ideas "hang out" before somehow taking shape and form.  Most of my best pieces of writing I've written overnight...and usually the night before they were due.  This was true of a eulogy I wrote for a colleague who passed away as well as a reflection I wrote on one of my students who died tragically.  Now 5:55 and there it is:  the sun!  Time to get ready for school, six days to go, time to go!