Filed under 3rd year …

Feb 20 2012
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3rd year, bliss, fitness, leading, teaching, thoughts, Weekend Update

Gracias, Presidentes

<3 Congregation Ale House with Ms. Love – Chimays, Gourmet Sausage, Sweet Potato Fries
<3 AWCHS snow trip! – "I'm wearing 7 pairs of pants!" "You… can't wear a house shoe inside of your snowboot" "Aww, Miss! These boots make me walk with a Pimp step!"
<3 Tara and Dan's moving away party – Seeing old UCLA friends and inhaling delicious Armenian food and beverages.
<3 Sunday school – "Esther! I learned about Queen Esther!" "Oh? What did you learn?" "Abraham Lincoln never told a lie!" "Oh… okay."
<3 10.45 Mile run – At just under 9min/mile pace! I might be slow, but I'm loving my distance. Training is going well. Now to figure out just what I'm training for, because I think I've gone beyond the point of training for a 10k, haha. But yes, thanks to all who told me to check out the LA river. Big improvement to what it was like back in the day; it was downright beautiful.
<3 Found out an album I wanted to buy is a free download.

This will be a short but crazy work week. My prediction is that I will hate the first half and love the second half.
-Stack of papers to grade that is literally 5 inches tall
-2 days of teaching
-2 days of after school meetings
-Pre-Observation Conference (along with a beast of a lesson plan and write-up to complete).
-Off to Arizona for convening on teacher effectiveness.

Feb 15 2012
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3rd year, quotables, teaching

Quote of the week

S1: You’re a professional Cat Daddy!
S2: [in a wheelchair after emergency foot surgery]

Feb 10 2012
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3rd year, bliss, life in general, teaching, Weekend Update

La Semana

A few knuckle-heads (ha! Adults? Kids?) made it a tough week. Those moments and memories have a tendency to melt away though, as I embrace positivity:

-Super proud of 3-4 former knuckle-heads who are clearly pushing themselves in order to pass my classes.
-Read one of the more explicit passages in Always Running today, to the joy of my students. Hilarious, especially since I forgot we were going to read that part until it was happening. AWKWARD.
-Enjoying “running club,” even if it’s just a handful of students who participate.
-I <3 [many of] the people I work with! Time spent together in that crazy building and decompressing outside of it, it's all good (see below).
-Working out, etc. etc. I went for a good night run on Monday and I only thought I would get abducted for about 1/2 a mile! Lack of street lights = terrifying.

This weekend:
-Looking forward to celebrating Julie at her bridal shower <3
-Finished Hunger Games and plan to keep devouring Catching Fire… audibly.
-Possibly going dancing tomorrow? Haven't gone since NYE and looking forward to the prospect of a slightly less crowded dance floor, if I manage to make it out.
-Also: I do love wine, cheese, and charcuterie! Not to mention 10 Things I Hate About You.

Tidbits from the week:

Jan 26 2012
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3rd year, getting old, leading, teaching

NPR & Growin’ on up.

Something switched in me this week.

I’ve loved NPR for a long time, tuning in for the occasional human interest story and of course the eclectic music offerings. But man, this week every last thing on the airwaves was fascinating to me. Two nights ago, I listened to a Santa Monica City Council hearing, for goodness sake! Why? I have no idea. Stories of hot air balloon expeditions to the north pole, council meetings, political commentary, the State of the Union Speech (though this last one is not too strange) all filled my car and filled my mind.

All of this, amidst a fairly significant week in my career has me feeling pretty adult. Confirming flight and hotel accommodations for a conference, visiting a school board meeting in San Diego County, providing input on big decisions being made in Los Angeles… It’s all so surreal. I’m extremely thankful for people who invest in me, and so appreciative of the opportunity to learn about the broader picture of education.

However, this whole meta-cognition about how grown-up I feel instantly makes me feel quite young again.

Jan 10 2012
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3rd year, teaching

I cannot publicly post what I wanted to…

I cannot publicly post what I wanted to…

but let me say this:

Substitute teachers. They probably have the most thankless, ridiculous job in Watts. A good substitute teacher is hard to come by, and I am so thankful for the handful (literally 5 or fewer) good subs I’ve had.

But man. The stories about bad substitute teachers are kind of hilarious. From bringing guitars to school to (my students are not the Von Trapps, contrary to popular belief), to being at the door, purse in hand, ready to leave 10 minutes before the bell rings… I’ve got to laugh.

Jan 03 2012
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3rd year, teaching

Back in the saddle again.

Well, the things that you would imagine would be frustrating… were.

But it was also refreshing to be back enjoying my students and all their hilarity.

Most of them are trying really hard to be good and keep their beginning-of-the-semester “A’s,” so I really ought not be brought down by the few who have other plans in mind.

Also, it is sooooo nice to no longer have to plan a curriculum for an entire grade-level of teachers and instead get to teach a class with 10th graders who I had last year.

Looking forward to father’s office burgers with one group of ladies tonight, devotional classics and hot pot later in the week with another group of wonderful women, and a birthday celebration this weekend for another lovely lady.

Dec 07 2011
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3rd year, leading, teaching

iloveit

I love it, I love it, I love it!

Careers are cool.
Life is crazy.
God is good.

I don’t think I can keep a public blog much longer. Not quite aligned with my goals.
Sad.

2012. My Mayan blood might lead my blog world to an end.
My first students are now older than I was when this silly thing got started.
9 years strong, dude.

I see myself change as the days change over
I hear the songs and the words don’t change
I write them out of the book right there

We’ve been had, you say it’s over
Sometimes I’m just happy I’m older
We’ve been had I know it’s over
Somehow it got easy to laugh out loud

Dec 05 2011
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3rd year, teaching

When I was their age

Sarah and I had a revelation while at El Torito tonight.

When we were learning to make powerpoint presentations back when we were in 9th grade, I don’t think either of us realized that we would spend houuuuuuuuurs of each day making and sharing presentations. It always seemed like one of those “when will I ever use this?” types of skills.

I thought the same of typing/keyboarding abilities.

And the ability to rely on Margaritas to shake away the tiniest bit of stress.

And the ability to put my trust in somebody named Lil Wayne to finish off the job.

Dec 05 2011
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3rd year, teaching

Dos

Stuff’s getting intense. Yowza! Hoping for the kiddos to be a bit less hyper this week (but yeah, right)!

Saturday: 11am-4pm at coffee shop w/ co-worker planning out our last 1000 instructional minutes of the semester.
Sunday: 12:45pm-6:30pm at coffee shop grading, 9:00pm-12:30am grading and planning my last Curriculum Skills class EVER (ha, or at least let’s say for the foreseeable future).

Feeling sad over two students whose well-being I’m terribly concerned about. :( Perhaps I will ask teachers to write “We miss you and hope you are recovering well from ___________” cards.

Dec 01 2011
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3rd year, life in general, teaching, thoughts

TIB and NPR.

“I’ve learned that if someone says something unkind about me, I must live so that no one will believe it.” -Age 39

“I’ve learned that there are people who love you dearly but just don’t know how to show it.” -Age 42

Stumbled upon these while planning out the “This I Believe” final writing project for my composition course.

It’s been a week of loaded conversations. People’s perceptions of me are perplexing.

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