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Apr 03 2012
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3rd year, teaching, travel

España! Tercer Día

Que cansancio!

We opted out of an optional (meaning: additional $$$) portion of the tour today, which left the four of us on our own apart from the groups who went ahead as well as the others who also stayed behind. No worries, socializing with other adults was my goal for yesterday! It was pretty great, we got to do exactly what we wanted to do rather than waiting to see what the 48 others were feeling like doing.

So, what did we want to do? Our goals: Real Madrid/Santiago Bernabeu Stadium visit, lunch at an open market, finding a skatepark, eating good churros, visiting the royal botanical gardens, and dinner with the large group.

We were successful at all of the above except that it rained soon after our trek out to the skatepark, and we had to cut the botanical gardens out from our agenda. We found macarons in the most unexpected of places, so I’d call it even!

Tomorrow, we’ll get to see what’s up in Barcelona! Tomorrow we’ll also find out what happens when you put 52 middle and high school students on a bus together for 8 hours. It’s pretty funny… Our two students are seniors and they are a lot more like Sarah and I than they are like most of the students on this tour. Worlds way from the 6th graders.

I guess that’s fitting because we’re a lot more like them than we are like our fellow adult chaperones.

Apr 02 2012
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3rd year, teaching, travel

España! Segundo Día.

Hoy fuimos en una excursión visitando a la ciudad de Madrid. Logramos ver bastante de la ciudad y después fuimos a el pueblo de Toledo; que hermoso!

Anyway.

Today we went on a bus tour of Madrid, saw a lot of the sites, and then went to the lovely city of Toledo. Our students are doing great! Food tonight was not as great as yesterday; way too many fries! We went to Mc Donald’s for lunch, so… oh well. It’s a requirement to visit Mickie D’s in every country, right? During the day we went to Toledo which was just lovely! I really loved the sites here. For dinner we went to this place that had a Flamenco show; the only highlight here is that our whole table got called up for audience participation at the same time, so there is no video evidence of our dance attempts.

Tomorrow, will be more relaxed. For better or for worse, we’re skipping out on an expensive visit to El Escorial and opting to explore Madrid more on feet. One of our students brought his skateboard, so we’re going to find him some spots to do his thing, and we’re also hoping to find a feast at an open-air market.

Currently, Sarah and I are chilling in our hotel room, and I am dedicating this song to her, I’ll let you make your guesses as to why.

Apr 01 2012
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3rd year, teaching, travel

Espana! Primer Dia.

Loving Madrid, though we have not gotten to see too much given that we arrived in the afternoon today. One day in, the quality of our accommodations and dining far surpasses what we had in Paris. I guess you get more bang for your buck here!

I’m fed up with our slow wi-fi, but that is my only complaint! Actually, there’s another complaint buried somewhere within the fact that we’re traveling with a group of 52 people, but… what can you really do about either one?

Tomorrow’s goal (maybe) is to socialize more with the adults on our tour. Our little group of four definitely sat together at dinner, with us unwilling to sit at the “teacher table,” and our kids unwilling to sit with the other teenagers. Haha, what can you say? We’re a close-knit group.

Tomorrow’s second goal (definitely) is to stop acting like I don’t speak the language. I keep getting intimidated and assuming nobody will understand my Spanish, but duh-they don’t understand my ENGLISH.

Good times. And now, good sleep!

Mar 15 2012
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3rd year, quotables, teaching

After-School

S1: Are you down to get into the Pen Fifteen?
S2: Ah, nahh…
S1: Come on, Pen Fifteen, it’s more tight than stupid P13 you’re always reppin’
S2: Okay.
S1: But you have to be down for the Pen Fifteen. Are you down for Pen Fifteen?
S2: Yeah yeah yeah… I’m down!
S1: [Draws Pen15 on S1's arm] There you go, you’re down.
S2: AWWW IT SAYS PENNIES! Why’d you write pennies on my arm?!?

Mar 13 2012
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3rd year, fitness, quotables, teaching

Litany

1. Daylight savings time is excellent for my evening runs. That 2 mile stretch along the wetlands with no streetlights? No longer terrifying!

2. The only thing I miss about 24 hour fitness is Bollywood dance class. I associate that more with living in LA anyway, because it’s not offered in the LBC. I heard “Jai Ho” tonight in class amidst pelvic thrusts (or, I’m sorry, “tucks”) and figured eh… close enough.

3. 60 push-ups=too much for me. I completely understand my students when, out of their eyes, they shoot death daggers in my general direction during On-Demand essay tests. “I like you as a person, but I hate you in this moment…” That’s exactly how I feel at bar method every time! It’s become a thing, they’ll say “Miss! UGH!” and I’ll say “BAR METHOD! UGH!” back at them followed by something annoying like “You’ll thank me later.” I think I made an audible groan in class today (the one I attend, not the one I teach), not out of exhaustion, but out of annoyance at the suggestion that we should do that many push-ups. When she stopped us in the middle and told us to plank for a minute, I’m pretty sure I laughed.

4. I’m being too generous with myself in terms of how many pecan tarts, brownie bites, oatmeal cookies, pieces of Costco cake, and $.50 boneless wings (Thank you, Wingstop–hey, I’ve to have at least one savory treat in there) I’m letting myself eat. I am not doing THAT much exercise, but I’m certainly eating THAT many goodies.

5. As much as I want to avoid making my domain an obnoxious litany of exercise posts… My recent strides in fitness give me an amazing high that I cannot help but document. Unless you want me to become a crackhead and start blogging about those episodes, we’ll have to deal with my healthiness.

Mar 10 2012
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3rd year, teaching

Disturbed x2

#1: Shopping at Lakewood mall. Completely disturbing. Every corner I turn, I swear I’m going to see a student! It doesn’t help that my automatic reaction to any teenager I do not know is to take in their size, appearance, and behavior and mentally classify them by what grade level I think they’re in… so even though today’s trip was student-free… it was still awkward.

#2: Babies and pregnancies. No, not amongst people my age. Married or not, those situations I can handle. I am, however, completely disturbed by how many of my previous students are now parents/expecting. I found out about THREE this week! And my school is teeny-tiny! Holding on to hope for these current 9th and 10th graders to stay baby free, because MAN. This year, Planned Parenthood is on campus doing sex-ed for the freshman and I don’t care what your opinion of that organization is… hallelujah for their presence.

Feb 26 2012
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3rd year, leading, teaching

ECET2

There is a season for wildness and a season for settledness, and this is neither. This season is about becoming.

I definitely felt this sensation of “becoming” this weekend.

For 2.5 days, I was fortunate to be surrounded, enlightened, informed, intrigued, questioned, and pushed by so many great minds from around the country focused on doing the same kind of teacher-effectiveness work that I’ve come to love.

I loved getting to know people from my organization more closely, but it was also amazing to have my first real experiences of networking. About 20 minutes before the opening reception I realized that I needed to get ready to interact with others and that I needed to do this QUICK. I loved it though, and throughout the weekend I made great connections to people in Los Angeles, as well as in organizations around the country.

I will not say that I walked away with answers to many of my questions, but I did feel like my questions were validated. An example of this was when I went to a seminar put on by a teacher in Pittsburgh on the transition between being a classroom teacher to suddenly having a dual-role as a leader at the school and district level. PERFECT! I thought. The same balance I’ve tried to figure out this year. Turns out these roles are kind of new in the education world, and as we gathered in that room, hailing from Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Memphis, D.C., and Florida, we did not receive a how-to lesson. Instead, we exchanged experiences, bounced ideas off of each other, and realized that we’re essentially in the same boat. It was refreshing. We’re doing some new stuff, and there’s a reason why we’re tired, and it’s up to us to figure it all out.

I also hoped to receive answers to my “what’s next?” question, but rather than getting to ask others this question, I got asked this by most of the people who I interacted with. It was all very intriguing, and while I do not know about huge career moves (which, at minimum, are at least 2.5 years away), I did get asked to apply to a few different fellowships and positions, and asked to consider other roles to take on, which was encouraging.

So yes, the validation I felt this weekend was amazing.

I know that things are happening in my career, and I am grateful for that. At the same time, I cannot help but wish that this same promise of what’s to come… was something that I felt in other aspects of my life.

In due time, I suppose.

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:

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