December 2011
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Edublog Nominations
Best Group Blog: teamteachers
This collaborative Tumblr, run by the #Education editors on Tumblr provides powerful facilitation for the teaching community on Tumblr. With questions, regular community features (Teacher Dare Day, Teacher Check-In, etc), advice, and cool resources, Team Teachers is the best possible fusion of professional development and emotional support a teacher could ask for.
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The new anti-marriage equality argument: it would... →
Anyone else see this ridiculous conspiracy about the marriage equality movement being a front for women marrying each other + the welfare state while having many boyfriends and rich “baby-daddys”?
I mean, read it if you want, but my little synopsis doesn’t make any less sense than the real thing.
November 2011
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Wellness Wednesday Recipe
This is one of my favorite healthy recipes. I made it a lot last spring—it’s pretty quick and it’s full of flavor. Filling enough for dinner and packs well for lunch.
Buffalo Chicken Spinach Salad (1 serving)
Dice up one medium chicken breast. Season with garlic powder, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. Toss with about two tablespoons of buffalo sauce—enough to cover. You...
Nothing like starting the day with a surprise 20 min of sub coverage because your dep’t head didn’t put in for an absence.
In other news, it’s still not Friday.
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Science Boy is coming over this weekend.
I’m annoyed with myself for wanting to see him even though I know damn well this whatever-it-is is not going anywhere. All I’m doing here is letting myself think that he’s going to change his mind about the whole committed relationship thing even though I know that is the stupidest thing in the world to think.
But I do want to see him,...
Department Grumbling
I’m really irritated with my dep’t head (DH) and my dep’t in general right now.
DH has been at the school for around 10 years, I think. I know he taught elsewhere for a while before, and I also know he came into teaching as a second career. Fine.
I genuinely don’t want to judge other teachers; I’m not in their classrooms everyday and I know that you can’t...
1 tag
Getting a little extra money in my next paycheck for this whole NASA/NCTAF/STEM stuff. Hooray!
Got an unexpected bill in the mail, so now I have something to pay it with.
Got a lead on an after school tutoring job. I can’t in good conscience not investigate.
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Curricular Grumbling
(I mean, it’s basically all I do on here.)
In my district human body systems are part of the intro bio curriculum. This is dumb. I’ve never had the human body systems taught as part of a general intro bio course. They come into the sequence here at a strange place—between cell structure and cell energy. Whatever.
More specifically, the following things are annoying me about it...
Nothing like waiting for people to reply to your...
Team Teachers: REMINDER! DEADLINE TOMORROW... →
teamteachers:
This contest is no way or form connected to the people or company behind Tumblr itself.
THE RULES:
You must already have a Tumblr account prior to viewing this post.
Applicants must write at least 250 words about what the Tumblr Teacher community has meant to them / impacted them as an…
Go for it, Tumblr Teachers! There are so many of you in this community with students...
3 tags
"Whatever this Was"
“I liked this,” said one of my top students today as she handed me her classwork. She was grinning and looked genuinely pleased with herself. “I liked this…whatever this was.”
The “whatever this was” is a lesson of mine that I am particularly proud of. It was among the first lessons I completely conceived and wrote myself. It came in response to what...
“Irrespective of how well they had been doing in school, students were...”
– Grading & Commenting (via world-shaker)
Truthbomb: I hate grading. Commenting is great. Grading—assigning points and letter grades—sucks.
Funny How Your Perspective Changes
hagndaz:
Ten years ago, I was nearly 16 years old and doing all I could to keep some damn fruit files alive so I could breed them for my genetics class.
Now, I am almost 26, and I am doing all I can to figure out how to kill the fruit flies that just won’t die and are constantly flying around me. GAH.
I just need some flynap… Muahahahahahahahahaha.
Oh, Holcomb’s fruit flies…
...
At work
Prolonging vacation by remaining in my car with coffee and the Beatles.
world-shaker asked: Two financial things: With your student loans, see if you can't put them in deferment due to financial hardship (you can still pay on them). You can also look at consolidating them through the federal government in an Income-Based Repayment plan, which will never be higher than 15% of your income. In face, if your loans aren't consolidated, DO THAT.
I've Been Obsessing over my Finances...
and I’m really stressed about it. I actually do not know what I am going to do next month when my student loan payments start. My expenses at that point will be within about $100 of my income.
I genuinely don’t know what to do about this. I need another source of income, that much is clear, but taking a second job is pretty much out of the question.
And that’s without even...
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Science/Nonfiction Reading Recommendations from...
Thanks Tumblrs! There’s an impressive list here:
Scholastic’s True Life: Forsensic Files (levimoonflower)
Elephants on Acid (eymiss)
Band of Brothers (eyesonthebackofmyhead)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (katy-mylady)
books by Erik Larson (kaitykait and flightyforeshadowing)
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (heysnix)
Rocket Boys (godmademegay)
The Double Helix by James...
Girl with a Lesson Plan: In which I beat a dead... →
librariesandlemonade:
The problem with defending bits of Twilight as “look, we know better than to think x, y, and z are real, so of course we know better than to think this is real” or “relationships work differently for different people” is that it isn’t written in a vacuum. It’s…
The first three months of teaching are pretty...
adiemtocarpe:
Morning sickness
Extreme tiredness and fatigue
Mood swings
Weight gain/loss
The “Oh man oh man oh man is this really happening? Can I survive these 9 months THAT LEAD INTO A LIFETIME OF CHILDREN?” thoughts
Brilliant.
Remember how excited you were when I started that...
privilegedwhitegirl:
Remember how sad you were that it only lasted a week last year? Well luckily, I saved my original list. Last year’s despair means that we can relive that special feeling of excitement and anticipation that accompanies waiting for me to post every day!
Conversations with Dad
Dad: Hi! How are you?
Me: Good. I’m driving across New Jersey.
Dad: Oh, are you driving?
Me: Yes.
Dad: Where are you?
Me: New Jersey. On my way to Philly.
Dad: Oh, is that on your way?
Me: What?
Dad: Is Philly on your way?
Me: I’m going to Philly now. Tomorrow I’ll go from Philly to Baltimore.
Dad: You’re going to have bad weather for driving tomorrow.
Me:...
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In a few hours I will have to drive back to MD, and my vacation will officially be over.
The hardest part is shifting from being surrounded by people who love me to being alone with my cat.
girlwithalessonplan asked: Creative Nonfiction is my thesis! I haven't READ these myself, but I have heard great things: "Stiff: The Lives of Human Cadavers"; "Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void"; ANYTHING BY BILL BRYSON, he's really great, and has a couple scienc-y titles. Also, the "Don't Know Much About" series by Kenneth C. Davis. He has one about...
Thanks for the help!
Got a lot of good reading suggestions for my student; I’m just on my phone now but next time I get to my computer I’ll compile everything into a post for all to enjoy.
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Book Recommendations?
I have a 9th grade student who only reads non-fiction because he insists that you don’t learn anything from fiction.
He has an IEP and struggles a bit in school, but he reads voraciously and has been single-mindedly focused on history (WWII especially) for several years. This year, though, his mother tells me that he has become intensely interested in science. I know he loves to read...
2 tags
No family is perfect
Fox News is definitely the network of choice in this house, and my uncle is very upset that his tax dollars are supporting subsidized housing.
3 tags
Applied for Student Loan Consolidation
$400 a month wooooo!
I’m going to go have some pie now.
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Vacation
This has been a wonderfully low-stress holiday.
On Wednesday I got lunch with two of my dearest friends in Philly, then made it up here to Massachusetts to spend a couple of days with my favorite aunt and uncle and their three beautiful children. They welcomed me with Guinness and conversation about teaching (more on the teacher talk later, because I want to share my uncle’s story with...
“I heard screaming and I heard yelling. Moments later, my throat stung. I was...”
– Porter Ranch, Los Angeles, California Wal-Mart customer Matthew Lopez • Describing what happened after another customer, who authorities say was “competitive shopping,” pepper sprayed 20 people (including children!) in an attempt to beat everyone else at getting stuff. Considering, you know, this...
Lions turnovers: 2. Lions ejected players: 1....
gjmueller:
TOUCHDOWN 21-0
Ugh. Oh, well. Watching Detroit lose is a family tradition on Thanksgiving.
“thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of...”
– e.e. cummings (via fishingboatproceeds)
A Unitarian Universalist Blessing
We give thanks.
We give thanks for being.
We give thanks for being here together.
Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you are spending today with people you love.
I think Tumblr should set me up for my next date.
Ditto.
