Things you may have never realized you were taught

Being a teacher is enhancing my understanding that there were many things I was taught without realizing I was ever taught them. Here is a list of things I have noticed focusing in particular on my students most recent writing assignment- "what is the greatest invention ever"

1. Time and clocks are two different things. Time has always existed, and so far as I know, we don't control it. Clocks just gave us a way to measure the time.
2. There was a time in history (and still is) when civilizations didn't interact with each other. The Chinese for example had years of history that existed with very little interaction with any other civilization, and in that time created a great number of inventions while other inventions of a similar nature were being created elsewhere. *
3. There is a difference between a necessity and a convenience. Yes, I believe a convenience can be the greatest invention ever, but trying to convince me the world would starve without a microwave will take a lot of convincing.
4. It's nowadays rather than now and days (and other idiom-like phrases.) This is where tests being culturally relevant for students really plays a part in test scores. (ACT has a section devoted just to idioms.)
5. Just because you haven't met someone that meets a certain identity doesn't mean they don't exist. Similarly, your experience isn't the same as everyone's experience.


*I blame history teachers for this one and the way that world history often gets taught one civilization at one time while moving forward through time. (ex. Egypt then Greece and Rome, then England)

Things I still want in LA

1. A theater to visit
2. A group of friends my age
3. People I can call up and go have a drink with (that aren't necessarily family)
4. A theater company for me
5. A church that lines up with my theology
6. A gym to work out in
7. A parking spot

Someone else's list- Does your city have stress?

Forbes Magazine came up with a list of most stressful cities:
10. Philadelphia
9. Providence
8 Salt Lake City
7 Cleveland
6 San Diego
5 San Fancisco
4 Los Angeles
3 Detroit
2 NYC
1 Chicago

More on the list here: http://www.forbes.com/health/2008/09/15/stress-cities-ten-forbeslife-cx_md_0915cities.html

What I think when the school day ends

When the school day ends, these are the things I think of:
1. What went well and what needs to change?
2. Did I take attendance yet?
3. My feet hurt.
4. I'm going to go sign out.
5. What am I going to make for dinner? (Or am I going over to Kenneth and Krysta's)
6. Who am I going to call on the drive home?

It generally takes me about an hour from school getting out to me getting out of school. I don't have a printer sent up in my room yet... then you'll have a hard time getting me to leave the new computers and the air conditioning.

weird things my neighbor has said

As alluded to, I have a neighbor at school that is... um weird? to say it diplomatically? Today I went around with him while looking for my lost keys (from now on my keys will go around my neck... and never go anywhere other than school and my car) and he had some new insights for me:
1."People say I'm never in my classroom, can you believe that?": This from the guy who I regularly have had to unlock his classroom, or like this morning, let his kids sit in my class in homeroom.

2. "Where is Mississippi? I can't find Mississippi": He started looking for it somewhere around Kentucky, but when he said this his finger was on Mississippi with his eyes darting from Texas to Florida.

3. "Could you believe how mean that guy was being? We used to be friends." In response to one of the maintenance people giving him a hard time about being a UCLA fan.

And the grandest statement of them all
4. "Bet it's embarrassing hanging out with a bunch of married people when you aren't married yet." After a couple days ago he told me that I should "stop looking for someone to marry because then God will place someone in your life. You have to let him do his work in time." (And of course the people who read this know me and they also know how hard I've been "looking" besides the fact that it's none of his business.)

School rocks, but there are a few issues

I love teaching. The hours between 7:30 and 2:30 are the happiest of my day. I leave my school cheering that the day went fine and that things are awesome. That being said there are some negative sides to teaching that I thought I'd list here:
1. Keeping track of school keys. If you have a swipe card to get in you can keep it in your wallet. Having to remember where your keys are especially if you keep them separate from your car keys is obnoxious. (mine are lost at this exact moment)
2. Colleagues that are less than ... what you expect of them. I have a few colleagues that are just enough off from my views that it's hard to interact with them. I don't chose to interact with those teachers, I chose to interact with those who are in line with my beliefs, but sometimes you don't have a choice.
3. It's hard to not spend 18 hours a day working on school stuff. Today I managed to avoid this (Krysta went back into the hospital yesterday for some tests and came home today), but it's very hard to avoid that nature.
4. My brain gets fried. By the end of the week after a day of teaching and 90000000 things to think about, you can be less than ready for thinking about anything else. This is the "yes mom I really want to talk to you, but even though I used to be able to drive and talk ad even though I've driven this route a lot, while talking to you I totally got off at the wrong exit and have no idea what we were just talking about" disease.

Seriously though? I'm doing something I love.

Numbers for my classes

Today is my first day (kids come tomorrow) and so I received rosters for my classes. I was told I could expect up to 40 kids in my English classes but that drama enrollment was low. Here are the numbers
1. Advisory: 27
2. English: 31
3. English: 23
4. Drama: 38
5. English: 25
6. Drama: 33

Total students in English: 79 Total in Drama: 71
Total students I'll have: 177