Tuesday.

Dear Friends, 

You’ve made it to Tuesday.  In fact, if you are on the east coast you have made it to end of the day Tuesday.  It may not seem like much right now but this means that you have only 3 more days of work this week.  This means that you have survived Monday.

Making it to Tuesday, is worth a deep breath and a glass of wine (if you don’t have dorm duty).  So congratulations friends.  You have made in to Tuesday, in May, and you have made it to May.

Happy almost Wednesday, basically Thursday, and therefore pretty much Friday,

Soph.

Math.

I don’t talk a lot about math here, mostly because I am just okay at it.  Don’t get me wrong, I love it but upper division college math smacked into me that I am NOT a naturally inclined advanced mathematician.  That is, though, why I love it.  I took math in college because I wanted the challenge.  Here are some recent things I have been loving in math:

1. Unions and intersections!  Man I didn’t really get these until I started teaching here but now I LOVE them. I just taught one of my classes how to play set (which if you aren’t teaching you should) then we did unions, intersections, and probability using the deck.
2.  Trig and the unit circle. Trig is just amazing, how simple and useful and cool it is.  I have convinced about half my students that radians are better than degrees.  BAM!
3. Projectile motion and graphing calculators.  Seriously, I love a kid who adjust a window properly.
4. Combinatorics.  The fact that I get to teach this is making my life better.

Lastly, I love how smart math makes my students feel because every kid should feel that way everyday. (sappy ending)

The power of networks.

When I first started blogging it was to tell stories.  I like to tell stories and apparently people liked to read them.  Then I started chatting with people on twitter.  Then when I lost my first teaching job I realized I had a network:

I had a friend in central california with a job for me.

I had a credential buddy whose school was hiring.

I had a friend who recommended me for this job.

I had a network.  You know what is even cooler than being on the receiving end of a network is helping other people.  When a job came up that I wasn’t right for a recommended a friend.  When my brother’s school needed teachers I reached out to my network.  A friend of mine is going to a new school and I know someone there.  A new hire at my school came from Sam’s school.

Knowing people is rad.  Helping people is rad.  Meeting people is rad.  Having a network is invaluable (you thought I was gonna say rad didn’t, you?).

Mom.

Today I called my mom to tell her I wasn’t getting her anything for mother’s day.  In typical me fashion, I mostly forgot.  In typical mom fashion, she mostly doesn’t care.  She said, “That’s, okay I just walked by a store and thought, I’m going to buy this for my garden and say it’s from you.”

Yesterday, I called my mom to ask her about some big questions in education.  She is currently typing up the answers for me. 

Somedays I call my mom to tell her about something awesome one of my students does who she always remembers the exact kid.  She gets this trait from my grandmother who for my entire life asked about my friends from elementary school and high school even well past college. Grandma still remembers all of their names and stories.  

I often feel annoyed or overbeared or something about the fact that I am doing the same thing as my mom.  But then I remember how lucky I am that I can call her any day I want and she really does understand what being a teacher is.  

So, thanks for being the best mom.  Happy Mother’s Day.  I hope this post is as good as the wind chime “I” bought you.  Also, I’ll call Grandma tomorrow. 

<3

I have a migraine. You have this…

Pieces you might not think about.

Here are somethings about boarding school life that you might not think about:

1. Health center on call – basically you get maybe 4 days a year where if something comes up after school hours you have to take the kid to the ER or urgent care or even just an appointment.
2. Practicum drives- want a little extra money?  You can drive girls to their internships or jobs or whatever.
3. Airport drives – before and after every break we have to drive and pick up kids from the airport.

Basically, the kids don’t have parents so there is a lot of the chauffeuring piece that usually belongs to mom or dad.

 

(short post but 16/30!!!!) 

A deep abiding love for the internet.

I am not joking here.  I love love the internet.  I love what is has done for me, I love what it does for my students, and I love what it does for our society.  I love the internet.

When I tell my students this they laugh at me but seriously.  I love it for a myriad of reasons.

1. Anything with cats.  I mean, really?  Why does the internet love cats so much? Do you care?  Either way here you go.  (Also, try meowbify, no joke, go google it.)

2. The news, somedays, no lie, I get my news of facebook.  I work a million hours and don’t always leave campus so facebook is helpful.  Today, I learned about this and it made my day a little better because along with loving the internet I love people.  People are great.

3.  I get to see your face.  Okay, maybe not your face but my mom’s and my bff’s and my other bestie’s 3 year old. My parents are 3000 miles away and the internet makes that distance shorter.

4. I get to talk to you.  I mean you’re reading this right? And you might be on twitters or the facebook.  I love talking to you, I love blogs and listening.

5. I also love youtube, tumblr, twitter, blogs, and spotify.

 

I am just full of love today.  Thanks for being part of my small internet world. <3