last monday was supposed to be my first day of professional development at my high school, where i will be in the fall. professional development (PD, for those keeping track) is supposed to be the time when teachers sit around and plan for the next year, addressing areas that need improvement, etc.
i show up at 9:05am, thinking i am a few minutes late, and notice that there were kids roaming the halls. funny, i thought, summer school doesn't start until tomorrow. no matter, i'm sure i am in the right place.
next thing i know a secretary is whisking me into a classroom, hands me a manilla folder, and says "here are your attendance sheets. have fun."
wtf?
as it turned out, the school district only sent my school one science teacher, even though they requested two, and so, ta-da! i have two summer school classes.
by the time i got to my classroom and got my bearings, it was 9:13 and school starts at 9:15. fabulous, two minutes to prep.
i search frantically for anything i might use and find the white board and the chart paper are my only allies today. i have nothing planned, since i thought i was supposed to be observing, not teaching, and don't even have any interesting labs or anything leftover from class with me either.
fun times!
as the kids roll in, i'm desperately trying to think of a strategy for today's class, remembering all the things that we've been taught so far in our SAF sessions: don't turn your back on class! have your materials ready! don't write out all the notes at once! make friends with the janitor!
thankfully my classes are small, usually about five kids show up on any given day, and i only have two periods. they are also in "credit recovery" and not Regents prep, which means i get to make up the curriculum and don't have to bore them with Regents prep questions all the time. i surveyed their earth science interests and have decided on a curriculum which focuses on the dynamic earth (properties, equakes, volcanoes, tsunamis), weather and climate, and astronomy. in four weeks. yee-haw.
the days got better as i had more time to prep, but i was still writing my lessons the night before all last week. got a bit of a head start today by taking care of monday and tuesday's lessons, but still... i keep telling myself that this is all just great practice for the fall. on top of all the other stuff i have to work on for university classes.
hope that wherever you are, you're not writing summer school curriculum.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
What is done, is done.
I took the Earth Science Content Specialty Test (CST) yesterday.
The CST is the test that you must pass in order to teach in your subject area and yesterday's exam was the only one that will give me a passing score before the school year starts, which means if I didn't pass, I don't get to teach until I can pass the test again, in December.
While I don't think that I aced it, by any means, I think that the immersion program work and the loads of studying I have done on my own payed off. Similar to what Justin says about "P equals M.D." in terms of medical school classes, in my case, I only need that 220/300 score to make it. Anything above 220 is just gravy.
The testing ordeal itself was a bit of a nightmare-- I was home by midnight the night before, ready for my six hours sleep before waking up to trek to Coney Island for the exam. Then, just as I was getting ready for bed, I realized I had forgotten to print out my exam ticket needed to get in to the test. No problem, I thought, I'll just use my roommate's printer, easy.
I have never seen a printer go so bananas before. From the instant I turned it on, before I'd even told it to print anything, it began sucking in every piece of paper in her paper tray, diligently printing one line of wingdings on each page before spitting it out. Oh my God, is this really happening?
I tried turning it off, unplugging it, etc, and every time I hit that power on switch, the same madness.
I live in Sunset Park, where there are no FedEx Kinkos around (hell, I don't think I have seen a Kinkos since I left Seattle), so I began to panic. I texted a ton of my classmates to see if they could print it for me, and all of them were either taking the test in Manhattan or were already asleep, which is exactly where I wanted to be.
In the end, I took the train to Jac's house, where she let me use the printer, and then crashed out for my official 3.5 hours sleep I got by the time it was all said and done. I know that NYC has public transit that gets you almost anywhere, yadda yadda, but at night, it takes FOREVER. Its normally about a 35 minute trip for me to get to her house (take the D two stops, walk to the G, take that three stops) but Friday night, it was about 1.25 hours. Ugh.
Yesterday after the test I came home and passed out for about two hours before getting up and playing a 7s tournament on the lower west side of Manhattan. My team didn't win, but I had fun anyway. One of the best games we played was against the New York Women's 7s side. The NY Women are the Premier Div 1 team here in NYC. That means that they're really, really good. They routinely make it to the top three in nationals. There was no Premier bracket in this 7s tournament, so they brought their A side to the "Social" bracket, which was where my team was playing. We played the NY Women's B side at Rockaway last month and beat them, but these A side women were totally different. Not only that, but I was playing with the Lions B team, which was even more of a skill-level deficit. I am happy to say that despite all of this being stacked against us, we only were beaten 5 tries to 1. For a team that had such a skill level advantage, being able to hold them that far, and to score against them, was great. I made some really great tackles against their VERY tall back line as well. Fun fun fun.
Back to reading about adolescent literacy for my professional development sessions. Yay.
The CST is the test that you must pass in order to teach in your subject area and yesterday's exam was the only one that will give me a passing score before the school year starts, which means if I didn't pass, I don't get to teach until I can pass the test again, in December.
While I don't think that I aced it, by any means, I think that the immersion program work and the loads of studying I have done on my own payed off. Similar to what Justin says about "P equals M.D." in terms of medical school classes, in my case, I only need that 220/300 score to make it. Anything above 220 is just gravy.
The testing ordeal itself was a bit of a nightmare-- I was home by midnight the night before, ready for my six hours sleep before waking up to trek to Coney Island for the exam. Then, just as I was getting ready for bed, I realized I had forgotten to print out my exam ticket needed to get in to the test. No problem, I thought, I'll just use my roommate's printer, easy.
I have never seen a printer go so bananas before. From the instant I turned it on, before I'd even told it to print anything, it began sucking in every piece of paper in her paper tray, diligently printing one line of wingdings on each page before spitting it out. Oh my God, is this really happening?
I tried turning it off, unplugging it, etc, and every time I hit that power on switch, the same madness.
I live in Sunset Park, where there are no FedEx Kinkos around (hell, I don't think I have seen a Kinkos since I left Seattle), so I began to panic. I texted a ton of my classmates to see if they could print it for me, and all of them were either taking the test in Manhattan or were already asleep, which is exactly where I wanted to be.
In the end, I took the train to Jac's house, where she let me use the printer, and then crashed out for my official 3.5 hours sleep I got by the time it was all said and done. I know that NYC has public transit that gets you almost anywhere, yadda yadda, but at night, it takes FOREVER. Its normally about a 35 minute trip for me to get to her house (take the D two stops, walk to the G, take that three stops) but Friday night, it was about 1.25 hours. Ugh.
Yesterday after the test I came home and passed out for about two hours before getting up and playing a 7s tournament on the lower west side of Manhattan. My team didn't win, but I had fun anyway. One of the best games we played was against the New York Women's 7s side. The NY Women are the Premier Div 1 team here in NYC. That means that they're really, really good. They routinely make it to the top three in nationals. There was no Premier bracket in this 7s tournament, so they brought their A side to the "Social" bracket, which was where my team was playing. We played the NY Women's B side at Rockaway last month and beat them, but these A side women were totally different. Not only that, but I was playing with the Lions B team, which was even more of a skill-level deficit. I am happy to say that despite all of this being stacked against us, we only were beaten 5 tries to 1. For a team that had such a skill level advantage, being able to hold them that far, and to score against them, was great. I made some really great tackles against their VERY tall back line as well. Fun fun fun.
Back to reading about adolescent literacy for my professional development sessions. Yay.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Aquarius: the Water Bearer
Jac is an Aquarius, the first one that I've ever really had in my life, at least to my knowledge. I seem to have a lot of friends that are water signs, though, with an inordinate number of Pisceans in my circle of friends, but the Aquarius was a new one for me.
According to astrology.com (not that I ever really read that stuff, ahem), the Aquarius/Libra couple are a good match. Always good to hear. The real funny part, though, is how true the water-bearing quality is where Jac is concerned.
On Saturday, at about 11pm, we were leaving her house to meet Ruth, Aneal, and Meredith at a bar in Park Slope called Union Hall. It is a slightly hipster bar that feels like a library inside, with indoor bocce ball courts. I have kind of joined Aneal's Monday night bocce team, which is awesome. But I digress..
We were leaving Jac's house in Bed-Stuy (home of the Notorious BIG), about to get on the train, when a pack of 10 year olds come running down the sidewalk toward us. I think there were only like five of them, but it seemed like more. One runs in front of the others yelling "miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss!" It took me a minute to realize he was trying to get our attention. When he got closer he said "Yo miss, can you give me a dollar?" At first I was just surprised that a kid would come up to me and just ask me for money, when he didn't really need it. Usually people at least pretend to need bus fare or something, but he just straight up asked for a dollar. I told him I didn't have any cash, which was true, and Jac and I turned back around and began walking down the subway steps. Next thing I know I am pelted in the back of the head by an open water bottle, which splashes me all over my backside.
Nice.
Not five days later, Jac and I are walking again to the train, this time in broad daylight, near a park in Clinton Hill. Out of nowhere (literally, we didn't see where they came from) some punk kids sneaked up from behind and nailed her square in the back with a water balloon! Luckily for her they threw it too hard and it didn't pop, but just bounced off. Still, what punks!
I am going to start wearing my rain coat whenever we hang out. Or at least bring a dry change of clothes.
According to astrology.com (not that I ever really read that stuff, ahem), the Aquarius/Libra couple are a good match. Always good to hear. The real funny part, though, is how true the water-bearing quality is where Jac is concerned.
On Saturday, at about 11pm, we were leaving her house to meet Ruth, Aneal, and Meredith at a bar in Park Slope called Union Hall. It is a slightly hipster bar that feels like a library inside, with indoor bocce ball courts. I have kind of joined Aneal's Monday night bocce team, which is awesome. But I digress..
We were leaving Jac's house in Bed-Stuy (home of the Notorious BIG), about to get on the train, when a pack of 10 year olds come running down the sidewalk toward us. I think there were only like five of them, but it seemed like more. One runs in front of the others yelling "miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss!" It took me a minute to realize he was trying to get our attention. When he got closer he said "Yo miss, can you give me a dollar?" At first I was just surprised that a kid would come up to me and just ask me for money, when he didn't really need it. Usually people at least pretend to need bus fare or something, but he just straight up asked for a dollar. I told him I didn't have any cash, which was true, and Jac and I turned back around and began walking down the subway steps. Next thing I know I am pelted in the back of the head by an open water bottle, which splashes me all over my backside.
Nice.
Not five days later, Jac and I are walking again to the train, this time in broad daylight, near a park in Clinton Hill. Out of nowhere (literally, we didn't see where they came from) some punk kids sneaked up from behind and nailed her square in the back with a water balloon! Luckily for her they threw it too hard and it didn't pop, but just bounced off. Still, what punks!
I am going to start wearing my rain coat whenever we hang out. Or at least bring a dry change of clothes.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
graduate school in full swing
tomorrow marks the end of our second week of full-time scheduling, class from 9am to 3:30pm and teaching framework sessions from 4pm-6:30pm. by the end of the day, my classmates and i look as if our brains have been removed from our heads, stuck in a blender and then funneled back into our heads through our ears.
part of the reason why school is so exhausting is that we're overing an insane amount of material in our geology class-- we did volcanoes, tectonics, dinosaurs, geological history of NYC, and geological history of the world in just the last two days. tomorrow we are going to work in central park for three hours in the morning, looking at rock formations and talking more about the bedrock and geological history of new york. i have yet to go to central park and look forward to seeing a little green. also working at the farmer's market tomorrow, taking full advantage of my free afternoon.
this weekend marks NYC pride, which should be fun. i don't really know what is going on, but i'm sure that i know people who do and can tag along. i plan on going with jac, for whom this will be a first pride ever. i will miss being in the rugby clan in seattle, but look forward to watching the parade instead of participating, for once.
have a happy weekend.
part of the reason why school is so exhausting is that we're overing an insane amount of material in our geology class-- we did volcanoes, tectonics, dinosaurs, geological history of NYC, and geological history of the world in just the last two days. tomorrow we are going to work in central park for three hours in the morning, looking at rock formations and talking more about the bedrock and geological history of new york. i have yet to go to central park and look forward to seeing a little green. also working at the farmer's market tomorrow, taking full advantage of my free afternoon.
this weekend marks NYC pride, which should be fun. i don't really know what is going on, but i'm sure that i know people who do and can tag along. i plan on going with jac, for whom this will be a first pride ever. i will miss being in the rugby clan in seattle, but look forward to watching the parade instead of participating, for once.
have a happy weekend.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
the birds and the bees
I spent last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday hanging out with the bees at the farmer's market. Andrew, the beekeeper and honey dude, was in Lithuania (talking to Lithuanian bees) all week and asked me if I'd open the City Hall market on Friday. While it sounds like not a hard thing to do, this is what it entailed:
*took the train from Grand Central to Norwalk, Connecticut late Thursday night to stay at his house there
*woke up at 4am to load the van and then drive into NYC to open the market
*worked from 6am-6pm Friday, closed everything down, and then drove back to CT
*ate pizza Friday night at a restaurant near his house, one of four pizza places on the same block-- was the closest thing to Mr. Jim's pizza I've had in a long time (big shout out to Fort Worth!), which was nice
*came back to NYC Saturday morning on the train
though it was a lot of backing-and-forthing, as Justin would say, it was a good time. I felt all responsible. And I got to drive in NYC, which I have to say was super frustrating. people here are nuts if they drive regularly.
being in CT was very relaxing. though i have yet to have one of those moments where i've just felt totally overwhelmed by the city, i immediately noticed the sense of peace and quiet that i felt once i was out of town. i plan on asking andrew if i can be a couch surfer this fall when i need to get away-- its a 40 minute train ride to peace and quiet.
he told me before i went that there was food in the fridge and i was welcome to help myself to whatever was there. it became evident once i was there, however, that to a bachelor, food in the fridge = lots of condiments. i made a meal out of some leftover black beans and some honey yogurt. awesome.
the second part of this update has to do with my romantic interests, so uninterested parties can stop reading here, if they choose. don't say i didn't warn you, there might be gross gushing and cooing involved.
last wednesday i went out to a place in brooklyn called hank's saloon, where they have live band karaoke every week. you heard it right, live band. as in you get to lead a rock band for your 3.5 minutes of fame, onstage in front of everyone. total dream.i sang a few songs, including "just what i needed" by the cars, and "celebrity skin" by hole, at which point the guitar player asked if i'd ever actually been in a band before. i told him yes, but really only as a drummer, at which point the drummer offered me his sticks and took a beer break. heaven! i rocked out to nirvana and green day (hello, 1994) and had one heck of a time. a classmate of mine, jac, came out with her two roommates (also fellows) and we all had a blast. things ended with a rather unexpected bathroom meeting in which i learned that she is a) not straight and b) has a crush on me.
:)
we've been out a couple of times since then and it is fantastic. not only do we have lots of similar pursuits (we're both earth science), we also have a really fun time together. i took her to hang out last night at monday night bocce ball at union hall, where she got to meet shelley, my future roommate in town for a few days, aneal, and a few others. it was great. she's great. everything is just great.
last week was my one-monthiversary of coming here to NYC and i have to say that i am in a much, much better place than i'd expected. every day i have some moment where i am proud of myself for making a space to live in this city of millions.
wherever you are, i hope that you feel like you have a place, too.
*took the train from Grand Central to Norwalk, Connecticut late Thursday night to stay at his house there
*woke up at 4am to load the van and then drive into NYC to open the market
*worked from 6am-6pm Friday, closed everything down, and then drove back to CT
*ate pizza Friday night at a restaurant near his house, one of four pizza places on the same block-- was the closest thing to Mr. Jim's pizza I've had in a long time (big shout out to Fort Worth!), which was nice
*came back to NYC Saturday morning on the train
though it was a lot of backing-and-forthing, as Justin would say, it was a good time. I felt all responsible. And I got to drive in NYC, which I have to say was super frustrating. people here are nuts if they drive regularly.
being in CT was very relaxing. though i have yet to have one of those moments where i've just felt totally overwhelmed by the city, i immediately noticed the sense of peace and quiet that i felt once i was out of town. i plan on asking andrew if i can be a couch surfer this fall when i need to get away-- its a 40 minute train ride to peace and quiet.
he told me before i went that there was food in the fridge and i was welcome to help myself to whatever was there. it became evident once i was there, however, that to a bachelor, food in the fridge = lots of condiments. i made a meal out of some leftover black beans and some honey yogurt. awesome.
the second part of this update has to do with my romantic interests, so uninterested parties can stop reading here, if they choose. don't say i didn't warn you, there might be gross gushing and cooing involved.
last wednesday i went out to a place in brooklyn called hank's saloon, where they have live band karaoke every week. you heard it right, live band. as in you get to lead a rock band for your 3.5 minutes of fame, onstage in front of everyone. total dream.i sang a few songs, including "just what i needed" by the cars, and "celebrity skin" by hole, at which point the guitar player asked if i'd ever actually been in a band before. i told him yes, but really only as a drummer, at which point the drummer offered me his sticks and took a beer break. heaven! i rocked out to nirvana and green day (hello, 1994) and had one heck of a time. a classmate of mine, jac, came out with her two roommates (also fellows) and we all had a blast. things ended with a rather unexpected bathroom meeting in which i learned that she is a) not straight and b) has a crush on me.
:)
we've been out a couple of times since then and it is fantastic. not only do we have lots of similar pursuits (we're both earth science), we also have a really fun time together. i took her to hang out last night at monday night bocce ball at union hall, where she got to meet shelley, my future roommate in town for a few days, aneal, and a few others. it was great. she's great. everything is just great.
last week was my one-monthiversary of coming here to NYC and i have to say that i am in a much, much better place than i'd expected. every day i have some moment where i am proud of myself for making a space to live in this city of millions.
wherever you are, i hope that you feel like you have a place, too.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
the chemistry of love?
today was our first day of real class, not immersion stuff. we're in intro to geology, which means we started today with introduction to chemistry. chemistry is what i get. chemistry was always my favorite science, and frankly i am surprised that i was not assigned to chemistry as a fellow. the first part of the day i felt like a rock star, remembering all the specifics about s-p-d-f energy levels, stuff like that.
during our review, it started to become evident to me that there are things in chemistry that very much resemble relationships-- specifically lesbian relationships, but definitely holds true for other folks as well.
when we discussed chemical bonds and their relative strengths, i began making the connections. the long-term relationship lesbians, the serial monogamists, the u-haulers who hunker down as if the world is a combat zone and their love is a foxhole-- those are the covalent bonds. they are formed when properties, or dogs, are shared and can be very hard to break. their relative size once bonded also shrinks due to the inward pull of the combined charges, which any of us who have ever been to Relationship Island can vouch for.
then there are the ionic bonds-- these ladies are the ones who get together because they want something from each other, whether it is a rebound relationship, regular access to a ride, or just because they think the other person is cute. these bonds form much more loosely than their covalent counterparts and take only the slightest amount of effort to break. when exposed to a little heat or water (read: summer, alcohol), these molecules bust, joining readily with any neighboring and complimentary charged atom. the funny thing about these ionic bonds is that they are so easily formed that if the bonds are broken, but the system (read: bar) is saturated (read: dead, or everyone is hooked up), the bonds can re-form until the system is heated again. spring and summer in seattle is the best proof that i think i have ever seen which tells me that this law is true.
then there are the metallic bonds-- multiple atoms of the same element chain together in a way that allows them to conduct heat and electricity through each other without actually having to form new molecules. i believe the other term for this phenomena is lesbian friends.
lastly we have the Van Der Waal's bonds-- these are the kind that i have been experiencing most recently, the weak attraction resulting from a completely random and quickly fluctuating arrangement of electrons around a nucleus. situational girlfriend might be another term for it, but i believe there is a formula to express this bond, this attraction, where the strength of the attraction (A) is inversely proportional to the distance (D) from the other person, comme ca:
A= 1/D
everyone with me?
it also occurred to me that lesbians are kind of like elements in their classification column in the periodic table of life. the halogens, the ultra-reactive, dominating, steal-electrons-from-other-elements substances? tops, obvi. the alkali metals, the ones so close to being complete that they freely, and easily give up their lone outer electron? bottoms, you guessed it. i think that i classify myself more in the metalloid category-- metalloids are also often semi-conductors either freely taking from or giving up to another element depending on what that other element is and how it behaves.
it all makes sense.
there will be a quiz on monday, class dismissed.
during our review, it started to become evident to me that there are things in chemistry that very much resemble relationships-- specifically lesbian relationships, but definitely holds true for other folks as well.
when we discussed chemical bonds and their relative strengths, i began making the connections. the long-term relationship lesbians, the serial monogamists, the u-haulers who hunker down as if the world is a combat zone and their love is a foxhole-- those are the covalent bonds. they are formed when properties, or dogs, are shared and can be very hard to break. their relative size once bonded also shrinks due to the inward pull of the combined charges, which any of us who have ever been to Relationship Island can vouch for.
then there are the ionic bonds-- these ladies are the ones who get together because they want something from each other, whether it is a rebound relationship, regular access to a ride, or just because they think the other person is cute. these bonds form much more loosely than their covalent counterparts and take only the slightest amount of effort to break. when exposed to a little heat or water (read: summer, alcohol), these molecules bust, joining readily with any neighboring and complimentary charged atom. the funny thing about these ionic bonds is that they are so easily formed that if the bonds are broken, but the system (read: bar) is saturated (read: dead, or everyone is hooked up), the bonds can re-form until the system is heated again. spring and summer in seattle is the best proof that i think i have ever seen which tells me that this law is true.
then there are the metallic bonds-- multiple atoms of the same element chain together in a way that allows them to conduct heat and electricity through each other without actually having to form new molecules. i believe the other term for this phenomena is lesbian friends.
lastly we have the Van Der Waal's bonds-- these are the kind that i have been experiencing most recently, the weak attraction resulting from a completely random and quickly fluctuating arrangement of electrons around a nucleus. situational girlfriend might be another term for it, but i believe there is a formula to express this bond, this attraction, where the strength of the attraction (A) is inversely proportional to the distance (D) from the other person, comme ca:
A= 1/D
everyone with me?
it also occurred to me that lesbians are kind of like elements in their classification column in the periodic table of life. the halogens, the ultra-reactive, dominating, steal-electrons-from-other-elements substances? tops, obvi. the alkali metals, the ones so close to being complete that they freely, and easily give up their lone outer electron? bottoms, you guessed it. i think that i classify myself more in the metalloid category-- metalloids are also often semi-conductors either freely taking from or giving up to another element depending on what that other element is and how it behaves.
it all makes sense.
there will be a quiz on monday, class dismissed.
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