Style geek

Honestly, it'd be easier if I didn't want things to look consistent. Then I could just print the randomly generated worksheets online. (Though, really, some of the problems on them are annoying.)

Alas. Even if I didn't make pretty fractions for the advanced math kids. They're doing their best to make me upset with them. Apparently my retribution is fractions written like a/b instead of like . Obviously I am a mean teacher.

If I don't want to be actually mean, I should go get sleep.....hmmm....

I miss you already

I took last week off. Needed the break from life here and we had Thanksgiving off, so it made sense.

It was perhaps the best decision I've made since graduation. I was able to escape enough that there were moments when I forgot I'm a teaching. Meaning that I wasn't worrying about lesson planning. Now was I thinking constantly about students and their problems. Instead I watched football games (yes, that was plural), lingered over lots of good meals, laughed with friends, and generally got to the point of remembering what it's like to be in an overall positive mood. It's already been a rough transition back. Taking all of those burdens back and trying to figure out how I'm going to balance life over the next three weeks or so.

Thank you to all the friends who made time in your schedules for me. Special thanks to those who let me sleep over. Both of you are amazing, I love your houses, and I am planning on coming back. And huge hugs to the friends who I didn't get to visit--especially those of you who are active in my support network right now. I really do miss you.

I'm getting tired and this post is getting cheesy. Time to stop. First, a reminder that there's a guest bedroom for friends who want to visit. *nods head, falls asleep*

All through the night

Teaching theory is full of the importance of creating and sticking to routines. We're creatures of habit and there's comfort in the familiar. It's simplified, but you get the gist of it. The truth of this has hit home for me in the past couple of weeks as I realize more and more of my own routines.

The most embedded, most comforting routine? Bedtime. It's 10:50 now and I most likely won't be asleep for another hour. Never mind that I'm pretty exhausted. The bedtime ritual takes me an hour. (And some friends already mock me for it.) I only recently connected that each of the parts of the ritual go back to the routine my parents first established for me, not just when I was little, but really when I was a baby.

1. Get clean. Shower. Bath. Brush teeth. Whatever. Connection obvious.
2. Write in journal. I had a journal but didn't write on a regular basis until after I left home. Before then, bedtime officially started when I debriefed the day with whichever parent was putting me down that night. Get out all the feelings that needed to be sorted through in order to rest well.
3. Bible and prayer time. Though I don't memorize verses or prayers the same way I sometimes did when I was at home.
4. Read something completely nonrelated to school. Short stories. Long fiction. Entertaining nonfiction. (Nothing too serious.) This is critical for me and the part that I only recently connected to the bedtime stories my parents read when I was an infant.
5. Lullabye. Actually, this is the one part that I omit most nights here. Though it may be my favorite part. Mom and Dad sang to me until I graduated high school. (When I was little there were multiple lullabyes and each birthday, you're a bit older one less song. Only they never stopped that last song. I think the time meant too much to all of us to consider it.) I definitely will hum a song to myself. Or play my lullabye cd. Or the lullabye playlist on my computer. Because it is so ingrained for me, whenever I hear someone's having trouble sleeping, I'll offer lullabyes. It's my favorite part of bedtime, but the part that translates least well to being on my own.
   

Sorry this is rambly. I should go back and edit. But for now, I'm just going to post and get into that ritual.

Sending my heart back to the mountains

“And when life is getting me down, as sometimes it will do,
My heart will come back to these mountains
and I'll remember you
I'll remember the love that we shared
and the ways that we grew”

I'm not sure where the quote came from. But I have it saved to a "sticky note" on my computer to remind me of camp. I don't usually use the stickies, but I did yesterday and smiled to remember camp.

I've been thinking about camp a surprising amount this weekend. It's interesting to observe. A few years ago, it was normal for me to somehow be reminded of camp several times a day. From the pictures on the walls to the music I listened to. From the books I read to the friends I talked to. Even if something wasn't directly related to camp, I could almost always connect it to something that reminded me of camp.

Most of the reminders are still present. Sure, I don't listen to the same music as much two summers out. No, I don't talk to people as regularly as I once did. Actually, I haven't really hung up any pictures in my bedroom here. But none of them are far out of reach.

And yet, I'm surprised that I've thought of camp a couple of times a day over this extended weekend. I didn't notice when it was not in the back of my mind at all times. Only now am I realizing that it's not.

Thinking about it, leaving college has almost been easier than leaving camp. It's still living in the back of my mind, the reminders through music, pictures, books, and friends are very much there. But at the same time, I don't feel as homesick for college-home. Not sure what it means. Maybe just that leaving a home of 4 years is easier than leaving one of 13 years.

It's not that I don't like reading online, but real, physical reading is so much better

I found a library! The local university acts as a public library. I don't undrstand. But while I was being sent to down during business hours for the drug testing, I stopped by and picked up a card. I checked out two books. (Half of my limit.) It's like being in pre-school or kindergarden. Talk to me on the phone and I get this big grin, "I got a library card. Mmm Hmmm."

There is the problem with me buying books, but I'm becoming obsessed with magazine subscriptions. When I renewed my NPR membership, I signed up for two magazines. I just redeemed some of my frequent flyer miles that were going to expire for, um, 13 magazine subscriptions. Maybe this will keep me from spending the money and ordering National Geographic on the professional promo they sent this week. Then again, that comes with a world map and 4 posters. I'm not teaching social studies, but maps could decorate a math classroom, right?

For now, a list of my subscriptions (that I can remember):

• Newsweek (my standby)
• Elle
• Elle Decor (they were a set)
• Home
• Metropolitan Home (another set)
• The Atlantic Monthly (editorials offline! goody)
• The Economist
• Domino (which honestly I haven't heard of before, but miles are good)
• Harper's Bazaar
• Martha Stewart Living (It's Martha, there wasn't a Southern Living on the list, and she was the closest to a cooking magazine)
• Money
• The New York Observer
• W
• Wired (Though it's too late for their crafty issue. That was amazing)

So yes. No cooking magazines. Lots of grown-up homey magazines. Lots of subscriptions that will run out before my time here is up. Hopefully other miles can be redeemed next year?

"If you fail to not show up for your appointment for any legitimate reason"

I get to be drug tested tomorrow. I have to drive a half-hour both ways to pee in a cup. Missing class to do so. Oh joy. (Actually, I'm kind of looking forward to the break from school. How sad is that?) Also, did it occur to anyone that making sure I drink enough water to urinate on command
might send me to the restroom more during the rest of the day?

And in case your wondering, the title is a direct quote from my notification memo. The complete quote: If you fail to not show up for your appointment for any legitimate reason it may constitute grounds for termination.

So, grammatically, that means what exactly? Only bad reasons are acceptable for showing up?

Far more addictive than it should be

You know those "Click for Charity" sites (like the one I linked to in my last post) that you sometimes go to because you feel like you should? But you know they're depending on advertising and is that really what you want?

I just found out about a new site that combines that with my nerd side. FreeRice is a vocab game. Sure it still depends on ads for its donations. Bu it encourages you to keep on clicking. And clicking. And clicking. I want to get to higher and higher levels (unfortunately I'm keep getting error messages and beginning again).

The site just started. So their data on how much has been donated daily is fun to look at. Sadly though I don't know Excel well enough to run the regressions I want to play with (and I didn't learn a few key steps in R). It does make me wonder why I don't see more about internet trends in word problems. (Maybe because the books that I'm looking at still talk about video and tape cassettes.) Note to people who are writing the word problems, let's get some of the data about MySpace and Facebook. Can we track growth of friend count? Is that appropriate?

Further note to myself, it's Friday night. I'm going to be working a lot this weekend. During your downtime it is okay to not think about lessons.