(no subject)
i forgot, but jox's post reminded me that my birthday happened. happy birthday, jox. i dragged my roommate out a few days beforehand to see "the full monty". (she grew up in a 13-child chabad family, so...her pre-show thoughts were sort of entertaining...we ended up enjoying it, though.)
the weekend after, a friend came to visit. we, my roommate, a student from last year and her mother, my two coteachers, and the paraprofessional in our classroom went out to icecream cake. i managed to forget the knife, plates, utensils, ...and who i invited. luckily, someone went home and brought useful stuffs. it was interesting...i had known that my friend had different voices (only because i was told), but i hadn't realized that you could say their name and speak to them...and that they had different body languages, walking paces, facial expressions, tones of voice(s?), ways of getting things done, and are working on working together, though i'm really impressed with how well they're doing so far. i miss her. it was good to get to know her better, though i don't think i spent enough time with her as a whole, and i don't know if that's meaningful to her. i'll ask at some point.
my body and i are in a fight. i don't believe it needs food. it does. so, i dig my hands into my stomach during class because i don't get why it is hurting me. i need a new super power. sara says i sound like her at age 7. oops.
compared to last year, school is amazing. students are learning things, and so am i. and it's fun. they're busy and interested and trying to challenge themselves, and they've turned helpful on each other... i enjoy the people i'm working with, and am finally getting to play with making the subject areas interact even more than they already do. i think i am going to be constantly bothered by the nature of religion in this school. it will never quite jive with what i think of as meaningful religion, but i can make it as interesting as possible and see where i can stretch it to make it work for all of us.
i'm considering going back for upper elementary training. (by which i mean i want to. and have decided. but don't know if i'll be hired back, despite how hard i'm working and how much i'm doing for my classroom.)
oh, so i learned about making rubber, i'm learning the countries in north/central america, and i think i'm going to learn to recognize some constellations before the month is up.
we're doing a unit on reduce reuse recycle...(this could take 2 years...) we did pick an object and tell the story: "where did it come from?" "where does it go when i am done with it?" then we did a sorting work for reduce. what things produce a lot of trash, and what can you use instead. write some examples of your own. we'll do reuse next and begin our scrap paper pile in earnest and introduce real silverware (which should have been done at reduce...but i'm incompetant and they'll let me know which is better, perhaps.). and then for recycle, we'll start with the simplest to do in our classroom. paper. and we'll then do glass and metal (glassblower? blacksmith?) and give them an idea of what it means to melt something down and reshape it. then we'll sort plastics according to nj laws because that's where we're at. inbread new jersey. and then we'll (wouldn't it be fun to be up to studying layers of the earth by now? or the time line of life? so we could talk about where we get plastic and oil from? but even if the timing isn't perfect, they'll still remember and make the connection.) talk about different plastic recycling methods and what the numbers mean. next is food. weigh your waste. composting. and eventually planting. but those are next year.
ugh. i talk too much, and i need to finish getting ready for work. (ignore the spelling mistakes.)
the weekend after, a friend came to visit. we, my roommate, a student from last year and her mother, my two coteachers, and the paraprofessional in our classroom went out to icecream cake. i managed to forget the knife, plates, utensils, ...and who i invited. luckily, someone went home and brought useful stuffs. it was interesting...i had known that my friend had different voices (only because i was told), but i hadn't realized that you could say their name and speak to them...and that they had different body languages, walking paces, facial expressions, tones of voice(s?), ways of getting things done, and are working on working together, though i'm really impressed with how well they're doing so far. i miss her. it was good to get to know her better, though i don't think i spent enough time with her as a whole, and i don't know if that's meaningful to her. i'll ask at some point.
my body and i are in a fight. i don't believe it needs food. it does. so, i dig my hands into my stomach during class because i don't get why it is hurting me. i need a new super power. sara says i sound like her at age 7. oops.
compared to last year, school is amazing. students are learning things, and so am i. and it's fun. they're busy and interested and trying to challenge themselves, and they've turned helpful on each other... i enjoy the people i'm working with, and am finally getting to play with making the subject areas interact even more than they already do. i think i am going to be constantly bothered by the nature of religion in this school. it will never quite jive with what i think of as meaningful religion, but i can make it as interesting as possible and see where i can stretch it to make it work for all of us.
i'm considering going back for upper elementary training. (by which i mean i want to. and have decided. but don't know if i'll be hired back, despite how hard i'm working and how much i'm doing for my classroom.)
oh, so i learned about making rubber, i'm learning the countries in north/central america, and i think i'm going to learn to recognize some constellations before the month is up.
we're doing a unit on reduce reuse recycle...(this could take 2 years...) we did pick an object and tell the story: "where did it come from?" "where does it go when i am done with it?" then we did a sorting work for reduce. what things produce a lot of trash, and what can you use instead. write some examples of your own. we'll do reuse next and begin our scrap paper pile in earnest and introduce real silverware (which should have been done at reduce...but i'm incompetant and they'll let me know which is better, perhaps.). and then for recycle, we'll start with the simplest to do in our classroom. paper. and we'll then do glass and metal (glassblower? blacksmith?) and give them an idea of what it means to melt something down and reshape it. then we'll sort plastics according to nj laws because that's where we're at. inbread new jersey. and then we'll (wouldn't it be fun to be up to studying layers of the earth by now? or the time line of life? so we could talk about where we get plastic and oil from? but even if the timing isn't perfect, they'll still remember and make the connection.) talk about different plastic recycling methods and what the numbers mean. next is food. weigh your waste. composting. and eventually planting. but those are next year.
ugh. i talk too much, and i need to finish getting ready for work. (ignore the spelling mistakes.)