State of Rachel
Life is busy. That really is the whole of it, life is busy. I am finding a balance between school, home, and something akin to a social life. It is a precarious balance, but it is there.
In no particular order:
- Kenneth and I have been together for 5+ years. We may choose to make that commitment more formal, eventually.
- Pumpkin is in her sophomore year of high school. This year seems to be going better, although there are still obstacles.
- Boyo is in 6th grade at a middle school. His world history teacher is a Mills grad, which is awesome.
- The dogs, Hannah and Trent are doing well enough. They could use more time for training and interaction, but Pumpkin has been helping out with that a bit.
- The cats, Loki and Mozart, are doing well enough. The dogs and Mozart taught Loki how to get outside, but so far the dogs keep him in the backyard, he hasn't figured out that he can climb fences. (As a rule, I prefer indoor only cats, but I use a doggie door for the dogs, and so the cats can access it too. I haven't figured out how to keep the cats in and still let the dogs out.)
- I found an inexpensive perfume that doesn't seem to bother Kenneth's allergies. Further, I really like the smell. (Not to worry, I use it sparingly and don't wear it where people might find it offensive. However at a school, light perfume really is a good thing. This is a trick I picked up from my CT, since the overhead tends to cook whatever smell a teacher is wearing. Perfume is better than some of the alternatives, trust me.)
Student teaching seems to be going well. I think I really lucked out with my Cooperating Teacher. She is experienced, encouraging and most of all, I like her. I can't emulate her teaching style, but I have incorporated some of her demonstrated flexibility. It was an aspect that I felt was lacking in my own teaching. I will probably use routines a lot more than she does, but she has taught me how to teach outside of a daily routine, which has been very helpful.
A friend's blog post reminded me recently how happy I am to be going into teaching. Yes there are sucky aspects, to be sure. Trust me, when I saw a recent posting about jobs at Google, I was tempted. Hey, I have that nifty degree now! However any nostalgia I had for working in the Silicon Valley was crushed thanks to another friend's entry about negotiating money. Oh yeah, I may get paid a crappy salary for hard work, but how is that really different from what I was doing before I went back to school? I think I will at least have more job satisfaction.
Like any good student, I am way behind...on everything. So, enough of LJ, it is time for me to rough together a class syllabus for my Curriculum and Instruction seminar.
In no particular order:
- Kenneth and I have been together for 5+ years. We may choose to make that commitment more formal, eventually.
- Pumpkin is in her sophomore year of high school. This year seems to be going better, although there are still obstacles.
- Boyo is in 6th grade at a middle school. His world history teacher is a Mills grad, which is awesome.
- The dogs, Hannah and Trent are doing well enough. They could use more time for training and interaction, but Pumpkin has been helping out with that a bit.
- The cats, Loki and Mozart, are doing well enough. The dogs and Mozart taught Loki how to get outside, but so far the dogs keep him in the backyard, he hasn't figured out that he can climb fences. (As a rule, I prefer indoor only cats, but I use a doggie door for the dogs, and so the cats can access it too. I haven't figured out how to keep the cats in and still let the dogs out.)
- I found an inexpensive perfume that doesn't seem to bother Kenneth's allergies. Further, I really like the smell. (Not to worry, I use it sparingly and don't wear it where people might find it offensive. However at a school, light perfume really is a good thing. This is a trick I picked up from my CT, since the overhead tends to cook whatever smell a teacher is wearing. Perfume is better than some of the alternatives, trust me.)
Student teaching seems to be going well. I think I really lucked out with my Cooperating Teacher. She is experienced, encouraging and most of all, I like her. I can't emulate her teaching style, but I have incorporated some of her demonstrated flexibility. It was an aspect that I felt was lacking in my own teaching. I will probably use routines a lot more than she does, but she has taught me how to teach outside of a daily routine, which has been very helpful.
A friend's blog post reminded me recently how happy I am to be going into teaching. Yes there are sucky aspects, to be sure. Trust me, when I saw a recent posting about jobs at Google, I was tempted. Hey, I have that nifty degree now! However any nostalgia I had for working in the Silicon Valley was crushed thanks to another friend's entry about negotiating money. Oh yeah, I may get paid a crappy salary for hard work, but how is that really different from what I was doing before I went back to school? I think I will at least have more job satisfaction.
Like any good student, I am way behind...on everything. So, enough of LJ, it is time for me to rough together a class syllabus for my Curriculum and Instruction seminar.