What a first year teacher should know:

1. Get a copy of EasyGradePro. Immediately. Input regularly.
2. Get a classwork system in place. Have a folder/bin for in/out work for each class.
3. Buy lots of stamps.
4. Be consistent.
5. Be mean STRICT! ... for the first 2 months.
6. Buy a broom and dust pan.
7. Set up classroom jobs.
8. Use tickets!

It's one of the those days of poignant, melancholy beauty. Like the execution of a Death Cab song. Or catching the sunset just a tad bit late. It's one of those days that makes me want to cry. A long slow cry. Recognizing how much my friends are hurting. How much hope a person can bring and simultaneously destroy ( Read more... )

So I've discovered the key to everlasting happiness: exercise.

It sounds crazy, and it is. But after today's Precor session, I'm a believer, thoroughly convinced that a bit of calorie-burning does the body and serotonin receptors some good.

Lame, I know, but I want something to have a record of my existence today. So passes the night, so slowly. I want to cry because of all the missed opportunities and false impressions. I want to kick myself for holding regrets so tightly. And refusing to let go. It is this damn self. Self-awareness, subjectivity. I belong to myself, but what ever ( Read more... )

Feliz Aniversario Eims! (Hopefully that's right)

Feliz Cumpleanos Rachel!

Go get your boogies on!

The air smelled heavily of kaffir lime. It was a dense and suffocating scent, something I have only encountered but once in my life. In the car, grabbing two at a time, from a plastic bag. Labeled "Kaffir Lime Cashews ( Read more... )

Ace suggested that instead of going to the gym, I do 2,000 jumping jacks. We sat around and thought about it for awhile: How long would it take to do 2,000 jumping jacks? In the meanwhile, I decided to go for a run around the Berkeley hills. Around and around I went. Looking back, I guess I could say I tried to recreate el laberinto Borges ( Read more... )

Bernard took me by the shoulders yesterday and scanned me up and down. He paused sporadically as though hesitant to tell me the truth, as if I couldn't handle the truth (so help me ( Read more... )

Glazed eyes like glazed carrots. Dazzlingly technicolor feats matching my eyes! Playing video games is supposed to enhance something right? Maybe I haven't given it the proper chance ( Read more... )

There exists a world laden with paranoia, regret, and disappointment in this irregular-shaped room. I hear it on the CD my cousin burnt me. It resonates in the walls, thickly coating them like an extra layer of paint. You wonder, I wonder: Where do things end and others begin ( Read more... )