My Classroom

Shoot, I had meant to post pictures of my classroom, but then my life turned crazy and I forgot. Anyways, here is my room before.

I love the brightness of the room.

After 2 days of organizing, rearranging, and decorating (not to mention getting tons of free posters and stuff from coworkers), here's my incredibly sparse room.

Word wall and shared reading area

student cubbies with genres posters (borrowed from 4th grade teacher)

4 table groups... which I'm kinda regretting at this point. headaches.

I love that window.

I think I mentioned how some of the other teacher's classrooms looked amazing. I'll try to take pictures of some of them. They are freakin legit.

1st week of hell

Wow. What can I say? I survived. Survived is pretty fitting since I'm pretty positive I was sucktastic my first day. Even though I told my students I taught middle school last year and taught in Michigan, they smelled my noobness and I think I came close to losing my homeroom. Thankfully I'm team teaching this year, so my afternoon class was a lot better because I was able to learn from all my mistakes in the morning and they at least are afraid of not following my instructions.

Teaching Rule of Thumb: Always, always, always start the year off tough and incredibly strict on expectations. Under no situation do you give the kids new freedoms than what you clearly stated unless you are a teaching guru.

I made that classic mistake again when after an amazing first morning, I loosened up and started smiling and being friendlier with the students. Mistake. They immediately sensed that shift in my demeanor and took the tiny inch I gave them, and ran with it. The rest of the week was spent doing damage control. Today I blew up the seating chart and laid the smackdown in taking away all groupwork privileges and implementing a silent independent work probation period of 2 weeks before trying to integrate groupwork again.

No lie, teaching is tough. Many times, I really want to strangle some of the kids, especially the ones that are blatantly disrespectful. But that all comes with the territory, and as many teachers share with me, those end up being the ones you care about the most. Probably the hardest thing right now is the enormity of responsibility that is on my shoulders; based on how well I prepare these kids for the next level (whether the TAKS standardised test or even for middle school), it will play a huge role in defining them. This is what I always say I'm in teaching for... but actually being in that position is terrifying. There's so many things I need to keep in mind, meetings up the wazoo, and continuing to learn better teaching techniques, I am finally realizing that education is so similar to how our faith should be. The moment we think we've learned all we need to know is the moment we've lost that spark.

On one hand, I'm really encouraged to be working with a mentor teacher (and frankly the entire staff) that are so passionate about teaching that I really wonder how I got chosen to teach at this school. There's so many things I want to write about but I should catch up on sleep.

Don't worry about me though... each day is getting a little bit better. I am no longer running around like a headless chicken, although I'm still ripping out my hair trying to figure out how to work with this autistic kid who I have absolutely no authority with... ughhhhhh.

AHHH!!

Ha. I'm noticing my coping mechanism for stress. Conscious obliviousness. All during training the past 2 weeks, I was so surprised at how calm and unworried I was at school starting. Even during Open House, where I met most of the students for the first time with their parents, I was pretty chill. However, the moment the weekend started, I started getting the nerves. Saturday was a full day of OCR, and trust me, I really wanted to be out there meeting new students, but my lesson plans for the week were still incomplete, many of my structures and guidelines: unmade. Pretty much, I needed to spend a good half day working.

It's funny how God always tests our resolves with things that are never a clear "Good decision/ Bad decision". On one hand, I could be justified with taking the day to work, but my main commitment for coming down to Austin was to serve the church. In the end, I believe that trumps my work responsibilities. It is now 11pm and I just got back and I am so scared of crashing and burning tomorrow. If you read this, I really covet your prayers. I'm planning on waking up at 5, drive over to work and try to finalize the final details of the day.

Why am I blogging if I need to work? Because my mind is roiling and I couldn't sleep. This is actually incredibly cathartic for me. =P

On a side note, I'm really excited for the new year for our church... please pray that the froshies that are getting connected end up experiencing Christ's love tangibly and commit to stay. This batch has something special about them... or maybe it's just my delirium. Anyways, good night.

Check Yourself

It sucks when you need to rebuke yourself. A week into 10 hour work days, constant adjustments with apartment moving, and different worries, I found myself succumbing to reacting to irritations and complaining mentally. Although I'm sure I let my annoyance show with some of the snippy comments I made....

How easy it is to forget the blessings and our purpose, huh?

I love my school and teachers!

Wow. I am so thankful for getting the job at my school. I think if I dreamed of the ideal school filled with ideal teachers and administration, this school would be pretty close to it. Every day starts at 7:10am, which is harddddddd, but I get so excited by the people that work there that I get over my tiredness.

I'll start with the administrators. Our principal is so energetic and excited to be there it's impossible to be lethargic around her. It's like she exudes positive energy vibes that charges your battery. Granted, as teachers, she sometimes makes us do really cheesy team building activities, but the gesture is appreciated. But I get so inspired to love my students the way she does.

Today after training, she had all the teachers break up into teams to walk the neighborhood to visit students and their families to inform them of parent night on thursday night. I was personally feeling really self conscious and pretty chicken (since I pretty much forgot all my spanish) but she went right up to all the families and struck up conversations. I'll never forget how the students and parents reacted to seeing their principal visit them in their houses. Most kids' faces literally lit up when they saw their principal walk up the driveway and the parents were so grateful that she cared enough to visit them in person. So inspiring to witness.

As for my coworkers, they are so friendly! I don't know if all teachers are just innately friendly, but I started the week with nothing to decorate my room, and by the end of today, I have a complete library of books and enough decorations and filler stuff to get me past the first month. I felt like I was a freshman again in college, and the upperclassmen were going out of their way to bless me. Maybe this is what it feels like when people first enter our church and experience our community.

So yeah, despite spending over 9 hours at my school every day this week... I'm excited. Hopefully I'll post pictures of my class when I finish setting up.

Good food places in Chicago

So while I was in Chicago, I was able to eat at some amazing food places. Pictures do a much better job of describing than words, so without further ado, the goods...

Hot Doug's

3324 North California Avenue
Chicago, IL 60618-5848

This place was featured on Food Network, and Stuey claimed the place was amazing even though he had never been there before. I figured, "When in Rome..." and we ended up driving 30 minutes to get there. almost 45 minutes later waiting in a line in some pretty muggy weather, I ended up ordering the Chipotle and Cilantro Smoked Chicken Sausage. I was contemplating the Foie Gras Hotdog, but chickened out. Overall, even despite the distance, long wait, and expensive price, the uniqueness and quality of the dogs more than made up for it all. Probably not a place I would eat at regularly, but definitely good for multiple visits.

From Chicago Food

chipotle and cilantro smoked chicken sausage. freakin simple but juicy, crisp, and packed with flavor.

From Chicago Food

Just look at that gooey goodness!

From Chicago Food

Such an amazing array of unique hotdogs. if I lived in Chicago, I would make it a goal to try all of them.

Molly's Cupcakes

2536 North Clark Street

Chicago, IL 60614-1712

I walked into this store with my sister after she raved about how amazing the cupcakes were. When I entered, I immediately loved how the store was set up. The music playing was very playful and upbeat, and there was a great mix of young and old people, all enjoying the desserts. On the far left counter was the coolest idea for seating; they set up 4-5 swings (although limited by chains so people don't fall) for people to dangle from... How awesome is that!?

I wish I took pictures of the cupcakes, because the ones they post on their website don't give it justice. Imagine the moistest cupcake injected with frosting, and light frothy frosting on top with your choice of flavored goodness. They had styles ranging from apple pie cupcake to mint chocolate cupcakes and everything in between. Definitely a legit place recommended by my sis.

Am I Getting More Judgemental With Age?

Today we went to an international BBQ to meet incoming students and just get to know them. I got placed at a table with both guys and girls, so it seemed like it would be a cool table. The group we went with had one "conversation leader" at each table, and ours seemed like a pretty animated guy, so I was content with just making side conversations with people near me.

Throughout the entire night, I kept getting uncomfortable vibes from him by a lot of the comments he would make (either to me, or to the girls he was talking to). I just got the impression he was there for more than just "ministry". Because I was really tired, I told myself I was just being paranoid, and he was just unaware of how some of his comments could be perceived.

It wasn't until a bunch of people went to eat froyo that red flags were going off all over. I got my yogurt first, so I grabbed a ton of tables and chairs together so everyone could sit together. He saw me, then went to the corner of the place and tried bringing some girls with him. I was sitting with this guy, and I didn't want to embarrass the creepy guy publicly so I waved at them and told them they could join us. The girls pointed over and said they wanted to join us, and the guy reluctantly got up and grabbed another table next to us and sat there.

OK, whatever. What really got me upset was when we were leaving. We were milling around outside the shop (in typical Asian American fashion) and there was a group of what looked like sorority girls near us. He nudged the Japanese student (only 18!) and said:

you should go over there and get some of that. I'm sure you'll be a hit... you just need to get a haircut to get that hair out of your eyes, and get rid of that long hair in the back. I recommend going to a gay hairstylist, maybe a Mexican one. Wait until I take you to party down in 6th Street. It's crazy down there!

At that point, we steered the conversation to events that were coming up as we were trying to figure out rides. When we all turned to leave, he ends up shouting, "Don't forget to go to church!"

Wow. Seriously? I had never been so turned off or annoyed in my life. My mind was castrating him for making Christians look so freakin FAKE. It really got me thinking about how even so-called Christians need Jesus: sometimes more than the "heathens".

1st week of Training

So I've had 2 days of educational training thus far, and they were like night and day. My first day was actually the final day of First Year Teachers training. Right when I entered, they were blasting Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca" and other hyper pop hits of the early 2000s with a crazy Hawaiian Luau decoration theme. I couldn't help but laugh at how over the top things were. The next thing I noticed was just how many "newbies" there were; I estimate about 50 new hires for the entire district. Everyone was so young, the majority of people in their mid-late twenties. It was really cool meeting people in my table. There was one guy who was from Holland (the country), who met and married his wife who was from Holland, MI. He's starting as a spanish teacher in 4th grade. Crazy right?

Anyways, I won't bore you with details, but I LOVED all the info being presented, and actually took a ton of notes. It was really inspiring to see teachers so willing to welcome and impart their hard-earned lessons so freely.

Contrast that session with today's complete waste of time. Other than learning about how awesome Smartboards are (imagine whiteboards that kinda do what Tom Cruise's computer did in Minority Report), the day was a complete wash. Most of the programs and seminars I attended taught me nothing but how technologically illiterate old people are. Today was predominately the seasoned veterans (with a handful of new hires who missed previous training days like me) who needed professional development hours.

I think a large part of the turn off for today was the fact that I couldn't really participate b/c I still hadn't received login information, but even still, I felt like I knew more than many of the instructors and I was merely rotting away 7 hours of my life.

I think the highlight of the day was eating lunch at Chik- Fil-A. Spicy Chicken combo... soooo gooooood.

FREE BOWLING??? YES PLZ

Free games of bowling.

(Seattle) Salmon + Shin Ramen= Sin?

I just got this package of smoked salmon from Touf from Seattle b/c he felt bad for leaving early while I cleaned and moved out the apt. After waking up from an amazing nap on Jorgy's couch at 7ish... I was feeling famished. Unfortunately all I had were shrimp chips, ramen, and the package of salmon. I put 2 and 2 together... and decided to make me some baller ramen. After eating some shrimp chips.

As I was eating, I started wondering if I was wasting such good salmon, but I shoved those feelings aside and finished eating me dinner.

It's only after I finished that I started really wondering... shoot... did I just waste a perfectly great piece of salmon on msg and waxy noodles? I'm actually feeling guilty enough to blog about it. blahhhh.