Why Did I Decide Teaching Was A Good Career Choice?

Hello Jen, Anne, Beth and Devrie! So far you are the only known visitors to my lovely blog filled with pointless stories. Hopefully you’ve made your way back and happen across this personalized shout out.

Ok…so life today, let me think…I have a few funny stories floating around in my head and I am trying to decide which one to document today. I wouldn’t mind recording all of them. The problem is that I tell ridiculously long stories and really struggle leaving out the most pointless details.  My friends get impatient with my ability to make it through a dialogue in a timely manner. It is something I could say I am working on but in all honesty I’m not. My husband has this awesome habit (and when I say awesome I mean not awesome at all.) of slowly walking out of the room once my stories have gone on for too long. He claims he can still hear me from the other room he’s ventured into while beginning some new task that doesn’t involve blankly staring at me watching my mouth spill out every aspect of some dramatized play by play.  Oh well, 95% of the time he is a champ and he toughs it out.

This little event happened several days ago and it keeps popping into my head. In my opinion, I found the whole experience completely hilarious. Some might find it inappropriate but the majority of the world doesn’t read this so I’m not that worried about it.

I am an elementary teacher. I work with 4^th, 5^th and 6^th ELL students and do small pull out groups throughout the school day. Out of the 4 years I have taught this gig has been the most enjoyable option in the teaching world. Prior to this school year beginning I was burnt out and ready to search for a new career. Then I happened upon this set up and hesitantly took the job. For the most part everything has gone really well this year. I definitely operate so much better with the older grades in the elementary school. 9-12 year old students are very fascinating specimens. The students I work with are really well behaved which is a change I am experiencing for the first time.

Anyway, (like I said lots of pointless details find their ways into my stories) I prepared a lesson on adjective/noun phrases. I was getting observed that day by my principal and a district evaluator. I was in the middle of the lesson with my 4^th grade group. During the first few minutes of the lesson, I was having them close their eyes and touch some item and then we were connecting what they felt to an adjective word. One of the adjective words I was going over was fluffy. I originally had a small pillow I was going to use in the lesson but I ran out the door that morning without it. I decided to substitute the pillow with some craft balls that are pretty soft and could be deemed as fluffy. So we are sorting out the adjective/ noun phrases on a graphic organizer and I am orally saying the phrases we’ve created. I get to the craft balls object and read the phrase, ‘fluffy balls’. My mind immediately floods with the reaction of my 6^th graders to such a phrase. I always have to be one step ahead of those 12 year olds or things can take a detrimental turn towards an inappropriate direction very rapidly. Obviously, I hadn’t thought this phrase through very well and was going through all the possible scenarios that would arise later that day with my far from innocent 6^th grade group. I could hear all of their squeaky voices jabbering away about what had come out of their teacher’s mouth. So within these 30 seconds of getting caught up in the potential of what was to come, I burst out into mild chuckles with my 4^th grade group sitting in front of me and the district evaluator hovering in the corner. It was as clear as day what I was laughing about and luckily not noted by the 4^th graders. Of course that wasn’t the case with the evaluator who was hastily moving a pen across his pad of paper. Eventually the lesson came to an end.

I was so caught up in my double evaluations that day and I had totally forgotten about that thought until I was once again into my lesson with my 6th grade group and the words, ‘fluffy balls’ came flowing out of my mouth. I will let you conjure up all of the uproar that burst out of those students. Lets just say the rest of the half hour was basically management control. Once the phrase had been said there was no getting those crazy minds focused back onto an appropriate topic. Even though I was acting like a stern teacher trying to get back on track, the moment was pretty funny and well deserved. I should have seen it coming. Kids these days I tell ya!

Goal update: So I am on my way out to go running right now. Lets see how it goes. 

I guess I just set a goal?!

I am sitting in front of the computer a sweaty mess feeling like any abrupt movement might result in me puking. I just got back from what I would define as a grueling run. What exactly does grueling embody? Well…I jogged at what most likely was a 10 minute pace for a whole 20 minutes! Plus, there were only 2 breather breaks in the whole workout session. Cue erupting laughter. Pathetic pretty much sums up my current physical condition. I am sure the puking sensation I am feeling right now can also be contributed to the massive amount of pizza, brownies and ice cream I fed myself last night. Steve’s parents made a pit stop in Tucson last night and we headed out to a fabulous pizzeria for dinner. I had no problem sampling all 4 different types of pizza choices placed 6 inches in front of my nose. I was barely able to walk up the stairs to the apartment due to my overly stuffed stomach. Yet I had no qualms about placing a hefty sized brownie in a bowl with a fair amount of vanilla ice cream plopped right on top. Oh yeah, there was a nice drizzle of caramel layered on top of the ice cream. I would like to thank Steve for the constant supply of brownies sitting on the kitchen counter. He likes to remind me on almost a daily basis that it is in fact his favorite dessert therefore it is necessary to have a fresh batch around the house at all times. So, my food consumption made my attempts at running somewhat of a struggle today. I should acknowledge that the most deserving culprit for such a weak run was definitely the lack of consistent exercising in my life.

It can be safely said that I am lazy, as noted by my exhaustion from the measly attempt made today. In my defense this has not always been the case. I used to be “hardcore” in the world of exercise. My college days were consumed with an obsession for running and toning. Running has always been really hard for me. I don’t have running genes in me. I never built up incredible endurance but I got pretty good at pushing through for a decent chunk of time. I ran everyday for at least 60 minutes. It was hard every time but I was capable of doing it. 60 minutes really isn’t even that much compared to true runners who are constantly training for some marathon. People like to argue that anyone can be a runner and all that other nonsense. I still think that there are people born with the genes to run and I still think that will never be me. However, the state I am in now is not me.

A couple years ago I went snowboarding and injured myself after I tried to land a jump with my left leg completely straight. My leg was useless for quite a while. I physically was not capable of running. I tried to go for a jog 3 months after my ridiculous efforts pretending like I could do tricks on a snowboard. I lasted for 30 seconds and realized that my knee was not even close to healed. I gave up on running and wasn’t that concerned about it. I was already out of the habit and didn’t care that much.

Unfortunately, the careless attitude stuck for a while. I need motivation to run again because being outside exercising makes everyone feel better and function better. I have the time so I really have no excuse not to run. Today will be documented as day one of running. Even though it was a poor attempt it was an attempt none the less. I thought it would be interesting to document each day I run to make note of the progress. Plus, I will feel more of a sense of commitment to get it done every day.

Here is a lovely picture to showcase that I did in fact go running. Even though I stopped twice, only lasted 20 minutes and ran slower than a snail I do look like I just ran a marathon. For my current condition it was a brutal 20 minutes.

Yep, First Picture!

Today feels like it should be a blogging day so here I am! What to blog about…I ditched out on work yesterday because I was sick. I used to think sick days were awesome in the sense that you don’t have to do anything all day long except feel sick. Yesterday I was bored out of my mind. I lounged around on the couch, mindlessly flipped through channels on the TV, slept, slept some more, took medicine, drank lots of liquids and kept wishing I wasn’t so extremely bored with my life that day. I headed back to work today ready to do something productive with my life. I always feel a little awkward showing up the next day for work after having called in sick the day before. I get worried that if I am feeling much better the next day people are suspicious whether or not I was ever really sick in the first place. I want to round up everyone for a faculty meeting and announce that yes in fact I was feeling under the weather and have made a miraculous recovery in the space of 24 hours. Oh well, I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinion and analysis of the situation. The fact of the matter is that the faculty at my school most likely could care less about the cause for my absence from work. I should just stop feeling so paranoid because if need be I could produce a doctor’s note to dispel any discrepancies.

In other news…this blog is in need of a little liveliness. I am not a picture person; therefore I never have any current pictures that showcase my life. I think Steve and I have a total of maybe 10 pictures together. We never think to document any moments or events that are picture worthy. So, I had a hard time finding one that would be appropriate for my first blog picture. Then, I stumbled on this beauty and couldn’t resist.

Background info on this very awkward, yet perfect depiction of Steve and I: I had the brilliant idea of writing thank you cards for wedding gifts and including a picture of us using the gift given. In this picture, I was testing out an apron a neighbor gave us. I also made Steve try it on too. Anyway, Steve was beginning to get bored with the whole picture taking process and decided it was time to start dancing. My sister Natalie snapped this picture at the perfect timing. This is a dance move and facial expression that Steve does often and that is my typical reaction to his attempts at dancing. My look is pretty harsh but it usually only lasts a couple seconds and turns into uncontrollable laughter. He regularly breaks out in mini dance routines in our apartment. I am sure this is information he really wants the entire internet world to know about him. The finale to his dance most likely ends in his attempt to get me involved in the hip shaking. Somehow I always end up getting tossed around like a rag doll.