Fingers crossed

Had my interview today.

The school was interviewing several of the biology students for one or two slots (they still need to get their shit together and figure out classes, particularly since inservice starts next week and classes the week after). When I finally was brought in to the interview (I'm chronically early because I always used to be chronically late. No sense of time), what the interviewer was most interested in was my psychology degree. Apparently the lady is half administrator/half teacher and really wanted to teach an introductory psychology class. The principal wasn't so keen on the idea, knowing the extent of her administrative duties. The interviewer was thrilled when she noticed my degree and therefore wants to team-teach the course. Honestly, I had always planned on setting up a psychology class at the school where I wind up teaching, just because I enjoy the subject (students seem to as well), but the idea that my fluff major might get my a job is pretty hilarious.

I also got to pimp my step-mom during the interview. I used her as an example of how having control over your curriculum leads to a very satisfying job experience, only to find out that the school has a fully-equipped professional kitchen and has been looking for an advanced/ROP culinary arts teacher. Even though my step-mom loves her school, this one where I was interviewing is a great deal closer to her house, so perhaps they'll make her an offer they can't refuse. In any case, the interviewer was very excited at the prospect, so I gave her my step-mom's phone number. Couldn't hurt, right?

Too much homework!

Here, enjoy some lovely pictures from Montana.


Some lake.


We biked up to this waterfall.


A cloud that looked like a malevolent jellyfish.


"Grr. I shall float over you in a menacing manner."

I'm so happy, I just might explode

I've got an interview for an internship position on Tuesday. Not only am I thrilled to be getting an interview at all, this also happens to be at the school where I desperately want to teach.

For the first round of job placements, my program did not send my resume up to the school, and for the last several months I've been quite envious of the people from my program that got jobs up there. Just this morning, I received an e-mail (well, many of us did) from a school inquiring as to who would like to interview. The body of the e-mail did not contain the name of the school, just the initials. The first letter of the school's name happens to coincide with the first letter of another school's name, one where I would prefer not to teach. Reading the e-mail hastily in the morning, I glossed over the initials and thought that the less desirable school was the one that had sent the e-mail. It was only in the middle of class this morning that I had the nervous realization that I might have been confused as to what school had actually e-mailed. I'm so glad I did, as I nearly missed this opportunity!

All together now, singing

Happy birthday to me
I'm turning 23
I still have to go to class
But happy birthday to me

Actually, it really isn't that bad. I got brownies with a candle in them and everyone sang. I feel so loved!

To
continue the birthday celebrations, here is a birthday meme stolen from
Mrs. Chili.

The rules: Go to Wikipedia
and type in your birthday month and day only, then post 5 events, 5
births and one holiday that occurred on your birthday.

These things happened on July 26th:

1788 - New York ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 11th state of the United States.

1878
- In California, the poet and American West outlaw calling himself
"Black Bart" makes his last clean getaway when he steals a safe box
from a Wells Fargo stagecoach. The empty box will be found later with a
taunting poem inside.

1941 - World War II: In response to the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States.

1971 - Apollo Program: Apollo 15 Mission - Launch of Apollo 15.

1991 - Paul "Peewee Herman" Reubens is arrested in a Sarasota, Florida theater for exposing himself.

These folks were born on the same day as I:

1856 - George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1950)

1875 - Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist (d. 1961)

1894 - Aldous Huxley, English-born author (d. 1963)

1928 - Stanley Kubrick, American film director (d. 1999)

1943 - Mick Jagger, English musician (The Rolling Stones)

My holiday:

Cuba - Anniversary of the Moncada Barracks Attack (1953); Day of the National Rebellion

Happy birthday! Now, forward and onward to Chevys! (Any excuse to go there, I swear).

I'm going to get so many more hits for "S&M teacher" now

Today in class we were doing a little exercise to see how schemas and prior knowledge effect interpretation. The teacher put this passage up on the overhead projector:

There are two men. One man is at home wearing a mask, the other is coming home. The other man is afraid of the man in the mask.

We were then asked to interpret what the passage was about. I started giggling and shared my impression.

"They're lovers. One of them is the gimp*. You know, a little S&M."

Totally broke up the class. Definitely made a name for myself with that instructor. Yup, there's the guy she teases for being a bad student, the guy who falls asleep, and that girl with weird sexual practices on her mind.

* Yes, I know. The guy wouldn't be scared of the gimp. Perhaps the guy in the mask is the master.

Waxing philosophical

or

Thoughts I would share with my mom, if only we could discuss religion without getting in a big, fat fight

Recently in class, we were discussing how we need to keep the culture of our students in mind in order to tailor our curriculum to their needs. Being the contrary person that I am, I proposed that, as a science teacher, cultural differences only really come up when teaching evolution, which of course we can't skip just because some people don't believe it happened.

Thinking more about the biblical story of creation, though, couldn't the 7 day creation story just be a metaphor for the gradual creation of the universe? Think of it. If, as some people believe, the bible was written through divine inspiration, then there may have been some ancient guy who was divinely granted knowledge of how the universe came into being. Big bang, evolution... all that good stuff. This guy was then charged with the task of passing on that knowledge to a bunch of iron age tribesmen.

Totally not going to work.

So, like any good teacher or scientist, he uses an analogy (well, in this case a metaphorical story). Light, then heaven and a planet, then land emerges and plants grow, birds and sea creatures come into being, then all the big land animals and finally humanity, which is charged with naming all the animals (a process which is continuing to this day)*. Sounds fairly consistent with physical cosmology and evolution.

See, science and religion can coexist**!

* Thank you Wikipedia.

** Says the atheist. Please don't kill me.

googled

im brilliant - I can tell.

hopping on the bandwagon - You tool.

things to do in the middle of the night - I've got a few ideas. [nudge nudge, wink wink]

obsessive worrying global warming - See! This is why you don't show An Inconvenient Truth to little kids.

abo blood gel card china - I really don't know what you're talking about here.

world of warcraft mangos sexy cloth pack - Are you thinking of The Sims?

We just love teachers around here

birthday gift for a teachre - Is this teacher British? How about some crumpets? Marmite?

teacher s&m - You're a very naughty student! Bad, bad boy!

teachers concentration whiskey 0% - When whiskey level is 0%, teacher concentration level is 100%.

Questions I Can, In Fact, Answer

can i have aa genotype when my mom is o blood type - Nope. [gasp] Are you just discovering the long hidden family secret that you were stolen as an infant?

how many hours to drive to montana - 16.5 hours. If you make quick pit stops, it will take all of 17 hours.

Quote of the day

R: "You need to avoid those high-impact sports, like lap swimming. Stick with mountain biking."

Yes, I managed to mess up my knee while lap swimming. I think it has something to do with the way I thrash around. I had to miss the weekend's mountain biking to allow it time to recover.

Graphic distraction

Being the last week of drastically condensed summer courses, I've been working diligently on my projects and am somewhat brain dead. I also had my quarterly freak out ("Why am I going into teaching? I don't even like kids.") and very first anxiety attack in the middle of class today, so... here! Pretty garden pictures!


My very first piece of corn. It was teeny tiny, but quite delicious. I look forward to eating the rest of the ears.


This watermelon was about the size of a superball last Friday. Now it's about the size of a brain.


Honeydew melon. While they were small, they looked like fuzzy green testicles hanging from the fence. Now, they look alien and somewhat evil.


My first red tomato. Still not red enough to pick. Stop teasing me!

Second-hand news

Today, I just found out that my mom is on her way out of the country for a cruise of Norway. Last I knew, she was still in Spain or Portugal. I found this out from my sister, who was at the airport, returning from visiting my mom.

I had no idea my mom was back in the United States. I had no idea my sister wasn't in San Diego.

This is all coming after finding out from my boss that my dad broke a bunch of his ribs. I am so out of the loop.

"I guess it's just one of those days"

Said the member of our biking posse when I clocked myself with the car door while loading up for our bike ride. Indeed, it turned out to be one of those days, with two people falling. Luckily, only minor scrapes were received and fun was to be had by all.

Almost made our friend's dad black out, though.

My eyes!

When we arrived at the Frisbee golf course this afternoon, we wondered if a strip golf tournament was going on. Probably half of the guys there were walking around without shirts. Most of them probably shouldn't have been, either.

Ripen, damn you!

Last night, I was so desperate to finally eat one of my tomatoes that I made fried green tomatoes. They were quite tasty. Not the same as a nice, ripe tomato, though.

Woo hoo!

IgotatreadmillIgotatreadmillIgotatreadmill!

Oh, do I seem a little excited? It's because my treadmill arrived this afternoon. It's awesome and, well, huge. It's behind the couch (so as to face the TV) and when you're sitting down it feels like someone is looking over your shoulder. Slightly creepy.

Still... No more waiting for other people to finish using the gym equipment. No more having to make small talk with random friendly strangers. No more having to drive to the university to work out. I've got my own treadmill now, bitches.

Excerpts from this weekend's biking

R: "You're going to be riding on the roof of the car on the way home."

Other guy: "No need, there was some fennel. Cleans and makes your ass smell like licorice."

Ah, what wholesome, intellectual conversations we have.

Wedding learning

Just back from a wedding.

Okay, so we were back at 9:30 and have since been watching Strange Brew and drinking whiskey sours. What of it? Anyway, here are the things I learned from our friend's wedding:

1. Have the officiant tell people when to sit down. Everyone rose when the bride walked in, but then no one could tell when to sit back down. You could see people starting to sit down and then stand back up because of peer pressure.

2. Whiskey is a good drink. Previously, whiskey always made me shudder involuntarily, but when the groom dropped off a partial bottle at the table this time I had a glass and it was quite nice. This also explains why the screen seems to be swaying right now. Good thing I wasn't driving, eh?

One good, one bad

Since we don't have class on Monday, a bunch of the gals from my teaching program are getting together for a game night. I'm bringing Apples to Apples.

I still can hardly believe how many awesome people I've met in my teaching program. These aren't just people I hang out with only in class, either. We're constantly hanging out and doing fun things outside of class. When I think of the number of people I hang out with that I met in college (all of which I know from band. I swear, all my friends play saxophone), I'm even more amazed that I've made so many friends so quickly. Of course, it probably helps that we're all in the same classes and most of our classes involve discussion and projects instead of straight test&lecture. Still, the sheer concentration of nice people (and people who are outgoing enough to lure me into conversation) just defies all odds.

While we're on the subject of people, I've got to complain about the crossing of a line. Crossing of The Line, really. That line where things suddenly become uncomfortable. There's a guy at work who is always talking to me. He's in the office diagonal from mine and we can see each other from our desks, so I suppose it makes sense. While we were talking, he offered me the fortune cookie from his lunch. Having just eaten two, I refused, but we wound up talking about fortune cookies anyway.

Guy: "You know how you're supposed to read these, right? The trick?"

Teacher A: [looking around uncomfortably] "Um... yeah. Maybe? I think so." Please don't say it, you're older than my dad.

G: "Well, the way you're supposed to read it is..."

TA: [turns around and walks toward her desk]

G: "... 'between the sheets.' That's how they make sense. 'Between the sheets.'"

TA: Noooooo. [grabs cup and heads to water cooler]

See that there? That was the line. Totally crossed it. I could see it happening, but there was no way to stop it. Mind the line!

Read this

This guy is amazing. Seriously, how many people with a 9th grade education do you know who build windmills in order to power their own houses?

Happy 4th of July

To celebrate the holiday, here are some pictures of towns with interesting names that we passed on our way to Missoula. Isn't America interesting?


Sulphurdale.


Lima.


Phosphate.


Fillmore. As you might have guessed from the name, this place was essentially a rest stop.


Butte. It's still funny.

Sadly, I was unable to get a picture of Zzyzx. Happy 4th, everyone!

Red badge of courage

I'm a real mountain biker now. I've got the wounds to prove it.


(I've also got some rather impressive bruises now, but this photo was taken right after I got home, before they had a chance to really bloom).

We were on an afternoon ride at the trail near our house. As I was traveling down a narrow and rocky descent, my front tire slipped off the path. I tried to get it back on, then bailed, as I could tell that bike was going down. I wound up doing a belly flop onto the path. R was out of site, so I got myself up and rode the rest of the way through the narrow section to where he had stopped. I got off my bike, bleeding, and started to tell him what happened. I passed out and fell (towards the descending side of the hill), my bike falling on top of me. R said that my life flashed before his eyes, and he leaped into action, pulling the bike off of me and helping me over to the other, safer side of the path. To me though, one fuzzy moment after I was looking at my bloody knee, I found myself sitting by the side of the path, trying to figure out whether or not R had noticed that I had just experienced some missing time. I'm always trying to play it cool like that.

In any case, R bandaged me up and, after a rest, we were back on our way. Can't just poop out in the middle of nowhere, now can I?

By the way...

I was reading this article about Post-it notes and was moved to make a confession.

I don't think I could live without Post-it notes. Actually, I'm pretty sure my family would be unable to function without Post-it notes. Notes on the bathroom mirrors were a primary form of communication in my house for a very long time, and even now my mom still sends me messages on Post-it notes (yes, in the mail). I've got a pretty good stockpile in a little basket in my desk drawer, tiny tabs filling my cookbooks, and notes to myself covering the edges of my computer monitor (the new bathroom mirror). When I can't find a note, I'm reduced to writing on my hand, which doesn't hold up well to hand washing.

I will probably wind up copying my host teacher and using Post-it notes for my seating chart. Long live the Post-it!

The world needs balance

Ordered a treadmill, finished a jar of Nutella. See? Balance.

googleage

The teaching field is going downhill

neat ideas for a teacher's weddings - Hopefully, they will be the same sorts of ideas one would find for a non-teacher wedding. The ruler, apple, and pencil motif is for classroom use only.

teacher of s&m in las vegas - Umm... Yeah. Wrong kind of teacher.

a goo teacher - You're making me cry.

am i too close with teacher - Matching outfits and outrageous text messaging bills? Too close.

Too many people not using their brains

what does silence is the greatest teacher mean (anonymous) - [crickets]

the good thing i have learned in the past - I don't think I can help you with this one.

thoughts on cooking - Do you like to cook? Then say, "I think I like cooking."

what to say in gratitude to grandparents? - Thank you?

smoke detector won't stop chirping - Um... Yeah. If you die in a fire, this totally gets a Darwin award mention.

shelving books alphabetizing by author fiction - Well, you start with Alan Aardvark...

Medical problems

people who intentionally break things phobia - Best search ever.

Big Brother is watching

is making a wedding mix cd illegal - The real question is, which one of your guests is going to rat on you.

wedding favors mix cds illegal - Singing now! "Paranoia, paranoia. Every body's coming to get me..."

WTF?

national hugging day crotch - No crotch hugs!

hair perm orange, lime lemon - Yummy.