Oh, Happy Day

I'm bad at resolutions.

We you'd like to travel back in blog land, this post states my three resolutions for 2010:
I did not read Sense and Sensibility, and if you saw either my hairbrush or my itunes, you would know I did not accomplish either of these (though the hairbrush thing at least lasted through the summer). Also, unlisted in that post was "get my driver's license" which was accomplished.

I thought I'd make a new list, but that is obviously just setting myself up for disappointment on January 1 2012. My one and only concrete resolution for 2011 is to find a full time job in my field by December 31 2011. I think that's a fair goal.



So, 2010.There were some really rough spots, but I can honestly say I learned who my true friends were this year. There were times when I needed people, and those people were there for me. There were times I called a friend at 3 am, got a response, and together we made it through that hard time. And I did the same for them. Then there were plenty of times when people who I thought were my friends stood me up repeatedly, talked about me behind my back and were all around mean, accusing, and immature. So, here's to sticking with the people who want you in their lives.

On a more lighthearted note, some of the highlights of 2010 include:
-Living in Akron with 3 of the best friends ever where there was nonstop adventure, Lady Gaga, Pokemon, Sabrina, political references I did not understand and witty one liners. I would never ever ever ever ever again live in that neighborhood, and most certainly not that house with awful neighbors, ants, permanently boiling hot water, etc., but I do not regret for a minute my choice of housemates :)
-The end of my Circle K life, which is still a little bittersweet, since I don't want to see anything I worked on in the club fall to pieces. I hope we left it in good hands.
-Camp. It was the toughest summer of my life for a variety of reasons. It was a lot of work, but again, I don't regret it at all. Lessons learned this summer: 1. 110 degree weather is uncomfortable. 100 wet people in hot dining hall is uncomfortable. The chafing that comes with wet clothes is uncomfortable. Having to pee all the time from the amount of water consumption is uncomfortable. 2. Always check your sleeping facilities for a possibility of falling.
-Getting a car! Possibly the biggest challenge in my life previously was not having a reliable form of transportation, which made an impact on school, work, friends, everything. That has changed.
-Student teaching. It was great. I don't know what else to say but I couldn't have asked for better kids.
-Graduation. I graduated with the honors college and with high honors, both of which I wasn't sure i could do 4 years ago. So, hooray me.


I don't know so much how this blog fits into professional teacher life, so 2011 may be the end of it. I've tried googling myself, and I don't post this link many places, but I'm still a little concerned. So we'll see how this all plays out. Also, my friend and I have discussed the possibility of creating some sort of 90's blog (perhaps sort of like Things 90s Kids Realize ). I can see this being a definite possibility :)


So, that's all for now. Please enjoy this video of a cat cuddling a bear:

Henry Builds A Cabin

I haven't been updating much, since I'm trying to keep any student teaching experiences pretty far from the internet. And since I teach every day, and then come home and work on lessons and grading the rest of the time, I don't have a lot of not student teaching related experiences to blog about.

I do have a little bit to share today. My students are just finishing up a book on Henry David Thoreau and Walden, and I was searching the internet to try and find images to show them, when I stumbled upon this piece of greatness:

This is one in a series of picture books intended for 2-3 graders. They are to serve as a basic intro to Transcendentalism. Henry is a bear who wants to build a cabin in the woods, and his friends Emerson and Alcott think he's silly (as in Ralph Waldo and Louisa May). The summary on Amazon shows it hits on 3 of the 4 main points of transcendentalism (simplicity, nature, and self-reliance...it's missing the spirituality bit). Do I want to buy this and read it to all future classrooms as an into the literary movement? YES! Do I want to buy this and read it every single day to myself? YES!

Graduation is in 8 weeks and then who knows what will happen! So far, the plan is to ride a bus to New Jersey to visit Eagle around January 12th-ish, and be there for her birthday, and then visit American Girl Place and then Camp Reunion! It's too early to be counting down the days, but it certainly is something to look forward to!





This is the first post that has been tagged with "bears." How did that happen??