Look At Me Still Talking When There’s Science To Do
In Grand Rapids… thinking about Barrow (among other things)Archive for Uncategorized
You’re good at finding shortcuts around this part of town.
“Tell Mrs. B you want to keep teaching,” “Please, we like you better!” and “How about ONE more day” are among the things the tricky seventh graders are saying to try to entice me to keep them from returning to a teacher who doesn’t let them talk in class as much as I do. It won’t work for a minute though- I’m done. And untrickable.
The most remarkable part of my success was that I didn’t self-sabatoge. I’m notorious for having difficulty getting out of bed. Just ask Jobby, who took it upon himself to be my wake-up call in Alaska. There is almost nothing that sounds better to me than staying in bed 5… 10…. 15 more minutes. No matter how pleased I am about the upcoming day’s events, I still have to force it. So you can imagine that when my agenda included “7a.m. to 4p.m.: Student Teaching,” the feat was nearly impossible. I forced myself out of bed, I forced myself to go out in the cold ans scrape off my car, and I forced myself to keep driving the whole twelve and a half miles to the school. I even forced myself to go to bed by 10:30, which in itself is remarkable, but I couldn’t stop the constant internal conversation:
Jenny: I could just call in sick.
Other Jenny: No. She already doesn’t like you, don’t push it.
Jenny: I hope the school is on fire when we get there!
Other Jenny: I suppose that would be nice, but remember, you have an observation today, and it WOULD be a pain to reschedule.
Jenny: You’re right. Can I take a nap when we get home?
Other Jenny: Of course… not. You have 75 papers to grade and some science to do.
Jenny: Crap.
I hoped for worse than fire, but there’s no need to go into detail. Now that I have SEVEN days remaining that require me to be physically present at the school, I am coasting… and staying up later. But why shouldn’t I? I have television to watch and rocks to paint and the last month of college to catch up on, and as I’ve mentioned, I’ve done remarkably well until this point. So well, in fact, that some people might think I don’t hate student teaching as much as I’ve reported, but don’t let yourself be fooled. Oh no.
Staying up late on purpose is a novelty at this point. I haven’t even been able to sleep in for days and days, in part because of my trip to Nebraska this past weekend. Picture proof for now, words for tomorrow.
Goodbye Nebraska.
Nbaco
I enjoy using RSS aggregator Google Reader to manage my hectic blog day. This way I can monitor the internet with ease, including blogs that belong to professors that made me get a Google Reader and a WordPress account in order to hone my skills as a blogger, an educator, and a connoisseur of the English language. He probably doensn’t know that I still read the blog, but I bet the link will give it away, as he’s both clever and interested in technology.
Evidently I subscribe to too many crummy blogs, since I am starting to get the same HILARIOUS INTERNET JOKE AND SLASH OR PICTURE AND SLASH OR NEWS STORY from several of my sources, and I should probably cut back.
I think that the deodorant coincidence was just a simple coincidence though. (I love coincidences more than occurrences but not as much as deja vus.) The first half of the coincidence was- well, it wasn’t a coincidence yet. But it was a report on the usefulness of baking soda as deodorant from a woman who is eliminating plastic use from her life. I find it very interesting, since I dislike plastic’s aesthetic qualities. I’m not as concerned with the health issue as much as many activists are… or even at all, really, but my sister DID call me an eco-snob after I told her not to drink bottled water, so you tell me. No no no no don’t tell me, actually. I was just kidding.
The second half was Jorge Garcia!
I will have to be careful in my feed-pruning not to eliminate a blog that my friend Renato and I have been enjoying lately because I was quite pleased with the post from today. The title might as well be “Frequently Contains Bacon.”
Even I contain bacon, today!
I know you only make cheese friends when something’s bothering you.
Most of the words I’ve been writing lately look like this: “the learner will…” “summative assesment” “thesaurus project” “responsibility room.” These words are much much too dull to put on the internet, so the internet, at least in this corner, has remained silent.
Cousin Ellen, my only-13-months-younger former pen-pal, had this to say,
“O cousin, will the duration of your imprisonment soon come to an end? For your dissatisfied weblog entries bring tears to my eyes and sorrow to my heart, and I tire of the absence of joy from your words. I mean this jestingly, with all due respect and love*”
I’ve paraphrased, since our conversation was through instant messaging, and I wish not to embarrass her with a public airing of her Internet Grammar. She does have her dignity, after all. Plus that was over a week ago, and only creepers keep exact records of all conversations.
My student teaching will last until the 17th of April, but I hope to have more “joy” in my “weblog entries” as soon as March 27th, when I’ll have handed all my classes back to my cooperating teacher and I have spring break to look forward to in the first week of April. This won’t come, of course, until AFTER three whole weeks of teaching poetry.
For my feelings regarding poetry, refer to my feelings about hopelessly stupid people, the words “contemporary,” “enthused,” “button,” and “savings,” polo shirts, wearing hats, Homecoming by Cynthia Voight, clicking on links to unknown Youtube videos, computers restarting without being told to do so, making decisions, movie trailers that contain either people falling down or the song “Ice Ice Baby,” picking out movies at Blockbuster, soggy breads, materialism, feelings, shopping, life drawing class, and, of course, student teaching. Among other things.
Contrary to the beliefs of my friend Jeff, who, like Ellen, is concerned about my emotional health and is encouraging me to find “positives” in my student teaching duties, “hate” can be very fulfilling, and more satisfactory than petty feelings like “complacency” or “fake nice.”
Something cheerful coming soon.
*commonly expressed by the phrase and symbol: “lol 
“
I’ve just been cutting onions… I’m making a lasagna.
Since signing up for BASC announcements last summer, I’ve received fewer than one dozen email alerts. This most recent, the first in months, was probably also the most unhelpful. Not that I don’t appreciate it.
I KNOW Papasaurus has been missing his daily dose of Vegetable Medly. Mmmmmm boy.
Twist and shout
I guess when I said “tomorrow” I meant… “sometime in the next 24-50 hours.”
Here, then, is the promised “twist,” and the explanation, for goodness sake, of the mysterious time-sensitive package.
The package was directed to the American-Scandinavian Foundation, and there were actually two packages, one each from Jobby and me. They were applications for grant money; the fellowships offered are up to $23,000 per year, and we’d each budgeted for the full amount.
While in Iceland at the ITEX meetings, Jobby met a woman from Tromso University who was looking for two American students to work with her on ITEX research during the 2009 field season on Svalbard and in the lab in Tromso during the 09-10 academic year. HE was interested, naturally, and so, he thought, was a friend of his who had been in Barrow with him. (I’ll give you a clue, her picture is just to the right, there, under the word “authors.”)
So, I could, potentially, if I get funding, be in Norway starting this coming May, for the duration of one year! I had a very short amount of time to prepare the application, but I was able to get all my references in order, so we’ll see. Fifteen collated copies amounts to masses of paper. (And of course I need to continue looking for funding opportunities.)
Expense-wise, the funding I’d be getting would cover this trip, including the grad classes I’d take during the school year, but there will be some parts that I’d fund personally (gear, and that sort of thing). Plus, if I AM going to be out of the country for a year, do I want to spend another couple months away in Mexico?
I do, but I get it *cough*MomandDad*cough* that it’s expensive, etc etc.
I have to decide in two days.
Or sooner!
I want more details.
For days she neither slept nor ate.
DONE. Phew. That was monstrous.
More to come, naturally. I need a nap.
Is someone asking for a challenge?
I have a Herculean task to perform in the next four days, so no new words until then. I simply must focus my energies elsewhere and try to be thankful that I’m not in Austin this weekend, after all, or ‘twould never get done.
Wish me luck, be back next week!
Everything happens for a reason.
Until I got back to Michigan and was surprised at the speed with with the internet complied with my requests, I didn’t really think I had been dealing with slow internet. Fascinating.
I don’t really plan to stop writing in this blog, even though my favorite summer ever is over. After all, there’s still science to do, and I’m still talking, aren’t I?
The chief trouble is all the things there are to do that aren’t science, namely, education. I begin classes tomorrow, and in a week I’ll have to be in a high school literature classroom every day. I am not looking forward to this. I care nothing for teacher clothes, learning theories, child development, or educational politics. I’m afraid that it won’t be enough to enjoy the company of kids (or high schoolers… who I really don’t care for) or the company of books. I ALWAYS enjoy the company of books, though the company of comparative literature, analytical essays, and POETRY I could expressly do without.
If things were different and some “ifs” were settled and I had more time, then I would be all for escaping from the College of Ed, but I have resigned myself to the notion that it will be good for me. Resignation is healthy, right?
