Welcome Back, Fall

Currently Watching: Planet Earth. (With my roommate who is student teaching in 4th grade, and has to take notes on parts that might be inappropriate to watch in class. I find that so amusing.)

I'm fairly certain that a week ago today it was still summer in Cville, but throughout the week it has crept slowly into the beginnings of Fall. It started subtly enough with some offhand comments about the incredible weather early in the week (brilliantly sunny without the humidity or heat, i.e. perfection) early in the week, but by the weekend I was wearing a cardigan. Fall can be pretty sneaky that way.

Last week was a busy week (I've completely taken on one block of sixth graders + I had a birthday + we had Back to School night) follwed by a busy weekend (my sister came to visit + I was sick + we celebrated my birthday by going to a Polo game), and next week is looking equally busy (I take on a second block of sixth graders!), so I think I will have to stop and remind myself to enjoy the quiet beauty that is Charlottesville seeping into Autumn. This might involve sipping some caramel cider while I write lesson plans, checking out the new Avett Brothers CD (the music video above is a good one, huh?) and wearing my new impulse-buy perfect-teacher-dress from Target. Actually, I am envisioning that all of these things could happen in one sitting...

Melkam Addis Amet!

Currently Writing: tomorrow's lesson plan

Today is Ethiopian New Year's!

In the Ethiopian calendar, there are 13 months -- 12 months of 30 days each, then a 13th shorter month called Pagume, made up of all the leftover days. And in Ethiopia, today is the first day of 2005! (Another fun fact: Ethiopians also tell time differently -- it's six hours off from Western time, because they start counting the day when the sunrises (and, being so close the equator, the sun rises at a pretty regular time the whole year round.) So, for example, our 8:00 would be their 2:00. I'm sure you can imagine the confusion in planning that this can sometimes cause...)

Five years ago, Ethiopians celebrated the millennium, and they celebrated it big. And as that year was a leap year, it meant that New Year's fell on the 12th, which also happens to be my birthday! This meant the day off school and driving to the outskirts of town and midnight to sit on the car's roof rack and watch fireworks shooting up all across the city. Such a good memory.

So melkam addis amet to all my habesha friends!

[photography by Esther Havens, via Pinterest. Isn't it beautiful?]

Tea Party

Currently Listening To: Ronan, Taylor Swift

In honor of my mom's birthday, which was yesterday, I'd like to show a little love to one of her favorite things: tea. She makes it about five times a day, and whenever I am there, she makes me a cup too. A hot cuppa (British style, with milk and sugar...or, as we used to say when we had a little Beatrix Potter tea set that had a little Peter Rabbit illustration on the inside of the mug, "tea to his tail, milk to his ears") always makes me think of home and my mama!

 

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Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you.

Fun Facts.

We watched this in 6th grade yesterday:

I find it super interesting. And I know it directly affects a lot of people, but it definitely affects how we think about how we're educating our kids. As my teacher said, instead of teaching things, it's almost more important to teach how to learn.

In other news, my apartment just went to the gym together and now my muscles are in pain.

In other other news, I am so excited for a three day weekend.

Thought of the Day

Currently Listening To: this Bon Iver remix. Love it.

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too  
strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, 
fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when 
infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child 
who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum 
because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of 
a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” 

- C.S. Lewis

[via Love Does]

[image via le petit bijou]

Weekend

I am feeling good right now, y'all. Because I went into this weekend with no plans, a little unsure about how this whole post-grad (sort of) thing will work out friend-wise (I think this is one of the trickiest things about moving on from undergrad but still being here. How do I figure out how to be in the same place but in a different context?) I ended up having all sorts of fun, though, meeting and hanging out with and new groups of people both Friday and Saturday night. And to top it off, I got to go to Target yesterday, and today I played volleyball and made cookies! Apparently, in some ways, I am fairly easy to please.

I also have been enjoying this song today:

I don't always like Christian contemporary music (it kind of all starts to sound the same...and you know how when you're scanning through radio stations you can always tell the Christian station within about .2 seconds of hearing it? Yeah.). But there are some exceptions, and this is one -- particularly because I feel like what it addresses is pretty deep and so necessary. And it's a cool video. (I also like this one off of their new album...mostly because I think the typography on the video is sweet.)

Here's to another week (and this time a full week) at middle school!

Reporting Live

Currently Listening To: We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, T Swift

Hey friends, I am here at my desk (I have a desk!) during my planning period (I have a planning period!) on Day 2 of middle school.* The thing about student teaching is that there is a progression -- I'll ease into the whole thing (PTL), so this week I'm more observing the actual teaching (although pretty involved in free student work time, answering questions and checking in and such)...which means I don't have things to plan in planning period. Yesterday I doodled for about 20 minutes. Today I brought my computer.

Here are some things I have learned:

• Incoming 6th graders are very lost and confused. I mean, I get it -- bigger school, switching classes, complicated schedule and all that. It's all just so overwhelming for them, and they don't even have lockers yet! One kid this morning had his schedule masking taped to his shirt. I appreciated that...as well as how seriously my teacher untaped the bottom half from his shirt to study it carefully when he asked where his next class was. We've been letting classes out early and sending them to their next classes in groups. The funny thing is, though, that kids are asking me for directions right and left, but I don't know where everything is. These poor children.

• My school is about 10 minutes down a winding country road. A two-lane road. Yesterday, I rolled out just after the buses did. Today, I'll try and avoid that.

• It is very hard to wear heels for a whole day, especially newish ones. Now, I really want to be the kind of teacher who wears heels every day. And at 5' 1 3/4", I feel like this is feasible and understandable, but by lunchtime all I could think about was how many minutes (hours, actually) til I could take them off. I suppose this is something I'll have to work up to.

• To get things out of the vending machine, you have to have Hulk-like strength and shake that thing within an inch of its life. This was learned the hard way, through these 5 steps: 1. I forgot my lunch. 2. I rummaged around my typically cash-less wallet and managed to find 2 quarters. 3. I made my way to the vending machine in the teacher's workroom and was relieved to see they had bags of chips and stuff for 50 cents. 4. I put in my money, punched in the code, and the chips began to move...and didn't fall. As if the universe (or my own forgetfulness this morning -- which we can blame on the fact that I was trying to take the recycling out and give my roommate a ride when I should have been grabbing my lunch -- and the vending machine were conspiring against me.). 5. An older, seasoned teacher walks in, sees my plight, and shakes that machine with much more vigor than I had previously thought she possessed. 6. Chips acquired; I am semi-less hungry. Success story.

• This teaching thing is tiring. When I got home yesterday, I collapsed on the couch, stayed there for two hours (my roommates had Friends on, I dozed a little, it was pleasant) until I had to drag myself up and go to my (THREE HOUR LONG) evening seminar. Thank goodness I had a leftover half of a peanutbutter and oreo milkshake in the freezer in the midst of this. That evening-before-the-first-day-of-school anticipatory Cook-Out run sure paid off.

And tomorrow will be Day 3, and then the weekend. Never before have I looked forward to a weekend with zero plans so much. 

*I didn't actually write this whole thing at school. I am currently on my couch. Turns out I had a 6th grade team meeting to go to during the second half of my planning period. Oh, and the vending machine debacle took place... 

[image via Pinterest]