Now is not really the time that I should be blogging. My brain seems rather muddled and foggy, but I wanted a break from the laundry, dishes, cooking, and general hum-drum cleaning of the house, so I told myself I would create a new post.
(By the way, if you are an English major, I'm sure you just cringed at the last sentence. I do believe it was a major run-on. See, I told you, now was not the time to blog.)
Now let the assortment of crazy begin:
Miss Randi had a birthday yesterday. The big number 12! She received her first cell phone, and she now has a better phone than Chris or myself. We said we would never be "those" parents. Once again, I need to remind myself not to make such parenting statements until that particular time period of parenthood has passed for us, and we did not actually do the thing we said we would "never" do. (Another run-on for you English buffs.)
I attended workshops and YAG writing Tuesday thru Thrusday, and of course spent those days with a couple of heavyweights. Although my original post stated that it must be difficult to live with a heavyweight, I must say that I have grown quite fond of my new found friends. (Of course one cannot turn against there own kind. It would simply be wrong.) I spent at least 1.5hrs discussing the actuarial sciences and nuclear power plants with one of them on Wednesday and an 1.25hrs over lunch on Thursday discussing the lack of rigor within most graduate level education programs. I must say they allow me to be "me". They do not get tired or bored with my conversation. They listen intently and respond as do I to their conversations. I do believe that I am going to like my new working environment. :-)
Speaking of employment. I must say that one of my biggest pet peeves is when people will not do their jobs appropriately or in an appropriate time frame. That is all I will say on that matter. (Please note that this statement has nothing to due with anything or anyone involved in my current employment situation.)
It has come to my attention that I need to work on controlling my frustration. I have noticed that when I become frustrated by a source outside of my control, i.e. someone not doing their job, the frustration begins to control the rest of my day. I become unable to think about other things clearly; I eat uncontrollably due to my stress level, which then of course makes me even more frustrated.
In the realm of frustration, I have also discovered that one conversation with one woman for less than five minutes can condemn my good day to hell. And no, this has nothing to do with work/employment. This one falls to the "family" category. (Told you this post was full of crazy.)
That's about all of the randomness/complaining I can stand for now. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
July 28, 2012
July 24, 2012
Life with a "Heavy Weight"
It seems that I have been making a number of realizations these days. Maybe it is due to boredom and more time to think reflectively or maybe it is the simple fact that I am actually becoming a "grown-up"..lol. My father always said you were never grown until you were 30, and honestly once I hit 30 I personally bumped that number to 35. Today's realization requires a short story:
I attended a mathematics workshop today, MSTAR Implementation Tools, to be exact. Now at this workshop there were other mathematics teachers, of course, with the majority being middle school teachers. You will often find people with various mathematical interests at such workshops. You will encounter those that focus predominantly on education and its pedagogy, along with the other extreme of people who focus more on mathematical content than pedagogy. (Sub-realization number one of day: It seems that I am always drawn to those, or at least find myself in close proximity with those, who weigh heavily in the content area realm.)
Those who are content heavy, lets call them "heavy-weights" for lack of a better term, tend to be very passionate people. Not necessarily passionate in the emotional context but in the academic context. What I mean by this is that they tend to know and understand certain aspects and concepts in great depth and detail. They do not necessarily know about multiple areas just one or two particular areas. They find little niches (like mathematics) that they delve into and learn everything they can about it. Once they have done this on a subject matter they tend to discuss these topics at great length. For instance they may be able to discuss the recycling process for PET 1 plastics but be unable to detect when someone is no longer interested in a conversation.
While interacting with a "heavy-weight" throughout the day, I began to ponder the thought of what life would be like had I married a "heavy-weight". Someone who was high strung and who would drone on and on for hours explaining a subject matter that really did not pertain to anything that anyone cared about at all. How exhausting that would be!
Then it hit me......
Oh dear......
Poor Chris.....
My poor, sweet, relaxed Chris, who does not drone on and on. Who finds and explores many interests not just picking and digging a topic to death.
He has to live with a neurotic, high strung "heavy weight". He must endure hours and hours of discussion (usually one-sided, he getting the raw end of the deal) on subject matters he really doesn't care anything about. (Sub-realization number two and three of the day: This is why people do not invite us to gatherings, and if invited to gatherings, I often find that Chris is the only one who can be around me for any length of time.)
How does he do it? How does he listen to me day in and day out? How does anyone co-exist with a "heavy-weight" for any substantial amount of time?
Sigh....
I suppose I should research the matter and discuss my findings with Chris. ;-)
I attended a mathematics workshop today, MSTAR Implementation Tools, to be exact. Now at this workshop there were other mathematics teachers, of course, with the majority being middle school teachers. You will often find people with various mathematical interests at such workshops. You will encounter those that focus predominantly on education and its pedagogy, along with the other extreme of people who focus more on mathematical content than pedagogy. (Sub-realization number one of day: It seems that I am always drawn to those, or at least find myself in close proximity with those, who weigh heavily in the content area realm.)
Those who are content heavy, lets call them "heavy-weights" for lack of a better term, tend to be very passionate people. Not necessarily passionate in the emotional context but in the academic context. What I mean by this is that they tend to know and understand certain aspects and concepts in great depth and detail. They do not necessarily know about multiple areas just one or two particular areas. They find little niches (like mathematics) that they delve into and learn everything they can about it. Once they have done this on a subject matter they tend to discuss these topics at great length. For instance they may be able to discuss the recycling process for PET 1 plastics but be unable to detect when someone is no longer interested in a conversation.
While interacting with a "heavy-weight" throughout the day, I began to ponder the thought of what life would be like had I married a "heavy-weight". Someone who was high strung and who would drone on and on for hours explaining a subject matter that really did not pertain to anything that anyone cared about at all. How exhausting that would be!
Then it hit me......
Oh dear......
Poor Chris.....
My poor, sweet, relaxed Chris, who does not drone on and on. Who finds and explores many interests not just picking and digging a topic to death.
He has to live with a neurotic, high strung "heavy weight". He must endure hours and hours of discussion (usually one-sided, he getting the raw end of the deal) on subject matters he really doesn't care anything about. (Sub-realization number two and three of the day: This is why people do not invite us to gatherings, and if invited to gatherings, I often find that Chris is the only one who can be around me for any length of time.)
How does he do it? How does he listen to me day in and day out? How does anyone co-exist with a "heavy-weight" for any substantial amount of time?
Sigh....
I suppose I should research the matter and discuss my findings with Chris. ;-)
July 21, 2012
A Clean House... Well, A Cleaner House
House cleaning...hmmm...a subject most of us must approach, but we dread.
I suppose this post actually began to formulate somewhere around 1am this morning. As I drifted off to sleep in the wee hours of the morning, I decided that the children and I would clean the house when we awoke. As the day got started and the cleaning began, I realized that "house cleaning" was something that had changed drastically over the years for me.
When I first started out as a wife, I had a nice little schedule of house cleaning, you know the one where everything gets cleaned at least once a week. The toilets and showers must be scrubbed, the floors swept and mopped. Everything lived on a cleaning schedule. For some reason at that point in my life I felt that this cleaning schedule was highly important. When Randi came along, this schedule continued if not intensified. It was though I became a control freak cleaning Nazi.
Then along came Toni and Bayleigh, and well.......
Hmmmm....how shall I put it? I just wanted to survive..lol.
For about six months of my life I had 3 children under the age of 3yrs. In my possession I had a 2.5yr old and two newborns. For some reason housecleaning became less of priority. I'll be honest, I don't remember a lot about the first 18 months with all of them. I don't even know if the house ever was cleaned, let alone where the schedule of cleaning duties went. I can merely remember days when I would lay my head down at night and thank the Lord that they were fed, clean, and sleeping, at least for a couple of hours.
By the time Cody joined us, (Randi 5yrs, Toni and Bayleigh 3yrs), I had pretty much adopted the current cleaning schedule that is now in place in our home: When it needs cleaning, we clean it, but we sure don't worry over it. We have four children, and they are just that, children. They laugh, they run, they play, and of course they make messes. That's what they do, and I have vowed to let them be children for as long as they can. We still clean the bathrooms, mop and vacuum the floors, and take care of other odds and ends, but there is no longer a schedule, and if it doesn't get done today, God knows it will still be there tomorrow. We clean up the spills when they happen in order to make room for new messes. Their lives and mine will not be consumed with whether or not our home is spotless. Life is too short to be consumed with cleaning, and much like the days when Toni, Bayleigh, and Randi were tiny, when I lay my head upon my pillow, I thank the Lord that they are fed, clean, and sleeping.
I suppose this post actually began to formulate somewhere around 1am this morning. As I drifted off to sleep in the wee hours of the morning, I decided that the children and I would clean the house when we awoke. As the day got started and the cleaning began, I realized that "house cleaning" was something that had changed drastically over the years for me.
When I first started out as a wife, I had a nice little schedule of house cleaning, you know the one where everything gets cleaned at least once a week. The toilets and showers must be scrubbed, the floors swept and mopped. Everything lived on a cleaning schedule. For some reason at that point in my life I felt that this cleaning schedule was highly important. When Randi came along, this schedule continued if not intensified. It was though I became a control freak cleaning Nazi.
Then along came Toni and Bayleigh, and well.......
Hmmmm....how shall I put it? I just wanted to survive..lol.
For about six months of my life I had 3 children under the age of 3yrs. In my possession I had a 2.5yr old and two newborns. For some reason housecleaning became less of priority. I'll be honest, I don't remember a lot about the first 18 months with all of them. I don't even know if the house ever was cleaned, let alone where the schedule of cleaning duties went. I can merely remember days when I would lay my head down at night and thank the Lord that they were fed, clean, and sleeping, at least for a couple of hours.
By the time Cody joined us, (Randi 5yrs, Toni and Bayleigh 3yrs), I had pretty much adopted the current cleaning schedule that is now in place in our home: When it needs cleaning, we clean it, but we sure don't worry over it. We have four children, and they are just that, children. They laugh, they run, they play, and of course they make messes. That's what they do, and I have vowed to let them be children for as long as they can. We still clean the bathrooms, mop and vacuum the floors, and take care of other odds and ends, but there is no longer a schedule, and if it doesn't get done today, God knows it will still be there tomorrow. We clean up the spills when they happen in order to make room for new messes. Their lives and mine will not be consumed with whether or not our home is spotless. Life is too short to be consumed with cleaning, and much like the days when Toni, Bayleigh, and Randi were tiny, when I lay my head upon my pillow, I thank the Lord that they are fed, clean, and sleeping.
July 20, 2012
The Draft Feature
I must admit that blogging is not easy for me. It's the whole time factor and compiling all of ones thoughts at one time that tends to be difficult for me. For me blogging is about reflection, look back on what happened throughout the day. In the logically in which I live in, this means that one should blog at the end of the day, when all of the events are finished. Just picture it, sitting down at the computer before bed and typing of all the wonderful activities that have happened throughout the day. Hmmm..interesting picture, but far from the truth. You see my end of the day is nothing like that and yours is probably not either. Generally my end of the day comes sometime after 10 pm and if there isn't some type of school work or studying that I need to do, I'm exhausted and can't remember half of what happened nor do I care to present it in some nice fashion for others to read. This my friends is why I gave up on blogging so long ago.
However, this time around, I have changed tactics. I have decided to use the draft feature. Why did I not think of this before you ask? Well, aside from stupidity. That's just not the way my brain works. I thought blogging = reflection = end of the day. That was it, straight forward, no deviating. Sometimes it takes me a lengthy amount of time to change a viewpoint. Now, after reevaluation, I have decided that reflections can be done at various times of the day by simply using the draft feature and posted all at one time. Yes, I realize this is not a big discovery or the draft feature would have never been developed. I am happy though that I have decided to adopt a new system to my blogging. Maybe this way I can look back on the events of my days years from now when I can no longer them.
Think I'll put this post to publish a little early tonight. I have miles to run before bed and there is still laundry to fold. (Well, there's always laundry to fold.) In closing this post I'd like to say that I am thankful for my husband. I know, I know, a lot of people like to say what they are thankful for, and yes, that does get old. However, I am not usually one that expresses thanks easily. He works hard at whatever he does, and strives to be a good father, and for that I am very thankful. Not to mention, he puts up with my neurotic tendencies.
However, this time around, I have changed tactics. I have decided to use the draft feature. Why did I not think of this before you ask? Well, aside from stupidity. That's just not the way my brain works. I thought blogging = reflection = end of the day. That was it, straight forward, no deviating. Sometimes it takes me a lengthy amount of time to change a viewpoint. Now, after reevaluation, I have decided that reflections can be done at various times of the day by simply using the draft feature and posted all at one time. Yes, I realize this is not a big discovery or the draft feature would have never been developed. I am happy though that I have decided to adopt a new system to my blogging. Maybe this way I can look back on the events of my days years from now when I can no longer them.
Think I'll put this post to publish a little early tonight. I have miles to run before bed and there is still laundry to fold. (Well, there's always laundry to fold.) In closing this post I'd like to say that I am thankful for my husband. I know, I know, a lot of people like to say what they are thankful for, and yes, that does get old. However, I am not usually one that expresses thanks easily. He works hard at whatever he does, and strives to be a good father, and for that I am very thankful. Not to mention, he puts up with my neurotic tendencies.
July 19, 2012
Some Battles Should Never Be Fought
I started teaching 13 years ago, and when I took my first teaching job I told myself I was only doing this until we relocated to an area where I could do something else, something that I wanted to do. Teaching was never in my plan for a career. It was probably the last thing that I ever wanted to do.
As I took up the daunting task of attempting to study for an actuarial exam this summer, I realized that every summer since I began teaching I have been looking for a different career opportunity. Initially I didn't think much of this realization. This episode of "career searching" is a path I have been down many times. It wasn't until about a week into studying that I had yet another realization.
Having taught mathematics all these years now, I have the ability to discern whether a child will struggle in mathematics approximately 4 to 6 weeks after observing their mathematical ability within my classroom. I do not need to look at past scores, it just becomes obvious. There are various techniques I use to help the child depending on the content to be mastered. I have also developed the ability to dis-aggregate data, evaluate curriculum, and vertically align grade levels of mathematics. I have spent years studying how curriculum is developed, how children learn mathematics, along with a multitude of other topics about teaching.
Here I sat forcing myself to learn new material for an actuarial exam when merely two weeks before I had easily produced multiple curriculum documents for the year. Why had I not seen it all these years? I am not meant to do applied mathematics. I have always favored pure mathematics over applied. And where else can I express this fondness of pure mathematics, but in the classroom? Teaching mathematics is what I was meant to do. All these years I have been denying it, and there the fact stood staring me stone cold in the face. I was meant to teach math.
It's funny how sometimes it takes years for us to realize things, and to understand some battles should never be fought.
As I took up the daunting task of attempting to study for an actuarial exam this summer, I realized that every summer since I began teaching I have been looking for a different career opportunity. Initially I didn't think much of this realization. This episode of "career searching" is a path I have been down many times. It wasn't until about a week into studying that I had yet another realization.
Having taught mathematics all these years now, I have the ability to discern whether a child will struggle in mathematics approximately 4 to 6 weeks after observing their mathematical ability within my classroom. I do not need to look at past scores, it just becomes obvious. There are various techniques I use to help the child depending on the content to be mastered. I have also developed the ability to dis-aggregate data, evaluate curriculum, and vertically align grade levels of mathematics. I have spent years studying how curriculum is developed, how children learn mathematics, along with a multitude of other topics about teaching.
Here I sat forcing myself to learn new material for an actuarial exam when merely two weeks before I had easily produced multiple curriculum documents for the year. Why had I not seen it all these years? I am not meant to do applied mathematics. I have always favored pure mathematics over applied. And where else can I express this fondness of pure mathematics, but in the classroom? Teaching mathematics is what I was meant to do. All these years I have been denying it, and there the fact stood staring me stone cold in the face. I was meant to teach math.
It's funny how sometimes it takes years for us to realize things, and to understand some battles should never be fought.
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