Archive for 2011

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

It’s All About the Hustle

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

You know you haven’t posted enough when you can’t remember your WordPress login! Sheesh!

I’m an NPR junkie.  If I didn’t love Farm Boy I’d stalk Ira Glass. However I could do without MEEEshell Norris. WTH is a MEEshell for Michele. lol

Friday they featured the upcoming season of How to Make it in America on HBO.

 

I don’t have HBO, but it is pretty much a show about two dudes trying to make it in the fashion business in New York.  I watched all of the Season 1 recaps, and I’ve got to say I want to move to New York, buy vintage tees and turn them into something too.

Like this,

Or THIS ONE!

I think that t-shirt is stinkin awesome, but I write like a HIPPO with Arthritis as my friend at OH BOY Fourth Grade Blog would say! She is one awesome Teacher Barbie!!!!

Ok, my attention issues just kicked in. Back to the story people!

SO the interview talked about making it in America and the inspiration for the show.

Their theme is it is all about the hustle.

This has been the theme of my life this school year. It is all about the hustle.

Picture that being a stack of the J word (journals).

 

 

Now, don’t get me wrong. I had to look up the dictionary definition of hustle just to make sure it doesn’t really mean something durrty.

Ol Meirriam-Webster had this to say:

1 : jostle, shove b : to convey forcibly or hurriedly  : to urge forward precipitately
2  to obtain by energetic activity <hustle up new customers>b : to sell something to or obtain something from by energetic and especially underhanded activity <hustling the suckers>c : to sell or promote energetically and aggressively<hustling a new product>d : to lure less skillful players into competing against oneself at (a gambling game) <hustle pool>

The online Urban Dictionary had this to say (I shiz you not, there is an online Urban Dictionary)

1. hustler
someone who knows how to get money from others. selling drugs,rolling dice,pimpin. your hustlin for that money.
2. Hustler
People who are forced to use their Brains to make it in this world.
They outsmart the smart, cunning, and has streetsmarts. They know how to get money and is skilled at doing it to. Also they can be so sly that they can sell you stuff you don’t need.
3.  Hustler
Someone that makes money in any way they can/want.

 

I think I’ve been hurriedly shoving lots of work around for a few weeks now.  The other definitions just made me laugh.

 

So my question is, will I Make it in America doing what I’m doing? I feel like all my hustling (in a completely legal, non-drug related way) is getting me nowhere.  Will staying up all night writing comments on lessons I hurriedly taught have much meaning to my students? Am I teaching them all the wrong things?  This Teacher Barbie needs a new attitude and a clothing line. I kid.

I don’t know. I’m still not a Happydally.

 

I am however, a DANCING DALLY!   You must click and dance. Nothing like watching people in the 70′s dancing to make you LYAO.

 

[youtube gFz2WkVAk38 640 510 ]

 

 

What is the most embarrassing dance you recall being into? I hate to say we did the Macerena a lot in High School.

Tags: ,
Posted in Teacher Barbies, Uncategorized | No Comments »

So True

Monday, September 26th, 2011

 

 

 

I haven’t had much time to write. Between teaching, grading, planning, BS’ing and all that jazz, I’ve lost track of things.

My favorite quote in school was an Eleanor Roosevelt quote that said, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

I’m dreaming of pretty pictures, fall weather, pumpkin butter, and fun.

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Teacher Barbies, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

I’m Drooling

Saturday, September 24th, 2011

via Weeseeworld.com

 

Someone please make ALL of these for me.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Headache

Wednesday, September 21st, 2011

via bforbel blog

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

TEDx

Monday, September 19th, 2011

This is on the back of a TED employee’s business card.  I think I am going to make a sign for my classroom door that says this.

I did something crazy tonight. I applied to attend the San Antonio TEDx conference in October.  Unfortunately applications are due today so I hurriedly typed a lot of mumbo jumbo in hopes they will at least glance twice at my name.

Who knows.  I wouldn’t say my proudest moment was something to share with anyone. I mean, I only make it through each day with 23 crazy kids and they all leave alive at the end…lol no seriously. It is a scary job. It is a dirty job. Did anyone smell the barf smell coming out of the first grade pod today!? YUCK.

I’m also very proud of my big idea. Of course, I can’t share it yet, because then it won’t seem so big. But maybe in a year or two.  And no, I don’t plan to run for Texas Governor. Not in the next 2 years. Maybe the next 12.

Here is the list of speakers. Gordon Hartman, creator of Morgan’s Wonderland is awesome. I heard him speak last year and he was so personable.

Eddie Aldrete

Senior Vice President, IBC Bank
“Fixing Our Broken Immigration System: The Time is Now”

Steven M. Bachrach

Dr. D. R. Semmes Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Trinity University
“Remix in Science: Data Exchange Revolutionizes Scientific Publishing”

Janie Barrera

Founding President and CEO of ACCION Texas
“A Small Hand up, A Huge Impact: Why Micro is Macro”

Brian Brushwood

Founder, Scam School
“Bizarre Magic and the Science of Deception”

Edward A. Cavazos

Partner, Bracewell & Giuliani LLP, co-author “Cyberspace and the Law”
“The Collapsing Magic Circle: Laws, Rules and Social Contracts in Virtual Worlds”

José Angel García

Director of Operations, Grupo Garel, Founder Huracanes Tampico, LNBP
“Slam Dunk: How Investing in Sports Boosts the Economy and the Future for Children in Tampico”

Gordon Hartman

Philanthropist and Founder, Morgan’s Wonderland
“You Only Are Disabled in an Environment that Makes You That Way”

Rex Hausmann

Gallery Director of Hausmann Millworks: A Creative Community
“Community as Art, Art in Society”

Benny Lewis

Independent Irish Polyglot
“From Speech Therapy to Octo-lingual: Hacking the Code to Foreign Language”

Scott Metzger

Founder & CEO, Freetail Brewing Co.
“The World Doesn’t Need Another Fast Food Franchise”

Ezekiel Ndikumana

Pastor and Burundian Refugee
“Keeping Culture Alive: A Refugee’s Story of Survival, Strength & Hope through Music”

Matthew T. Pirko

Principal, JesRico Consulting, a cyber security consulting firm
“Cyber City USA: Have You Jumped Into the Pool Yet?”

Gurvinder P. “G.P.” Singh

CEO, Paras Capital Management
“Entrepreneurial Journey: From Expert Technologist to Servant Leader”

Sichan Siv

Former Ambassador, United Nations
“From the Killing Fields to the White House”

Pamela Taylor

CEO, Dress for Success San Antonio
“Helping Disadvantaged Women, One Suit at a Time”

Juan Tejeda

Instructor of Music & Mexican-American Studies at Palo Alto College
“Xicanismo and Tejano Music: Local Music, Global Identity & Vision”

Elaine Wolff

Editor, Plaza De Armas
“The (Almost) Totally Transparent Journalist”

Are you a TED talks fan? Of course I love Sir Ken Robinson…not as much as he loves himself.  What would you write if you had to answer the question “What are you most proud of?”

 

Tags: ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

An Education

Sunday, September 18th, 2011

 

Yesterday I found this story on the New York Times page.   The gist of the story is three American siblings attended an experimental school in Moscow where instruction is only in Russian and classes are videotaped to improve teaching for four years as their father worked as the Russian correspondent for the Times.

The video is fascinating.  If you have time please watch all 10 minutes. If you have more time, please read all six pages.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/magazine/my-familys-experiment-in-extreme-schooling.html

I struggle a great deal with being a teacher.  There are many reasons for this. For starters, I grew up with a wonderful rolemodel…my mother. She is one of the best early childhood teachers ever. Second, I student taught, then worked abroad in a progressive international school.  My first real job was in my ideal teaching situation. I then came back to Oklahoma where I worked in a small public school with high socio-economic status and parent support (financially and academically) out the wazooo. This school didn’t focus on test scores. My spoiled career continued.

I was then shipped across the US to South Carolina. Poor school, poor kids, testing crazy, but they were still focused on best-practices and gave teachers immense amounts of professional development and control over the curriculum planning (probably why the district was so poor…they spent a lot).

Next comes Texas.  Rich district, rich kids, high achievers. Robot teaching. Robot kids. I was miserable.

We all know I moved to the SA for Farm Boy, but only because the job seemed ideal. Teaching GT gave me a chance to focus on something other than rote testing skills.

So much for that.

Today I’ve been sitting on my couch grading since 8:30 a.m.  It is now almost noon.  As I look at the work I’m grading, the lack of authentic assessment makes me ill.  Math worksheet after math worksheet.  Their creative writing for Constitution Day littered with spelling so poor I can’t figure out the meaning (forget complete sentences…).  Journal entries that are pretty much just carbon copies of what I modeled, but I don’t even care because I know someone will be looking at these and I don’t want them to look like crap.

This is not why I became a teacher.

SO I watch this video and I think something has to change. Mostly me. I don’t know if I will be able to do the teaching I love as long as I teach at a public school in the United States.

I’m still not a happydally.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/magazine/my-familys-experiment-in-extreme-schooling.html

 

 

Tags: , ,
Posted in Teacher Barbies, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

This American Life

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Glass half…

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

I can’t tell if this is a glass half-full and enjoying the surf kind of shot, or glass half-empty and I need to bury my head in the sand and die picture.

I guess we get up each day and have to make that choice.

Something strange has happened to me in the past month.  I am waking up at ridiculous hours (4:30-5:15 a.m. most days and often without the alarm) with this HUGE burst of motivation. Not the happy kind. That would be too easy.  More like the I just had a dream about the never ending wild monkey to do list I have to do and I am frantically running as fast as I can to get at least one thing done before 7 am or I will never get caught up by December (my goal at this point).  That was a run-on sentence. That is how my days feel. They run on and on and I have brief moments of sleep and then I get up and run on and on and well, you get the point.

I am failing miserably at all my big goals.  I haven’t ran, slept, read, volunteered, or done anything of importance other than work for weeks. I am not a happydally.

I also feel worried about my students. I feel they don’t get enough individual attention and I fly through the day just trying to check off something on the lesson plans and cram something in those damn journals so that I don’t feel like a loser.

blah blah blah

I’m not supposed to complain on my blog, but this is more like a Tuesday confession on a Wednesday.

 

 

 

Posted in Teacher Barbies | No Comments »

Tuesday Confessions: Gossip Girl

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

I have a confession. I love reading British tabloids online.

Ok, really just one- the Daily Mail.

I brew my cup of coffee in the Keurig, and turn on my laptop each day.

Who wouldn’t want to wake up to this?

Kim Kardashian cheering on her little sister at fashion week is big news people!

Don’t even get me going on crazy eyed Michelle Bachman, Rick Perry,  and the Tea Party crazies.

One thing I love is that they’ve started recapping the Bachelor on here! I’ve died and gone to reality tv heaven.

I don’t know how this got started. One day I read and then I was hooked. I usually only know about half of the people they are gossiping about, which doesn’t make it any better-just my strange justification.

 

Do you read any trashy gossip sites or magazines?

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Be Yourself

Thursday, September 8th, 2011
http://www.howjoyful.com/

via How Joyful Blog

 

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »