Passions.

I know I've been AWOL for a while, but I feel bad apologizing for it, especially considering that it probably won't be changing anytime soon. I make no promises to blog more before August 2012. Promises will only disappoint.

That being said, here is a three-panel summary of how I have felt about this quarter (outside my placement classroom, which is full of 32 of the most sassy, curious, grabby, impolite, adorable little 8 year-olds you can imagine, who delight and challenge me every single day).


This is from here. The original can be found here.

I am looking forward immensely to next quarter, which will be three times the amount of classroom work and half the amount of time on campus. Hopefully next quarter I will be visited by the Heavens with professors who are nice, interesting and helpful, rather than a distinctly less appealing smaller combination of the aforementioned qualities.

This fall, I have one professor who is nice and helpful but not interesting; one who is interesting and helpful but not nice; one who is nice and interesting but not helpful; and one who is none of the above. Two are blessedly all three, but one of those classes ended almost a month ago, and one good teacher is hardly sustainable right before Christmas.

Speaking of good teachers, I think I am going to be one. Today I got so excited about a curriculum I would like to plan that I have been researching it for a few hours. I pity those people who haven't found something they love so much they would research it on a Friday night after coming home from a social engagement. What are you waiting for? Go figure it out!

On Third Grade.

Things I remember from Third Grade:

1. I turned 9.

2. We moved from the house I had lived in since I was 5, to the same house I am currently living in.

3. At one point I hid in the school library for an entire afternoon and the school almost called the police.

4. It is the first year I can remember being able to write anything longer than a few sentences.

5. We did a unit about the brain/optical illusions. This is when I learned that those damn Magic Eye posters don't work if you only have one eye.

6. My dad worked nights at the post office, so we had to be quiet during the day so he could sleep (this actually might have been fourth grade).

7. I wore a lot of tie dye and vests. My hair was shoulder length.

8. My best friend Molly and I read palms for play money on Market Day.

9. I got teased for months because a group of boys saw me picking my nose.

10. I was so nervous about the first day of school that I got hives all over my body and had to stay home.

I think about teaching a classroom full of kids that are eight-turning-nine and I feel like they are so young and small. But I don't recall feeling small or young in third grade.

My cooperating teacher is in her sixties. She has a dry, wry sense of humor that I'm curious to see if she shares with the kids. I would categorize her as old school, but in a nice way, not an intimidating way. She's very organized and crafty. She made a joke about growing marijuana to supplement her income during our initial interview. That's when I decided I liked her.

The kids in my class are split about even between boys and girls, and approximately into fourths in terms of race: Hispanic, Black, White and Asian. Most of them were at the same school last year. I don't know why I'm thinking abut them this late on a Sunday. I guess I haven't stopped thinking about them since I saw their list of names.