fun stuffs – Page 3 – Teachers Have Lives Too!

08/25/2013 Erika S. fun stuffs, outfits, trips

The last hurrah, part 1: Savannah

Summer here in Brooklyn is on its way out. Relatively cooler temps have taken over and I report back to school tomorrow for a planning week, then the first day of students is on September 9th. It’s just about time to put the teacher hat back on along with the fall/winter layers. I think I’m ready for the school year… at least until the “start of school anxiety” sets in and I start getting nightmares and/or insomnia.

As a last hurrah, my friend (and fellow teacher) Grace and I decided to take a road trip down south. I’ve always wanted to check out the south, specifically Savannah, Georgia. I have this crazy romanticized image of Savannah, thanks to movies like Gone with The Wind and uh, *cough* Forces of Nature. I’m drawn to the south, with its lushness, the incredible and controversial history, the drawl (swoon) and most of all, the food (here’s some butter, y’all). Next on my list is a visit to Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. For our trip, Grace and I took 2 days getting down to Savannah and two days getting back. We only spent one full day in Georgia, but it was just about enough time considering how small Savannah really is. The night we got in, there was a blue moon. Grace and I stayed at the 17hundred90 Inn, which is rumored to be haunted and a block away from a historic cemetery. We didn’t experience anything creepy, but after hearing all those ghost stories I did wake up in the middle of the night super freaked out and scared to even peek out from the covers. Grace laughed at me the next day, but I was seriously scared (of nothing)!

The next day, Grace and I walked all over the historic district and then made our way over to the family style soul food restaurant Ms. Wilke’s. The wait in line was well worth it and we gorged on all things fried, stewed and covered in cheese. We walked it all off though, through Forsyth Park and all the other little squares in the area. I really wanted to collect some spanish moss to bring home, but our haunted pub crawl guide Brittany told us the moss was full of chiggers.

Grace was nice enough to help me snap some photos of my new-ish dress, which was perfect for the hot and humid Savannah weather. This dress is as close as I’ll ever get to the ridiculous mullet trend that just needs to die. Proper in the front, party in the back! My new birthday shades from B were a perfect match.

sunnies: knockaround – dress: anthropologie (on sale now!) – bag: h&m – shoes: madewell

08/16/2013 Erika S. fun stuffs, seriousness, teaching

Code Academy, a newbie’s perspective

This summer and its idleness has been turning my unused brain into mush. With a good amount of prodding from B, I’ve decided to revisit my olden days of “coding” by learning some front end development. Mostly just for fun now, with a long range plan of redesigning this blog on my own, and possibly, maybe, perhaps some small side work for future summers. My experience with coding goes as far back as 1994/1995, where my freshman year computer class was introduced to the world wide web through Netscape. This naturally led to a desire to create my own page which documented all my favorite bands. I learned some HTML through viewing the source code of pages, coded a few iterations of personal sites and promptly stopped when it got really complicated with tables. A couple years later came sites like GeoCities, and my need to learn how to code just died. If I had known back then that this tinkering around with coding could branch out into an actual career, I probably would not have just given up so soon.

My background knowledge of HTML only gets as deep as links, images and background colors, so needless to say, I’m starting from the bottom. The internets to the rescue! B suggested three sites for me to check out: Codeacademy, Treehouse and CodeSchool. Code School requires a decent background on the fundamentals of HTML and CSS, so that’s coming later. I poked around Treehouse and Codeacademy, looking for a good fit for my non-existent skill level and learning style. After going through the first demo session of Treehouse and Codeacademy, I’ve decided to go with the freebee and more comprehensive Codeacadamy (CA).

A few things I love about CodeAcademy as a student of code with the mind of a teacher:

It’s free, and therefore I can ~~force~~ recommend that my students use it also. When you start from scratch, it makes sense to save here and shell out bigger bucks (possibly at Code School) for higher level coding.
CA starts you off with the basics. The real basics, from the very very bottom, as in “what are tags?” Treehouse on the other hand, claims to start with the basics, but jumbles CSS and HTML together from the get go, which was confusing.
CA leads their Web Fundamentals track with HTML only, getting you used to the skeleton of a page. After a bit of practice, it eases you into incorporating some CSS inline with the HTML, before guiding you into separate HTML and CSS files. My student brain needs that type of delineation between HTML and CSS in order to fully understand how the two interact with each other. It also helps with a more overarching understanding of why CSS exists in the first place.
CA’s “teaching style” is practice and learn through both repetition and applied skills. It works well with both my old school “memorize and regurgitate” brain and my new school “show me what you have learned by applying it in a different way” brain.
Positive reinforcement! I’m not such a sucker for badges and the like. But I do value positive reinforcement, no matter how cheesy I find it. It ads a bit of cutesy and competition that I know the kids would like. I have a bunch!

A few things I feel like CA was missing as a newbie coder who needed B (web developer) to help fill in the blanks:

There was never any real explanation for coding syntax and the reasoning behind it. Why is it “font-family” and not “font family”? Why is it a “{” in CSS but a “<” in HTML? I felt the need to ask these questions so that I could move away from just memorizing to applying, ie: when spaces are allowed and when you need hyphens. CA goes into a bit of syntax reasoning with the use of a “;” to separate properties.
The individual lessons were too small for my taste. I wanted larger chunks to learn. CA walks you through one tag at a time, which can get a bit tedious ~~I’m such a fast learner I blow by them~~ as my brain needs larger projects with multiple tasks to fully grasp the bigger picture. With CA, you learn headers, then paragraphs, then lists, then tables, etc all as bite sized lessons. Why not learn more at once and use more at once?
I need my vocab to be front loaded (little known fact: I was classified as an ELL until 4th grade) and CA academy does not touch on vocab development. I kept calling things like “background-color” style elements until B corrected me to “properties”. A bit of vocab can help, so that I at least have the right words to use when I’m stuck and looking for help. I already forgot – what’s an “attribute”? So far I’ve gotten one little bit of vocab in CA:
no videos – not something I mind, really. But I can see how some people would be drawn to Treehouse’s snazzy tutorials.
There wasn’t much said about code formatting and code editor use. Little did I know, this question led to a complete TMI explanation from B about tabs vs 4 spaces and nesting and aligning coding practices.

School is starting in a couple short weeks, so here’s hoping I find the time to keep this up during the school year. It would be pretty darn awesome to be able to teach a web design class of some sort in the future. I’ve only been at this for a few days here and there so far — I’m about 60% of the way through CA’s “Web Fundamentals” pathway. I’m still far from embodying my favorite 90’s move character:

08/13/2013 Erika S. fun stuffs, trips

Pura Vida – A bit more from our trip

It’s been weeks since we got back, but I’m just now getting through the photos from B’s camera. So a few more bits:

1) Vulcan Arenal — We took the usual touristy “Lava Flow Hike” through the rainforest and saw a lot of rocks. We ended that hike with a seriously luxurious honey-moon like soak at the Tabacon Hot Springs (no pictures, we were busy being amazed by the pools)

Vulcan Arenal Hike

2) Monteverde — B and I took the Jeep-Boat-Jeep transport (no actual Jeeps) from La Fortuna to Monteverde. The transport itself was ok, but we got stuck with a family of 13 from San Diego who were jaw dropingly annoying, horrible and ridiculous. They were those types of travelers who packed 2 large suitcases each (you really only need a backpack), are loud, obnoxious and treated the drivers like crap, and worst of all, threw things and yelled at the sloth we saw in a tree to try and get it to move. I wanted to throttle them. B and I shared a coconut and tried to ignore them for most part.

The cloud forest was pretty awesome – it made me feel like I was in a San Francisco park (Mt. Sutro open space reserve or Mt. Davidson) with all the fog. In the town of Monteverde, we also wasted some time and money taking a coffee and chocolate tour.

3) Playa Samara — A gorgeous quaint beach town and completely worth it. B and I stayed there for 4 days, 2 days too long. We got bored and we got burned. We went surfing one day (I’m ready for bigger waves and a smaller board!) and the snorkeling the next. The last two days we just sat on the beach and read (and were bored). We saw iguanas munching away in trees, ate at an expensive but seriously good steak house, and followed one of the three wild horses on the beach.

4) San Jose — We spent our last night in San Jose which was a huge, huge mistake. We were nervous about getting to the airport in time if we left from Playa Samara, so we decided to check out the capital city before we left. We had a horrible experience at the hostel we were at (Hostel Pangea – do not recommend), and the most expensive ($80!) but completely inedible meal at La Estancia Argentina. Our one day in San Jose completely soured the end of our otherwise great trip. Boo.

07/31/201307/31/2013 Erika S. fun stuffs, trips

The first half of summer…the best bits

I woke up this morning (as in… noon. It’s SUMMER and I can sleep in like a sloth if I want) to a string of notifications from WordPress about new followers – 5 new readers! It’s summer (as if we all need a reminder) so I’ve been seriously lazying it up these past couple of weeks. My lack of productivity is getting to the point of embarrassment, so I figured I needed to kick myself in the butt to start getting some things done. Only fun stuff though, I haven’t hit boredom rock bottom quite yet. First up, a revisit to the world of blogging: to get my brain somewhat moving again and to spew my life out onto the interwebs. Next up, a short backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail, a road trip to Savannah with fellow teacher Grace and learning a bit of code with help from CodeAcadamy/Treehouse/Codeschool and B. By the time that’s all done, it will be time to put my sloth-ish tendencies on the back burner and gear up for the new school year (and back to teacher outfits).

As proof that teachers do indeed have lives outside of the classroom (and for some internal validation that I haven’t completely disappeared into the couch with the Game of Thrones books), here are a few highlights of the summer thus far.

1) A pair of Aussie visitors, aka B’s mom (also a teacher!) and Peter! They came all the way out to Brooklyn just to hang with us for a week. They were fresh off a vintage Bentley car rally through the west coast and Montana (for real) and flew over to the east coast on their way back home to Perth. We took them on a modified tour of NYC (they’ve seen it all before) and spent a lot of time just chatting it up. I loved them and it was especially cool to hear B’s mom talk about teaching in Perth. B had the job of deflecting all comments/hints about marriage or grandchildren.

highline park

9:11 memorial

2) The real vacation, aka Costa Rica – B and I shelled out the big bucks for a trip to Costa Rica. 11 days, three towns and a lot of advice from Lonley Planet took us hiking, white water rafting, surfing, ziplining and left us with sunburns. Totally worth it, even with the sting of the high prices.

im on a boat

3) auntie time in Washington DC

jojo and arms

4) getting crafty to fill my empty hours

ikea pot hacked

05/09/2013 Erika S. fun stuffs

the Little Things

Describe a little thing — one of the things you love that defines your world but is often overlooked.

I’ve assigned this Daily Prompt to my blogging students today, so obvi, I needed to write it myself.

The first thing that pops into my head whenever I see the words “Little Things” is a shock of nostalgia, one of my favorites from my teenage years:

I love nostalgia. It is the ultimate little thing that makes me feel alive. Nostalgia shoots me back (in this case to age 14 in 1994) while at the same time making feel ~~old~~ evolved and accomplished.

One of the best things in life is friday happy hour with friends — I think almost everyone (of age) can agree. The thing that shoots it to the moon? Fantastic 90’s music spontaneously popping on the jukebox. Friday is just around the corner. Yessssss!!!!

05/08/201305/09/2013 Erika S. fun stuffs, teaching

Teens These Days

This week, my friend Genny and I started a blogging intensive. It started out a bit rough, with heaps of ~~bitching and moaning~~ reluctant energy such as “I wanted the camping intensive” and “this is soooo boring, I’m not coming to school this week”. Thankfully most, if not all of the negativity has died down (with the help of a few key absences, I’m sad to say). The kids are blogging away and creating some really great stuff so far! It really warms my little heart to see such awesomeness come out of them in such a short time. It’s a bit mind blowing to see how much they are capable of when they’re given free reign to create whatever it is they are interested in. We give them such little time in the regular school day to explore and work with these interests in a productive way, as we are all so consumed by the urgency of tests, grades and graduation. We (teachers) also assume or hope that they have enough direction and/or resources to explore these interests on their own outside of school. Sometimes we assume correctly and other times, not.

In the past three days, my kids have created blogs about gaming, music, food, fitness, sports and the apocalypse. Granted, they’re not perfect and they leave much to be desired in terms of grammar and punctuation (along with a bit of misinformation), but it’s a great start. I can’t wait to see how their blogs evolve over time. Fingers crossed they keep it up well after this week-long intensive ends! Check them out here:

Esmerelda, Cathy, Messiah, Timofey, JV, Ulugbek, Nick, Enddy, Erick, Celeste, Jessica, Anna, Nina, Tariq, Clarissa, Kenny and Brian

I snapped a few pictures of some kiddos working hard and hardly working on the their blogs using WordPress.com (of course). <old lady rant> Teens these days have it so easy. When I was their age (’95), we created websites practically from scratch using actual html tags! </old lady rant>

enddy and nick

messiah

three amigos

Also, a pic of the teachers, a bit too up close and personal for some. #selfie…ish

teach

schenck

Major thanks to Michelle and B for coming out to expert-talk with the kids about blogging. They buzzed about it for a bit afterwards and they now quote “we should write how we speak!” New goal for the kids: land yourself on Freshly Pressed!!

04/29/2013 Erika S. fun stuffs, parties

the Nerd Prom

There’s no great way to start writing this post without giving a huge shout out and thank you to my bro-in-law for being my friend in a high place. Thanks, Dave (with my sister, below) for bringing me along to the White House Correspondents Dinner Pre-party event (not to be confused with the actual dinner). Next year? 😉

WHCD Kris and Dave

The night started off with me feeling very out of place and awkward – like a teenage kid being brought along to adult parties. It’s not every day I get dressed up in fancy gowns (first time, actually), and I don’t normally hobnob with politicians/reporters/celebrities. Pretty much a complete 180 from my usual crowd: teenagers with fart jokes. The awkwardness eventually gave way once I figured out how to maneuver around with such a long dress and stopped worrying about my bra showing. Getting to see Bradley Cooper helped up the fun factor immensely (as did a martini or two). I also got to molest a cardboard cut out of Conan. My night was complete. WHCD the cooper

Photo Apr 27, 6 35 21 PM

WHCD

WHCD conan

gown: bcbg on super sale

04/14/201304/14/2013 Erika S. fun stuffs, teaching

here and there

It’s been a week or so since I’ve been here. My school just finished with our “SQR” – School Quality Review, where we have to prove that we are teaching. That is, teaching kids the way they want us to – formulaically with speaking, writing and reading – completely focused on the Common Core in every single class. So of course, since I work with a kick ass staff of dedicated insanely hardworking and collaborative people, we blew the dog and pony show out of the water. Needless to say, we were all pulling 12 hour days (buffering those long days on the weekends with beer while we work) and stressed to the max. So here’s a collection of bits and pieces from the past week. werking it

new best friend

FSQR

the burg

capsule

sunday morning

03/03/201303/03/2013 Erika S. fun stuffs, trips

JoJo Rei love

I took a quick jaunt down to DC this weekend to meet my new niece Josephine (JoJo) Rei. She is just 3 weeks old right now and pretty much a feeding – pooping – sleeping machine, albeit a cute one in a bear outfit. I was chomping at the bit to see her and cuddle her, so the 4 hour bus ride was worth it. Also, it’s been 6 months since I’ve seen my mom, and she had salted pork jook (congee) waiting for me. Bonus!

jojo rei5

jojo rei6

jojo rei4

jojo rei3 jojo rei2

02/10/2013 Erika S. fun stuffs

xin nian kuai le!

Happy Lunar New Year! I have fond memories of celebrating Chinese new year as a kid, great food, firecracker papers turning the streets of Chinatown red and lion dances everywhere (along with heaps of money that I never was allowed to keep!). This new year is extra special for me though, because I have a new baby! Not really me, but close enough (actually, as close as it’s ever going to get). My sister pushed one out yesterday, her first, my niece Josephine Rei. You know how they say that even if you don’t like kids, you’ll love your own? I hate kids, but I already love this one, and I haven’t even met her in person yet. When I heard that my sister was in labor I was like a proud parent, telling everyone who would listen. I even went out and bought my crew Dunkin Doughnuts for an impromptu celebration (I never advocate for teens eating horribly unhealthy sugar and fat ladden treats, but this time it’s special). Josephine (JoJo) made it right in time to be a Dragon baby. One thing is for damn sure, she already has a dragon grip on me. I got to meet her right away over face-time (I love technology). Normally I think all babies look a bit like aliens. but
Jojo is perfect.

JoJo