Today, one of my crew kids O told me, “you take nice pictures, miss.” It took me a full minute to process what she had said. “oh, so you’ve seen my blog”, I said finally. My initial feeling was one of fear – a ridiculous feeling considering how open I was about my blog when I taught my week long blogging intensive. What ever students discover about me through my blog has already been out for a long time. I’ve been running this blog for 2 years!
Another comment struck fear in my heart today. A student, H, told me it looked like I was wearing a crop top with this sweater. He then rushed on to explain that the colors are deceiving with the tan bottom, and “you know. . .it looks like you’re naked.” OMG, kid. it’s practically a grandma sweater! right?!?
glasses: warby parker – sweater and boots: madewell – jeans: uniqlo – belt: banana republic
growing old, growing pains
My neck. My back. My knee. My neck, and my back and my knee. All three have been paining me for the past month. It all started back in 2006 or so when I pulled a muscle or something moving boxes at home. Ever since then, my back has been shit. Usually my back just decides at random times to lock up for a week, then it goes away. Lately though, it been just a dull frustrating nagging ache with twinges of acute pain. Sometimes it feels like body aches from a fever, other times like my kidneys are crying. Oh the pains of getting older and a body breaking down.
My back has been nagging me for long enough that the kids know what’s going on when I start doing my grandma moves in the middle of the class period. They’ve seen me lie on the floor, hobble around and stretch. They used to act concerned, but those days are long gone. Secretly, I know they still care.
Also, new boxy Madewell top, another new addition from my weekend shopping trip.
shirt: madewell – belt: super old gap – jeans: uniqlo – boots: super old boutique 9
Pumpkin
I miss the pumpkin ice cream from Mitchell’s in SF. In it’s place, I’ve been making loads of pumpkin muffins, pumpkin-lentil soups and I’m wearing pumpkin. It’s my favorite fall color, next to my bordeaux cheap-o lipstick. Since B is away at a meet-up in Denver (I’m going for a quick weekend visit this friday!), I went shopping this past weekend and I did some damage at Madewell. I swear I was just there to pop in to see what was new (yeah, right) till I saw the extra-30%-off-sales sign. I’d just finished wasting brain cells watching “Sister Wives” on Netflix (I know, I know), and this top just screamed Mormon-chic. Naturally, I had to have it. By the way, everything seems to be a lot more online than in the shops – this shirt cost me $28, while online it is listed at $80 without any extra sale! Ridiculous.
glasses: warby parker – shirt and boots: madewell – skirt: j.crew – cardigan and tights: uniqlo
Q1 in the bag
Today is the last day of the first grading quarter at school. One in the bag, three more to go. The end of the quarter also means it’s “final product” time for the kids – the one major “assessment for learning” project to demonstrate their “mastery” of the unit’s “learning targets”. A bit of teacher speak for big assignments in every class. For me, final product time means I’m spend a lot of time “scaffolding” the project I’ve assigned and giving lunchtime and after school help with writing lab reports, graphing, and making sense of experimental data. This year, I’ve decided to get two birds with one stone and assigned the kids a state mandated lab report as their final product. It’s been a 2 week process so far, with a lot of hand holding along the way. It’s looking good though and I’m optimistic about the quality of work I’ll be getting come Monday. I can’t even count how many brain cells I’ve devoted to making this learning process as painless and accessible as possible. I’m feeling a lot of coulda-shoulda-wouldas for last year’s curriculum.
In the meantime, if you come here to check out outfits, you’ve probably been disappointed this past month. I’ve been MIA, mainly because I’ve been sticking to this teacher uniform, and I’ve been on a shopping ban. Also, it’s been pretty crisply cold here in Brooklyn – winter is here. This morning, I figured I’d splash out some bit of color and warmth with an old summer skirt. I swear it looked better in my head this morning while I spent 5 precious minutes staring blankly into my closet. In real life, I’m actually not a big fan – an experiment gone bad. You win some, you lose some, right?
glasses: warby parker – scarf: topman – t-shirt: everlane – belt: gap – skirt: anthropologie – tights & cardigan: uniqlo – boots: steve madden
rock genius
A perfect science teacher shirt for me: a math/science genius emblazoned on a t-shirt in the style of the rock gods of the 80’s and 90’s. This Target tee was quite the find and right up my alley. As it turns out, it’s a huge hit with the kids too.
♬ I’m a little bit science ♬
And I’m a little bit rock ‘n roll ♪
I’m a little bit of Watson and Crick
With a little bit of Darwin in my soul
I don’t know if it’s good or bad
But I know I love it so ♪
glasses: warby parker – t shirt: target – skirt: j.crew – shoes: super old nine west
put a bird on it
I’ve been away for these past couple weeks. There was camping, a college tour trip with my crew to upstate NY, and just plain ole’ lack of motivation. It’s the end of a trying week, so this morning i figured I’d just put a bird on it and be done with it.
cardigan and tights: h&m – dress: hi there by karen walker (old, from perth) – boots: steven – bag: freitag – necklace: unicorn crafts
Made Well, or Well Made
I must shop at Madewell a lot. This morning I got dressed (in the dark) and as I rode the train to school, I realized I was just about Madewell-ed out. I shook my head at myself since Madewell is typically out of reach for a teacher on a budget. Alas…they can have some great sales. I never buy anything full price (except for shoes apparently), and I always wait for promotions like an extra 30% or 40% off sale prices. This also means that many of the things I drool over sell out before they can be marked down. But hey – you win some, you lose some. Also, I’ve decided that I’m swearing off Madewell dresses. Like my sister mentioned in the comments of this post, they really are way too short for my 6’0″ frame as I approach my mid-thirties. By the way, I bought this sweater over the weekend at the Madewell in SF. It was on super sale in store (around $30 or something), but it’s not online.
jacket: old h&m – necklace: f21 – sweater and jeans: madewell – shoes: corso como via nordstrom rack
Hater-ade
I’m a hater. Lately it feels as if I’m spending too much time telling the kids what not to do instead of just enjoying and reinforcing what they are doing. It’s like I’m the mean teacher. I don’t know when this happened! Instead of being happy that kids are expressing themselves with a rap battle, I’m on alert, ready to shut down any potential negative stereotypes or sexist remarks. Instead of letting the girls learn how to handle unwanted (I assume) male attention, I imediately jump in to lecture the boys on being respectful to women and that women are not objects. Constantly I’m “no” this, “no” that. No eating in class. Put on your uniform. No playing soccer in the halls. stop screaming at your friends while in the museum. NO all of the things. I’m a hater and I’ve been drinking the hater-ade. It’s exhausing.
I need to chillax a bit, but I’m having a hard time because I know there are social politeness norms that I feel the kids need to learn. Or are these social norms I’m thinking of actually just my own? Or even worse, am I actually forcing kids into a box of prescribed behaviors? What if I’m stifling their creativity?!?
It seems as if as I get older the more type A I am. Maybe I’m just setting myself up for an ulcer. Anyone else have this problem? How do you deal?
In the meantime, I’m stuck in my own behavioral rut of white and black dressing. It’s working out for me.
cardigan: uniqlo – shirt: madewell – jeans: uniqlo – shoes: madewell
Teacher Spotlight: Rachel
Rachel is the teacher spotlight this week! I’ve always loved Rachel’s look – I’m pretty sure we shop at similar places. Chances are good that if I’ve been debating on buying a particular dress or pair of shoes, Rachel will walk in to the staff room with that exact item on! I’m actually pretty surprised we haven’t inadvertently “twins-ied” yet. I loved Rachel’s jumper (as in playsuit, not sweater) today and was secretly envious that she could pull it off so well. One pieces never work for me since my height is all in the torso (not comfortable at all!) One day, I’ going to sew one for myself – extra long in the crotch. In the meantime, I can stare at Rachel’s and it’s awesome print.
We teachers always have something to learn from each other. Rachel, as a seasoned crew leader, has taught me how to have a crew and actually do good stuff with them. Last year, her crew kids were the only ones who put together their own community service project. At the time, I felt overwhelmed just thinking about organizing my crew for Student Led Conferences, not to mention a larger group effort to better the community. With some tips from Rachel though, I’m planning on tackling that this spring!
Rachel’s jumper: anthropologie from last summer – boots: j.crew
On another note, I’ve been uninspired by my closet lately and have been slopping it in my black jeans and buttons ups. An example of this to come tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s yesterday in Central Park while out on a field trip with the 10th graders to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I busted out my old boy scouts shirt for the trip, and it helped me feel like a kid all morning on the way there. But then, teenage shenanigans in the museum squashed my child like excitement and turned it into adult-like embarrassment.
Teacher spotlight: Millie!
New feature here on Teacher Have Lives Too! I’m not the only teacher at my school that has a life while simultaneously maintaining impeccable (if I may toot my own horn a bit) fashion sense, so it was only a matter of time till I convinced a co-worker to share his/her style posing for me. First up is Ms. Cruz, better known as “Millie!” (you have to say it with gusto as you wave both your arms in a circle) in our teacher lounge. Millie teaches US History at my school and she has the. best. dresses. ever. She is a perfect example of someone who knows what suits her petite frame and style. She’s so loved by her students that one of my culinary kids snuck out a cookie for her last week! 
Millies’s outfit is from: I don’t know because I had a brain fart and forgot to ask
Teachers Have Lives Too! 