Erika S. outfits, teaching

Keep Calm and…

Today was the first day back from our week long Thanksgiving Break.  I was NOT ready to come back – a week of lounging around the house stuffing my face wasn’t nearly enough!  It was rough getting back into the groove today and by the time my last section rolled around, my patience had gone out the window.  Normally, I love my 6th period – they’re a rowdy, noisy, chatty bunch who as a whole are an awesome group of kids.  Sometimes, their shenanigans can get to me and push all my buttons all at the same time.  Today was one of those days and I got angry…but now I feel bad for getting angry.  They’re teenagers who just have a harder time focusing on Biology after they’ve already been in school for 6 hours (kids here have 8 hour school days — I think it’s ridiculous).  I should have kept calm and…let them be teenagers.

These booties are from Zara, a few years ago.  They’re pretty bad-ass, and I got many compliments on them today from students and adults alike.  I don’t wear them that often, for no good reason at all.  My top is from COS, a H&M spin off with a store in Manhattan and is also available online in the US.  I picked this one up over the summer while visiting New York.  I love the shape since it has so much room in the belly area but is still fitted around the shoulders (a trapeze top?).  The fabric is also a perfectly drapey material.    Lastly, I got a technology hand-me-down from B, his Pebble watch.  Winning.

forever 21 high waisted jeans

zara studded boots

pebble watch

cos shirt

zara boots

teacher outfits
cardigan: uniqlo – top: cos – jeans: f21 – boots: zara – watch: pebble – gold bracelet: madewell – jade bracelet: somewhere in china

Erika S. outfits, teaching

Science!

Thanksgiving break officially has started for me.  YAY.  I get tomorrow “off” with the rest of the science department, because my principal is generously sending us to the Colorado Science Conference for Professional Development.  I’m so freaking excited.  I haven’t attended a science conference since my first year, when the NTSA held their national conference in SF.  As a first year teacher, it was all wasted on me while in survival mode.  This time around, I’m ready with my science teacher hat.  I need a fresh step in my science curriculum.

I love science.  I teach science.  Every. single. PD I attend is about reading/writing/speaking (common core).  Where is the science at?  No where.  Until now.  Have I mentioned how excited I am about tomorrow?

the feels

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the feels3

cardigan and jeans: madewell – belt: gap – shirt: uniqlo – boots: doc martins

Erika S. outfits, teaching

Back to School Night

We had back to school night the second week of school and I’m only now getting around to posting about it.  I’ve always struggled with BTS nights.  I always end the night feeling like I put my foot in my mouth a couple times.  Meeting parents for the first time always shakes my confidence a bit.  I’m a bit socially awkward around adults anyway, so meeting a bunch all at once is hard.  I always feel like I’m under scrutiny and that I’m being sized up.  Of course, this all stems from my own insecurities – I can hardly blame parents for wanting the best teachers for their kids.  I also shot myself in the foot this year by not taking the extra time needed to prepare a “Hi, I’m your kid’s Bio teacher this year, here’s some info about my background!” type presentation.  If I had, I probably would have had a more successful night.

Anyways, I chose to wear heels for BTS night this year.  It was a 13 hour day, and my feet were 100% comfortable as I walked my tired body and mind to my car at 8pm.  Midi skirts just always look better with some extra leg length.

BTS night4

BTS night3

BTS night

BTS night2

glasses: warby parker – top: uniqlo – belt: jcrew – skirt: anthropologie – shoes: sweedish hasbeens for h&m

Erika S. outfits, teaching

Fallin for a Safety Net

There is something to be said about high quality professional development. When you participate in a good one, you can walk away with immediate ideas and an implementation strategy to try out the very next day. You know the PD was worth your time when you learn something new that blows your mind a bit and makes you excited to try it out. This was how I felt after a PD led by one of my colleagues recently on “close reading”. I had been struggling with teaching my students how to read independently AND gain useful information from their reading. None of my students in Brooklyn were reading at grade level and I never really knew how to teach them reading comprehension strategies. Of course I took a literacy class in my credential program, but that was more theory and not at all practical applications of teaching literacy.  At most, I annotated for/with them and hoped that things stuck after some questioning and discussion. Here in Denver, some of my honors kids are reading at or above grade level, but I still have a majority who will read fluently, but without full understanding. It’s refreshing to have a short PD that teaches you something concrete, useful and simple to implement the very next lesson. In addition, it’s super helpful to have somewhat of a safety net in the form of a fellow teacher right at your school to help clarify routines, and give you tips.  If you want more information on close reading, check this out (though it’s much more useful to see it in action).

fallin fallin2 fallin3

glasses: warby parker – cardigan: madewell – tank: banana republic – pants: urban outfitters – boots: steve madden

This outfit is from the day I incorporated close reading into my lesson on Potential and Kinetic Energy.  I know these pants aren’t the most flattering for my body type with it’s slouchy look.  But hot damn, they’re comfortable.  They were also just $15 from the sale section at Urban Outfitters.  They’re still on the website (but for $30 – I got them at an extra 50% off), the Silence and Noise Winston Trousers.  They’re thick and warm for this freezing weather in Denver, and have I mentioned how comfy they are yet??

Erika S. outfits, teaching

Kicks

I want to start off with a heartfelt appreciation for all the supportive comments in my last post.  It had been a month of struggles and I was at a particularly low point.  I guess I really needed words of encouragement from fellow teachers, and the advice really helped me feel like I’m not alone with these issues.  At my last school in Brooklyn, the small staff regularly ate lunch together and I always felt supported and encouraged by my peers every day.  We’d spend those 30 minutes sharing stories, ideas and giving advice.  In hindsight, those lunches really helped support me both as an educator and an emotional human being.  That lunch culture is not really established at my current school, so I find that I can go an entire day without any more than a “hello” type interaction with adults at school.  I need to set up some lunch dates!

Things have been going much better these past few days.  Classes have been running smoothly, I’ve had positive interactions with almost all of my students, and I had a couple restorative conferences with individual students that helped clear the air.  Also, students are turning in heaps of late work and raising their grades, which helps boost morale in the classroom.  Things are on the up and up – though I’m still not sure if this school is the right fit for me.  TIme will tell.

In other news, I did a bit of retail therapy this past weekend.  I got myself some new kickers.  I’ve been wanting a pair of 8 eye Docs, but I’ve always been held back by my ridiculous boot collection and the price.  So when I saw that I had a $20 gift card and they were on sale for less than $100 at Nordstrom, I caved.  Plus, B was out of town and he’s usually my voice of reason on how I don’t need anything.  While at the mall, I popped into J.Crew where they were having one of their 30% off sale prices events.  I picked up this adult version of a sweatshirt – it’s merino wool and ridiculously soft and comfortable (J.Crew Collection).  With the sale and my educator discount, this sweater was practically free super cheap!

kickers kickers3

The ever present pencil in my hair – it’s the only way I can keep track of fit.kickers4

scarf: super old no brand – sweater: j.crew – jeans: uniqlo – boots: dr. martens

Erika S. outfits, teaching

The Face

I’m struggling, people.  Struggling with classroom management AND with teaching physics content.  I thought teaching for 5 years in 2 different inner city schools would have taught me something about how to manage my classroom, but nope.  I’m dealing with a problem that is completely new to me – seniors who claim I can’t teach and therefore loudly blame me for their low grades during class. There is some truth to this – I’ve never taught physics before and I’m figuring it out as I go.  I get most of my materials and curriculum from well established sites such as The Physics Classroom but I’ve had a hard time finding labs that work with the supplies I have at my school.  This means I may invent labs and assignments that don’t work out (crazy acceleration calculations like -33.89 m/s/s for a free falling object!).   The flip side?  These seniors are not coming in for HW help, they’re not doing the assignments or test corrections or any of the many supports I offer inside and outside of class.  They’re goofing off in class and fighting me on simple rules like cell phones, uniform and staying quiet during the entry routine.

I’m exhausted, mentally and physically.  Do I still really like teaching?  Honestly, I don’t really know anymore.

People say that if you are down, you should fake a smile because even faking a smile helps reduce stress.  So here is my fake smile of the day.  the face

This on the other hand, is what my face really looks like lately.  I know that I typically have a “resting bitchy face” (it’s true – bartenders will actually pass over me because I look unfriendly and mean).  But lately my RBF has been a bit more turned down.

the face3

the face2

Nothing new on the outfit front – all old reliables.

glasses: warby parker – shirt and high-riser jeans: madewell – belt: gap – shoes: worishofer – necklaces: etsy and f21

Erika S. outfits, teaching

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?

Q1
Q1 2
glasses: warby parker – scarf: topman – t-shirt: everlane – belt: gap – skirt: anthropologie – tights & cardigan: uniqlo – boots: steve madden

Erika S. outfits, teaching

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.
chelsea
chelsea2
chelsea3
chelsea4
chelsea5

cardigan: uniqlo – shirt: madewell – jeans: uniqlo – shoes: madewell

Erika S. outfits, teaching

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

Rachel4

Rachel2

Rachel3
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.

Photo Oct 08, 12 46 15 PM

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! Screen Shot 2013-08-16 at 7.39.45 PM 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!Screen Shot 2013-08-16 at 7.40.28 PM

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:Screen Shot 2013-08-16 at 7.43.11 PM
  • 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: