I’ve finally gotten to the point where I can say that I am ready for school to start — at least my classroom is. All my learning targets are up, my lessons planned for monday, my planning documents submitted to administration, and my walls are covered with marked areas for my three different classes. This year I’m teaching Living Environment, Urban Agriculture (farms and cooking) and then I have my Crew. That’s a total of 138 on my roster, an improvement over my 170 my first year teaching.
Today’s shirt is a new one from Anthro that is a little bit beachy, a little bit greek-ish and a tad bit french-ish. I like that it has pockets.
top: anthropologie (on sale now) – jeans: f21 – shoes: saltwater sandals
On the way down and back from Savannah, Grace and I took our time on the ole I-95 and…
1) ate at Cracker Barrel 3 times. That place is so yummy and cheap — we gorged on mac n’ cheese and their biscuits. This is my excited face for good ‘ole country food.
2) stopped at the Wormsloe Plantation on the outskirts of Savannah, mainly to check out the long oak lined driveway and for a quick history lesson from the park ranger.
3) we went to Medieval Times!! A SF friend of mine, Sunny, is from Myrtle Beach, SC. So naturally I had to check it out on the way home. I emailed her for recomendations and she hooked us up with her friend who is a beer wench at Medieval Times. There was no way I could pass up an opportunity to be called m’lady. I freaking loved it, but I don’t think Grace shared my dorky excitement for knights and jousting. WE GOT CROWNS!! Sadly, our blue night “died” near the end after a battle with the black and white night. *tear*
4) we stopped at so many gas stations I lost count. The best one by far had a Dunkin Doughnuts and a lion statue outside. Naturally, I just had to climb on it and strike a pose. I ended up with a slight burn from the hot steel. Oops!
I’ve got hugz for you if you were born in the 80’s, the 80’s. Yeah.
I’m back! Or rather, my classroom’s back! Today was the first day of planning week at my school. The big guns start coming in on September 9th, so we’re spending the next few days looking at curriculum maps and STAs (standard-learning target-assessments). My brain is turning on again. I decided to bust out my 80’s shirt today – a F21 knock off of the various jersey type t-shirts worn by my fashion idol jayne minhere and here. Granted, I’m a year late on this trend, but…whateves. It’s not quite my year (spot on ’80!), but it’s close enough.
glasses: warby parker (my third pair!) – tshirt: f21 – skirt: super old banana republic – shoes: worishofer
Intensive week ended, and it’s bittersweet. Of the all the kids we taught to blog, two have been keeping up with it into the next week post-intensive. Yay Celeste and Cathy! The school year is winding down, only 16 days till my kiddos take their Living Environment (biology) regents exam. Regents exams are a double whammy: kids have to score a 65 or above to graduate, and my performance as a teacher is evaluated based on how many kids pass. So what happens? I stress out insanely about getting through all the material and the last few weeks are a mad dash to get through the standards. Also, I stress out about the kids who are failing the class, which is attributed to a lack of motivation to complete assignments obviously is becasue my curriculum is not engaging enough nor is it rigorous enough. Since apparently good teachers know, there is a correlation between increased rigor and engagement/buy in. Seriously, I’d like to see the data for that. I have my own informal data from my classroom and it shows that the harder I make an assignment, the less the students are motivated to complete it. I wish that wasn’t the case, but it is. I just don’t know what the answer is.
I’m going off on a depressive tangent here, so I’ll stop and instead write about a shallower topic…clothes! I’ve love, loved this corduroy pea coat for the past 8 or so years and it’s about to get packed up for the summer. I love the cut and how the collar pops up when I button it – keeps my long neck shielded from the wind.
glasses: warby parker – coat: super old gap – sweater: old j.crew – jeans: old f21 – shoes: frye
Picked this sad face up last weekend. This pouch turns frowns upside down, as does one of my top five favorite bands of all time. If you haven’t yet, and you were/are a fan of Jawbreaker, check out Blake’s latest, the Forgetters.
Sadly, my spring break is coming to an end. It’s been a sweet week and a half. I took a trip to visit Jojo, my good friend Aimee came out to visit, and B and I enjoyed a day-long stay-cation. He took off work today and we went exploring in Manhattan. We started at the very southern tip and wound our way north to Central Park, then headed back down south stopping at my favorite basics shop Uniqlo on the way. I got B to buy some new pants in a snazzy preppy stripe. He’ll probably never wear them unless I force him to – which will be often! Today was all about warmth and comfort. Spring has sprung, but it was still super windy and cold today. Perfect for my new favorite sweatshirt from the men’s section of H&M- I’m all about men’s clothing lately.
I particularly loved all the memorials down in the south end, especially the Merchant Marines Memorial. I also found a Schenck on the WWII memorial, an electrician from Kansas.
I was happy to be back in SF last week, but I’m also happy to be home. It was a week filled with friends and also included a three day snowboarding side trip in Tahoe (the kids picked up on the irony of heading to Cali to find snow – I got a lot of comments on that today). There really is nothing like San Francisco air (except maybe the water!). Spring break is already around the corner, and I’ll be getting another breath of fresh air when Aimee comes to visit!
This wrinkly top is an old one from Madewell. I have a slight obsession with the color (burnt sienna?), but the material seems to harbor smells. TMI?
glasses: warby parker – sweater: uniqlo – blouse: madewell – tank (underneath) & jeans: f21 – boots: steve madden – belt: j.crew – necklace: my mom’s hand-me-down
It’s a double down week. This is my typical clothing strategy…wear the same thing all week with a dress or two in between to break it up. It cuts down on laundry, something I actually have to be conscious of here in NY, where I have to lug laundry out of the building. This week is a perfect example of that strategy. Monday: Forever 21 stretch jeans and a hoodie (staff PD day, no kids), Tuesday: dress, Wednesday and Thursday: Forever 21 stretch jeans and a creamish/whiteish topper. Also, we’ve been in the lab this week, working on a 4 day procedure aimed at demonstrating osmosis and diffusion with onion cells and dialysis tubing. It’s been fun and I love lab days – but the heater has been stuck on “broil” in the lab room. Oh hello, extreme temperature changes!
Exhibit A of double down: Wednesday
Exhibit B: Thursday
Pardon the cheesy “hands on hips” pose. I don’t know what I was thinking.
New hair – free, through the Model Project at Bumble and Bumble University. I don’t know when I started to get so cheap about my hair. In my early 20’s I used to have a regular stylist whom I visited religiously every 6 weeks to get my hair cut/colored/touched etc. I guess all that eventually gave me wallet fatigue, because I stopped doing much with my hair in my mid 20’s. It whittled down from $150 haircuts to $60 cuts to $12 Great Clips cuts to $0 sister with a pair to Friskars cuts.
New hole – B was out of town last weekend and I was bored on Saturday night but also didn’t feel like going all the way to Williamsburg to meet a friend for drinks. I’m no stranger to piercings (see here, here and here), so I headed to my friendly neighborhood shop, The End is Near. Hello new anti-tragus hole. It’s still swollen and the skin around it is flaking, but it’s healing nicely now. For those who have to ask, no, getting it done didn’t hurt. But the aftercare/healing hella hurts.
New stripey top – I went shopping yesterday and picked up a number of t-shirt type tops from Forever 21 and H&M. This one, from F21, is supposed to be a dress. But with my freakishly long torso and 6’0″ frame, it’s a shirt, albeit a long shirt. I like the stripes (like everyone else in the blogosphere/world, I love nautical stripes) and the little pocket on the boobie. It will be good for a lazy, I don’t want to think in the morning item to throw on for the classroom.
On that note, I haven’t been posting lately. I’ve been lazy and I haven’t bothered with being inventive with my wardrobe. So what have I been wearing lately? See this post and this post. That’s basically it, along with about 4 layers of sweaters, coats, scarves and hat because it’s been damn cold here in NY.
I’ve been listening to New Edition lately. I’m nostalgic for the days of classic R&B where they didn’t feel the need to include words like bitches, hoes, bootie, and ‘got your girl workin for me’. So, here’s a little palate cleanser.
I love how some dresses can be winter-ized by just adding a few things. This dress, I’ve taken from the balmy crisp SF weather, through to hot muggy Brooklyn summer, straight into the dry freeze-your-ears-off Brooklyn winter. All it takes is the addition of a scarf, wooly tights, cardigan and suede booties. Of course, there was a coat involved, but I left it off while inside. Dress, during summer last seen here. Next time, I’ll have to remind myself to use a few more squirts of Static Guard
scarf: topshop – cardigan and belt: j.crew – dress: f21 – tights: h&m – booties: steve madden
Teachers Have Lives Too! 