Erika S. outfits

Countdown

I’m on a countdown to summer. I have actually been on this countdown since spring break! After tomorrow, there will only be four Fridays till the last day of school. I have a couple posts still waiting to go up. Last week I took photos and couldn’t find time to post them. I’ve been busy gardening everyday after school. I totally get the whole “gardening is my zen time” thing. Its physical, it’s quiet, and I get to pull things out by the roots (oddly therapeutic). Bonus: pretty flowers like these!

I bought this cardigan a week ago in store and on sale (as always), and I’m still not sure how I feel about it. I had this picture from Pinterest in mind and I was hoping I could copy the look with this cardigan.  I think it falls aesthetically short though with its thick fabric and too slouchy shape (too big for me). No compliments from kids so far either. It does make a good classroom sweater though, since it has pockets. What do you guys think?

madewell memento fringe cardigan4

madewell memento fringe cardigan3

madewell memento fringe cardigan2

madewell memento fringe cardigan

sweater: madewell – t-shirt: zara – jeans: mother via anthropologie – shoes: swedish hasbeens – necklaces: f21

Erika S. outfits

Discovery Garden

I’ve spent every evening this past week in my garden digging, destroying, and planting. It’s my “discovery garden” as Rossin so aptly put it. I have no idea what I’m doing or if what I plant will even grow. In college, I got an A in Botany. Botany ≠ Horticulture, so I’ve managed to eventually kill almost every house plant I’ve ever had. Fingers crossed the bulbs I finally finished planting today will give me beautiful flowers come July.

This was Monday. Because, love will tear us apart, again. I think this blog will be slowing down again with summer approaching. B and I are heading to Oz for a month then a staycation for the rest of the break. I see myself spending a lot of time in our yard with summer and much less time staring at a computer screen.

joydivision4

joydivision3

joydivision2

joydivision
jacket: h&m – t-shirt:hot topic – jeans: 3×1 – belt: gap – shoes: worishofer

Erika S. outfits

Winter is Still Here

This is what I wore today.  It was 80˚F today, and we are forecast to get up to a foot of snow over the weekend. This weather is cray, and my legs haven’t seen the sun in months. At least I got to test out my new sandals this week. B and I were at Target for what I promised to be “just a quick trip for essentials” when I spied a buy one get one 1/2 off sale in the shoe section. Obviously, I had to take a peek. I walked away with these bad boys and B walked away from Target swearing he’d never fall for that trick again.

mossimo gladiator sandals3

mossimo gladiator sandals2

mossimo gladiator sandals

sweater: j.crew – dress: f21 – sandals: mossimo/target

Erika S. fun stuffs, outfits

Bag Raiders

I can hardly believe I’ve been away from the blog for a whole month! As I sat down to write today, I thought “Gee, it’s been a couple of weeks since my last post!” I guess time really does fly.

8 long short weeks left till final exams and sum-sum-summmer time!

The past month has been busy with B’s birthday, a few concerts, a bout with the flu, a trip back east to see the family for my mom’s birthday, and a girls’ weekend with my BFFs from San Francisco. Teachers really do have lives outside of teaching, I swear. The proof is in Instagram!

As part of B’s birthday week, we went to see one of my favorite Aussie-Indie-Dance bands play. I have fond memories of the Bag Raiders – my first ever teacher partner in crime Ann Zhao introduced me to them mid way through our first year teaching (she named our instant friendship trauma bonding). The Bag Raiders aren’t as well followed here in Denver like they are in SF and NY, so we got to see them at my favorite music venue here in Denver, Larimer Lounge. There is nothing much better than getting to see one of your favorite bands play a small bar. Obviously, I had to buy a t-shirt and obviously, I had to wear said t-shirt the very next day to school.

bag raiders2

bag raiders3

bag raiders

glasses: warby parker – tshirt: bag raiders – jeans: f21 – shoes: anthropologie – belt: gap

I can’t resist – aren’t my mom and niece just the cutest? My mom takes care of Jojo while my sister and brother in law work, so naturally Popo (grandma in chinese) is Jojo’s favorite person ever.

mommy and jojo

Erika S. fun stuffs, outfits

Lately

spring snowboarding
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Rossin and her many talents

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#squad

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furniture making (mostly all B’s work)

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new shoes

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an outfit from last week

vans 106 hi2

Vans 106 hi3

cardigan: uniqlo – shirt: madewell – jeans: f21 – shoes: vans

Erika S. outfits

Super Tuesday!

I just got back from my first ever caucus. A weird experience all around since I’m used to a primary system in California and New York. Both B and I were in a perpetual state of amazement while there.

co caucus

I wore my voting shirt today to school under my sweater and reviews were mixed. I got a lot of “that’s a sick shirt miss” along with advice on who to vote for (mostly for Bernie due to his free-college tuition stance). Some students were confused though and thought ‘sucka’ was ‘suck a’ (2 words).  They all wanted to know what the rest of my shirt said.  Hmmmm.  Does this make my shirt inappropriate?

super tuesday2

mnkr

super tuesday

mnkr2

glasses: warby parker – sweater: banana republic – tshirt: mnkr – belt: gap – skirt: j.crew – tights: h&m – shoes: franco sarto

Erika S. outfits

Existential Crisis?

I just finished a 3 day Science as Thinking institute through PEBC. It was amazing and I learned oh so much about inquiry and how to foster real, valuable, scientific thinking in students. Actual learning through teaching for understanding. We were given this brilliant book and I’m in the process of devouring it. The institute was all Expeditionary Learning stuff without actually calling it Expeditionary Learning. That ‘rigor’ that was so elusive and confusing to me before? I totally get it now! That ‘discourse’ that was so forced before? I know how to make it more authentic and natural now!  If you’re in a school that values quality professional development and a budget exists for PD, I would recommend checking out PEBC – they run institutes for all the core subjects.

I’m in my 7th year of teaching science. I learned how to teach through an intern program. It was trial by fire (literally – some kids lit a fire in my room one day). I developed some very bad ‘survival’ habits to lesson planning those first 2 years. In my credentialing program, I learned that ‘inquiry’ meant doing labs (science teachers, you know what I’m talking about) and having students predict and explain through modeling real word phenomena. Lastly, I make my kids take notes, and my assessments this year are unit tests. Shock horror. All joking aside though, I am very seriously reconsidering what I am doing as a science teacher. What are my kids actually learning?

I’m feeling the need to scrap everything I do and start from scratch. This past week has been somewhat soul shaking (a little dramatic, maybe?) for me. I may be in the midst of a yet another teacher existential crisis.

New additions to my closet and a glass of wine are helping me weather this crisis tonight. I have a new coat! This Madewell City Grid Coat was on super sale and I justified the purchase by rationalizing away the fact that I have my favorite Arcteryx and another similar coat (but none of them are warm and black!) already hanging in my closet.

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3x1denim3

3x1denim

glasses: warby parker – coat: madewell – cardigan and blouse: uniqlo – jeans: 3×1 – boots: franco sarto

Erika S. outfits

Take It Easy

I have a new Friday sweatshirt and motto:  Take it easy. The kids loved it – “I see you miss” while giving me a head nod, the kind where your chin leads the rest of the head upward knowingly. All day I had that Eagles song stuck in my head and I was constantly humming the tune to myself.

This phrase reminds of my dad.  It was his automatic goodbye phrase when guests left. Our house in San Francisco is on a huge hill and there are three flights of steep stairs that lead up to the front door. People would always grip the hand rail in fear of those stairs while my sister and I would go up and down regularly in roller skates. We would all say just “bye” or something in Chinese and my dad would always just jump in with “takeiteasy”,so fast and all as one word. As a kid I was so confused by it, and it didn’t even click in my mind what he was saying until I was about 10. English was not my first language, and American idioms were not common at home. Now I know – take it easy!

This sweatshirt is actually supposed to be a dress. A dress for whom, I’m not sure. Granted, most dresses on me are automatically too short. But this doesn’t even come close. Forever 21 mini-dresses = shirts (with pockets!) on me.

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take it easy

glasses: warby parker – sweatshirt (dress) and jeans: f21 – shoes: vans – necklace: my mom’s – watch: pebble

Erika S. outfits, teaching

Penny for Thoughts

As a teacher with friends who are also teachers on Facebook, I come across heaps of articles about teaching or about teachers.  Here are some of my favorites:

The Atlantic – I Lie About My Teaching  Oh lord yes.  Some days I’m in the middle of class and I actually think to myself “I really hope no one comes in and witnesses this hot mess” as more than half of the kids are totally disengaged and I’m floundering from table to table trying to get them back on track.  Then other days I wish I had video evidence of how “lit” my classroom is with learning.

nprED – Making Science Teaching More Than A ‘Backup Plan’  Teaching Science was definitely not my backup plan, it was my first plan.  I think (and I do not have the stats to back this up at all, it’s pure conjecture) a lot of people who go into teaching as a back up plan end up leaving teaching within a few years because, teaching. is. really. hard. work.

The New Yorker – Stop Humiliating Teachers  I hear a lot of “I would never be able to be a teacher, I don’t know how you do it” from the same people who say “schools these days don’t properly prepare students for the real world”.

Huffpost Education – Listen To the Teachers Who Stay (written by a respected colleague!)  The flip side and an inspiring call to keep fighting the good fight.  I need to read this every spring, when I start to flip flop on possibly leaving teaching and figuring out a ‘backup plan’.

 

Lots of compliments on my outfit today.  “Miss, you look really nice today” and “those are some bad ass designer shoes Miss!”  They’re not designer, they are fast-fashion, and everything here is old.  The skirt was 50¢ from a thrift store and the sweater is from about 4 years ago.  Yay for ‘shopping’ the closet!

urban outfitters back zip sweater2

urban outfitters back zip sweater

Zara Studded Cowboy Ankle Booties2

Zara Studded Cowboy Ankle Booties

glasses: warby parker – sweater: urban outfitters – belt: gap – skirt: thrifted (no tag and I suspect it was a server’s uniform skirt at one time) – boots: zara

Erika S. outfits

Ease

This was me this morning.  By the end of the day, even with a multiple-sticky-note overflowing to-do list, I embodied this.  I was nearing the 10th hour or working, so I called it a day.  That’s all I have to say for today folks.  I’m a bit burned out and really distracted by old Dresden Dolls videos on youtube right now.

Good thing I am already in lounge clothes that blends in with my couch!  This dress is basically a big t-shirt, which works well for both work and for lounging.  Winning.forever 21 dress

forever 21 dress 3

forever 21 dress2

forever 21 dress 4

dress: f21 – cardigan: jcrew – tights: uniqlo – boots: madewell