fashion – Page 7 – Teachers Have Lives Too!

10/11/201310/11/2013 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.
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cardigan: uniqlo – shirt: madewell – jeans: uniqlo – shoes: madewell

10/09/2013 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!

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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

09/29/201309/30/2013 Erika S. outfits, trips

Weekends as a Xiao Yi

Xiao Yi means “little aunt” in Mandarin, and that’s what I am when I’m down in DC. I try to make the trek down there at least once a month to see my little niece Jojo. One day she will start calling me xiao yi and I want to be there so she can put a face to a name. She only 7 months old right now though, so I guess I’ve got some time.

I hopped on the bus for the 4 hour trip down to DC friday night and met up with this guy. My old Viking friend Aurora also lives in DC so I took the opportunity to meet up with her and her little man Macaroni for a drink.

Saturday, My sister Kris and I hopped aboard her friend’s boat in Annapolis for a sail around the Chesapeake Bay. I spent my high school years on the San Francisco Bay sailing with the Sea Scouts, and it feels fantastic to be out on the water. I’ll take any and all invitations for sailing. I spent a lot of the day on the boat thinking about how different my life would have been if I had joined the Coasties out of high school or if I had gone to Cal Maritime Academy instead of pursuing biology and teaching.

Sunday was brunch day and auntie time with Jojo. My sister picked the place and her friend Sean joined us. We rounded out the afternoon with oyster shooters before dropping me off to hop on the bus for the ride back to Brooklyn.
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Sean helped me snap a photo of my new Zara sweater dress. This dress is a bit out of my comfort zone with it’s clinginess, but it’s a weekend and it’s comfortable but edgy-ish all at the same time. I’m digging Zara lately with the simple lines and colors in their fall line up. Not too jazzed about the glitter in the fabric, but I guess you can’t win ’em all.

sunnies: knockaround – dress: zara – bag: freitag – shoes: madewell, borrowed from kris

09/23/2013 Erika S. outfits

Autumnal

It’s Fall — meaning it’s time to bust out the flannels and the checks! It was a cool 65˚F here in Brooklyn and I couldn’t be happier with this SF-like weather. It’s the third week of school and I’m still working on trying to find a nice groove in my work flow. Student schedules are still changing and I’m still trying to figure out how to teach my Urban Agriculture class (culinary/healthy eating/urban farming). I’m channeling my inner Brooklyn hipster farmer today. Also, new fall boots! I had a very weak moment while browsing at Madewell and am now suffering from wallet guilt. They’re tearing my heels apart right now as I break them in, but I’m holding out that they will eventually soften up. Fingers crossed that I can finally stop with the constant blister first aid!

End of the day yawns – pretty much par for the course on a Monday afternoon.

glasses: warby parker – shirt: uniqlo – jeans: bdg – boots: madewell

09/11/201309/11/2013 Erika S. outfits

To a Tee

I found this skirt at the start of summer at Beacon’s closet. My friend Grace and I were out for a lazy walk in our ‘hood when we stopped in on a whim. I’d been there to root around a few times before, but generally speaking, thrifting is not something a get a thrill out of. But this day was my lucky day! Equal parts cheeky, cute and teacher friendly. It also fit me to a tee. Zing! I don’t play golf at all. My only experience with golf was back in ’98 when I went with a boyfriend at the time to the driving range (back when there was one in Mission Bay) where he hit (drove?) a bucket of balls and I just watched.
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It was hot as hell today and some ridiculous percent humidity. My hair was down for all of the five minutes it too me to take these photos at lunch. Also, the sweat just makes my glasses slide right off — it’s a constant battle to push them up, which means I ~~get to~~ inadvertently give people the finger sometimes.

to a tee

glasses: warby parker (I really want them in seaglass blue too) – tank: super old banana republic – skirt: beacon’s closet – shoes: worishofer

09/09/2013 Erika S. outfits

First Day

This is my 5th first day of school, and by far the best. The lesson went smoothly, the kids were all engaged and I didn’t loose my mind. A success!! This morning, I got on the subway and counted 5 other teachers on the same car as me. It’s funny, I feel like I can spot fellow teachers from a mile away: The large tote-ish bag, the hair pulled back in a no nonsense bun, conservative but still youthful dresses (mostly florals) and a zen-but-frazzled-on-the-inside demeanor. That was me to a T today (except for the florals). Of course, there was a cardigan involved at first…till I started to sweat right through it. Then I started to regret my choice of top. You win some, you lose some I guess.

glasses: warby parker – tank: j.crew – skirt and shoes: madewell (last seen here

09/06/201309/06/2013 Erika S. outfits

end of summer

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

05/28/201305/28/2013 Erika S. outfits

Ghosting out

The school is starting to thin out. Last day of proper instruction is in 2 weeks, all major projects are in and and the year is seriously winding down. So students have been ghosting in and out of class. Today, our school held our biannual Presentation of Learning, where students man course tables and present one project they have worked on in the past semester. Here is Cathy impressing the hell out of a few teachers with a print out (no internet) of her blog from our blogging intensive week. ❤
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My dress is new – an impulse purchase (even on super sale) while shopping in DC one weekend with my sister, and not well suited for the rain we had today.

dress: equipment – shoes: madewell

05/16/2013 Erika S. outfits

Women

This skirt makes me feel womanly – like I’m finally dressing for my age, which thankfully has not started with a 1 or a 2 for a little while. It feels good to be mature sometimes and out of colored skinny jeans (like yesterday). Today was a long day and very trying. I laughed, teased, lectured and lost it all in between 8am and 5pm. By the time I got home I wanted to glue myself onto the couch and never get off. I am a woman of few words today, with the new Daft Punk album to keep me company on the couch.

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cardigan and tshirt: j.crew – belt: gap – skirt: anthropologie last seen here– shoes: sweedish hasbeens

05/15/2013 Erika S. outfits

Peas and Hearts

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. peas