teacher outfits – Page 3 – Teachers Have Lives Too!

08/28/201708/29/2017 Erika S. outfits

Feeling Wild

Hi all, today we started week two of the school year, and as you can probably imagine (and empathize), I’ve been busy, too busy to blog my back log of photos! I have 4 sets of photos from last week with some guest appearances from other teachers, but they will have to come later. Tonight I have just enough time to talk a tiny bit about my outfit from today before I hit the hay.

At the start of summer (right at the end of my 6 month shopping ban), I popped into J.Crew to see what they had in the sale racks. I found this prim, stripe-y shirt, and bought it with out much thought. The moment I got home, I regretted the purchase. I just know that this is destined to be one of those shirts I wear once a year. It’s one of those shirts that will need ironing after each wash, and I know myself too well – I won’t do it more than once or twice a year. I’m that lazy. It’s cute enough and proper enough to be a work closet staple – if only it was one of those wrinkle free fabrics. Needless to say, today was the first day I wore it, and it will probably make another appearance in the spring, but that just might be it. Ironing is the worst!

These shoes on the other hand…ARE THE BEST. So ridiculously soft and comfortable, chic and casual, perfect for school. I’ve been watching youtube videos from Aimee Song and Lizzy Hadfield, and both of them wear their Gucci loafer slides all the time and they make them look really effortlessly cool. There is no way in flying hell I’m ever spending that much on shoes ($650!!!!!), so I went searching for a more affordable option. These Banana Republic demi slides are IT. I’ve worn them to school 3 times in the past 2 weeks, and for someone who has a ridiculous amount of shoes, that’s got to be saying something. Right?

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shirt: j.crew – belt and shoes: banana republic – jeans: f21

08/20/201708/23/2017 Erika S. outfits

Teacher Report Week

Last week was my first week back to school from summer vacation, and I’m feeling very “unrested” still. I’m not ready for school to start again – there’s still so much summer left and I still have things on my bucket list! I haven’t yet climbed my 14ers for the year, and I only made it to one (out of 4) Colorado National Park. These two months have flown by, and I bet the next ten months will crawl by. Some people live for the weekends, turns out I live for the summer vacations. B, on the other hand, is happy I’m going back to work. He works from home and says I’m a distraction. *shrug*

This week I’ve been sticking to jeans and t-shirts. I’m just not ready to start wearing “work” clothes yet. My legs are pretty scarred up from getting mauled by mosquitos so shorter skirts and dresses are staying in the closet for the rest of the summer for the most part. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m kind of ready for winter clothes again. Cue the chugging air conditioning in my new classroom! A light sweatshirt has been very handy lately, so it’s a good thing I picked up two new ones recently!

The first one I bought during my trip to New York in early August. I had received a catalog randomly one day in the mail from United by Blue, and thought the brand looked interesting. They make their clothes from sustainable materials, and run community cleanups where trash is removed from waterways and beaches. They only have stores in NYC and Philadelphia, so I made a mental note to check them out during my few days in Brooklyn. I lucked out and went on the last day they were having a big sale, so I picked up this super soft perfect-for-the-Colorado-aesthetic pullover and a pair of board shorts (which at this rate won’t be needed ’til next summer).

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sweatshirt: united by blue – tshirt and belt: urban outfitters – jeans: mother denim – shoes: adiddas

This next sweatshirt was a birthday gift from B. I had pinned it sometime a while ago, and I guess he went Pinterest stalking to get ideas. He really is the best. Heaps of other teachers said they loved my sweatshirt when I wore it during one of our millions of various staff meetings. I mean, we all do our best, daily. I think this is the best teacher sweatshirt ever, and I plan on wearing it all through the fall and winter. I just hope it doesn’t shrink in the wash, as it doesn’t feel like it’s made from the best quality material. Also, the inside fuzzies shed all over everything since it’s still new. Fingers crossed! The color is listed as an “ivory”, but it’s really a very light peachy pink color which is different from what I normally wear. Underneath I wore a new-in-this-summer tank from Madewell that is made out of a ribbed sweater material that gives me serious 70’s vibes. Come next week though, they will be stored away for the weekends since students come back on Tuesday!

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sweatshirt: bando – tank: madewell – belt: urban outfitters – jeans: mother denim – shoes: birkenstock

06/02/201706/02/2017 Erika S. outfits, teaching

Reflections on the School Year

The last day of school for teachers is finally here! It’s been a year of extremes – and I’m writing this up in my new classroom (at the same school)! After 3 years of photographing outfits in room B201, I am moving to a new science room that is properly set up with a fume hood. I’m teaching Chemistry next year, for the first time ever. That’s right, every year is a new challenge, and every year is a different beast to slay! So goodbye, room B201, you’ve been good to me. Hello, room B241!

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sunnies: freebie swag from b – cardigan: american apparel – top: f21 – jeans: mother denim – belt: jcrew – shoes: saltwater sandals

This year was like a split personality. On one end, I had the best year I’ve ever had with students. This was the first year I’ve ever had students actually thank me on a daily basis. More than one kid did this, every day. It seems silly, and it seems small, but holy crap! After 6 years of investing mentally, emotionally, and introspectively into my classroom with (what felt like more often than not) zero thanks for my hard work, this year’s batch of amazing young humans breathed new life into me. The letters I got at the end of the year really made my efforts totally worth it. I had kids write me that they “will never look at the world the same way again”, and “thank you for making me enjoy science”, and “you’re a really good teacher who isn’t afraid to expose their students to the real world, it is important that you do that because it sticks”. Words can’t even express how good this feels. I just can’t even. *tears*

On the other, I had a very challenging year with the educational system. At our closing meeting this morning, our principal talked about the importance of never giving up on our students, and advocating for them, no matter what it takes. The word advocate really stuck in my mind, because I thought about all my kids and how I will always advocate for them, and of their letters thanking me for it. But then I thought, who is advocating for me? Am I my only advocate (professionally)? Do we teachers all have to fight our own individual battles, or is that just part of the culture here at my school? Here in Denver, we have an evaluation system tied to your pay, and tied to whether or not you get to keep your job. It is not meant (or maybe used?) to actually help you grow as an educator, because there’s too much at stake professionally. In addition, there is absolutely no incentive to go above and beyond, because to be better than just an “effective” teacher is to be a unicorn. I don’t want to go down a negative rabbit hole, because that’s not where my heart is. Instead, I’ll leave you with this picture of a pin, and a picture of how rewarding teaching can feel.

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05/23/2017 Erika S. outfits

Last Fridays

There are only 2 (two) more Fridays left in the school year. Final exams start tomorrow, and end by this Friday. I’m giving up on wearing anything more than jeans and t shirts from here on out. This is what I wore to school last Friday, because it snowed that day, and I was still cold. Harrumph.

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pullover: patagonia – tshirt: upper playground – jeans: mother denim – shoes: vans – watch: fitbit blaze – belt: urban outfitters

05/14/201705/14/2017 Erika S. outfits

Cusp of Spring

It’s warming up here in Denver, but it’s been a rocky spring. Our garden was first pummeled by a late spring snow storm, only to get ripped to shreds by a hail storm a couple of weeks later! This set of photos are from the start of the month, in the thick of the weather see-saw that is spring in Colorado.

This shirt dress is from COS, picked up during my spring break trip to Toronto. It’s roomy, edgy, fun, and it HAS POCKETS! I wore it out to a girl’s night dinner, and I was asked exactly 4 times if I was headed to Denver Fashion Week after dinner by servers and strangers. That MUST mean something cool – right? The leggings are from Costco (they have heaps more than just food!), and they are the softest, warmest, leggings ever. More to come from Costco in the future. None of it is particularly fashionable, or glamorous, but very, very, practical.

On a side, note, B and I got engaged! more to come on that later.

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sweater and dress:cos – leggings: costco – boots: blundstone – bracelet: julia szendrei

03/17/201703/17/2017 Erika S. outfits

Miss! Are You Wearing Makeup?!

I started this post about 2 weeks ago, and then promptly forgot about it. So here it is…2 weeks later!

This past Tuesday, I wore makeup to school – like I do every day. On this day, however, it was a big deal to 3rd period. The “Do-Now” conversation turned into “Miss! Are you wearing makeup today?” “Miss! do you have a date tonight, is that why?” and “Miss! you look pretty.” Thanks for the ego boost kids!

The truth is, I wear makeup every day, but that morning, I decided to add bit bit of eye liner – one extra step that I don’t normally do. My everyday morning routine consists of hitting the snooze about 4 times, dragging myself out of bed to brush the teeth, wash the face, moisturize said face with SPF, and get dressed. Once those things are done, it’s makeup time. I slap on a light skin base of some sort, stave off the inevitable oily sheen with some powder, run some brown goop over the brows, and dab some life in the form of blush onto my cheeks. Then I head downstairs to pour about 32 fl. oz. of coffee into travel thermoses (I set the coffee maker the night before), grab a snack bar for lunch and head out the door. 20 min later I’m on my way in to school.

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sweater: j.crew – blouse: madewell – jeans: j.brand – boots: h&m – belt: banana republic – everything old and not currently in stores

03/02/201703/02/2017 Erika S. outfits

Spring Forward

I’m already looking ahead to Spring, and it’s not even really here yet. B and I started plannning our new and expanded #discoverygarden in the middle of February, with snow actively falling. In the fall, B and I broke up our front yard (old dead lawn) and right-of-way to make room for more garden space. We’ve now tripled our previous garden square footage! I can’t wait for when we can finally plant at the end of April and the start of May.

The weather here in Denver is still frigid though, so I’m still dressing the part with dark colors and wool. The bright late 2000’s J.Crew style lipstick is still going strong, today with Nars ‘Funny Face’. I’m also still on my shopping ban though, so everything here is old or a hand me down from my sister. I did break my shopping ban to back this kickstarter project though – It was just too good to pass up!

Beyond Curie: Celebrating Badass Women in Science

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glasses: warby parker – cardigan: f21 – shirt: madewell – pants: j.crew – shoes: anthropologie – lipstick: nars funny face

02/16/201702/16/2017 Erika S. outfits

Last 2 Days

I’m on a shopping ban till June – no shopping of any kind. No new clothes or beauty products, no extras of anything I don’t actaully truly need. It’s going to be tough, but it’s also forcing me to “shop my closet”. It’s a ridiculous phrase, because it feeds into our consumerist addiction of shopping by not shopping – the exact habit I’m trying to break! On the plus side though, I’ve been rediscovering loads of old loves.

I watched this Valentine’s Day make up tutorial the other day by Chrissstttiiine, and it reminded me of how much I drooled over the J.Crew style makeup back in 2010. Bright matte lips and minimal everything else – exactly what I love. The next day I went rummaging through my lipstick collection (it’s embarassingly superflous) and dug out my old trusty NARS lipstick in Heat Wave. It’s always been a “summer color” for me in the past, but it’s been worryingly hot here in Denver this past week. In fact, we hit the record for the hottest february day ever last Friday at 80˚F. I’ve worn the same lipstick 2 days in a row now – something that almost never happens.

Today, on her way into 5th period, a kid said “Miss, you look like a character out of something today…your lipstick and the stripes…I don’t know, it’s a look”. I’m not sure what that means, but I interpreted it as, “Miss, you look super chic today, like straight out of a French-y scene in a J.Crew catalog!” right?!?

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shirt: uniqlo – jeans: f21 – belt: banana republic – shoes: mia – lipstick: nars heat wave

Yesterday, I dug out all of the old favorites. Everything I wore yesterday has been in my closet for at least 4 years if not more. My old favorite Madewell wool flannel blazer I picked up in DC while shopping with my sister. The oldest pair of Forever 21 jeans I bought back in my first year of teaching (worn 2 days in a row). The first pair of ankle boots I bought back in 2009 when everyone was all about tall riding style boots and I thought I was so hip to wear low ankle booties. The oldest t-shirt I own, so thin it’s almost too risque for school. All to match one of my oldest lipsticks. This is a lot of talk about old stuff. I’m approaching middle age. The next step to to buy a motorcyle (I reeeeeaaaaaaly want one again!) and wear all of my oldest and favorite-st clothes forever. In fact, I wore this same exact outfit back in 2012 on a trip to NYC before we moved there. So old.

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blazer: madewell – tshirt: threads 4 thought – jeans: f21 – belt: gap – boots: nordstrom bp – lipstick: nars heat wave

01/10/2017 Erika S. outfits, seriousness, teaching

Questions for Teachers

I have foot-in-mouth disease, and it’s been getting me into trouble for as long as I can remember. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve said the wrong thing, at the wrong time, to the wrong person anymore. Sometimes the more extreme of these moments can haunt me for years (not an exaggeration), and I spiral into a death pit of shame, regret, and embarrassment, every time something triggers the memory of what I had said. A bit dramatic? Yes. But it’s #truths. Occasionally I have to remind myself that it’s better to just have awkward silence than to say the wrong thing. I’m pretty bad at small talk and socializing in general with strangers – combine that with my RBF, and I’m doomed.

Today I had one of those foot-in-mouth moments AT WORK. Oh god. I need to remind myself just to shut up more often during staff/department/grade team meetings. Today I basically told an admin that it was “irresponsible” to give a teacher multiple preps (multiple courses to prep for), when one of those preps is an AP course that has never been taught before by that teacher or even at the school (especially when a teacher is new to teaching). When I left the meeting and re-played things in my head, a flush of “oh my god what if that was taken the wrong way, I should have chosen better words!” came over me. #deathpitspiral

So here I am with a lot of questions for the teachers out there. I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about how I spend my time as a teacher, specifically how I can optimize time in terms of planning/grading/etc to stave off burn-out. I would also like to get a pulse on what is considered fair game in terms of the work expectations placed on teachers.

First, how much time does it take you on average to plan a lesson for one course? I find that if I’m planning a lesson from scratch it takes me on average 2 hours to complete, from finding resources, creating the PowerPoint slides, and creating the handouts/worksheets. I have never worked out of a book, and I’ve never heard of a science teacher teaching from pre-built lessons/curriculum. If I get to reuse materials from previous years that work time gets cut down, but I still have to lesson plan and create new slides every year. Am I doing something wrong? How long does it take you to plan a lesson?

Secondly, how many preps do you think is reasonable for a teacher to have? Two preps? Three preps? Four preps? This year, I have 3 preps – AP Bio, Honors Bio, and Regular Bio. At our school, we teach 5 classes and have 8 hour school days, which means I teach for 5.5 hours and have 1-2 hours a day to prep (on average, with block schedules and meetings).

Lastly, what types of additional tasks are you asked to do regularly on top of teaching, planning, grading, meetings, etc? At our school, we have stacks on stacks of data tracking spread sheets, surveys, analysis, and plans that we have to submit. Do you consider these documentation tasks to be fair game as a part of the job description?

I have a very real fear of being the ever present negative complainer, which leads to even more foot-in-mouth moments. Please, teacher friends and readers, give me some fresh perspective!

In the mean time, here is my throwback to the 90s outfit from today. I picked this dress up at Urban Outfitters a little while ago, and decided to go all out Sassy Magazine in the mid 90’s style with my Docs and my granny-chic new glasses from Warby Parker x Leith Clark. It was fun getting dressed this morning.

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glasses: warby parker – cardigan: uniqlo – dress: urban outfitters – tights and tank: h&m – boots: dr. martins

12/16/201612/16/2016 Erika S. outfits

This Week.

This past week has been craaaaaazy. It started off with a holiday party on Monday, went on to a 13 hour work day Tuesday, into Finals week, and is ending today (Friday) with another holiday party.

The Fall semester is winding down to a close with the last 2 final exams taking place on Monday. Grades are due the following day, and we are on winter vacation starting Thursday. It’s been a great semester – I’ve been growing as an educator without feeling overwhelmed, and my kids have been super awesome. Teaching AP Bio is super cool, as the kids are self motivated and more importantly excited for my class every day. Mind blowing, seriously. All my classes have been awesome – these kids man, they really warm my heart to the core every day, even when my face still looks stone cold.

I really hope it all continues to go well next semester – but I’m wary since I’m getting an additional class to teach come January. This means my average 45 hour/week job is turning into a 50+ hour/week job, which to me is not sustainable. Fingers crossed I find magical time in my day to make it all work! Sadly, we (in science) all know there is no such thing as magic. I crush my students’ dreams all the time when we get to the unit where we discuss the Conservation of Matter and the first Law of Thermodynamics. It’s when I tell them that magic doesn’t exist, and while we’re at it, Santa Claus doesn’t either. Nothing can be created or destroyed, only converted. So back in the day, the Santa Claus I thought I saw in my living room just converted his clothes from dad clothes to a red furry Santa outfit! I’m so mean. Just to remind every one so I don’t start getting hate comments, these are 15 year olds.

On Monday, I got dressed with “day to night” in mind. I knew I’d be at school late (hello finals week!), and that I would have to rush just about straight from school to a holiday party at the Breckenridge Brewery in Littleton, CO. Brewery tours aren’t exactly the place for typical sparkly holiday outfits, but I still wanted to spice it up a bit. Good thing I had new boots to throw on! I picked these up from the Madewell site recently with all the great holiday sales going on. They are calf hair, meaning they feel even more like a dead animal than just plain leather. I really am a terrible person. Lastly, I topped it all off with the goth-iest of lipsticks I own, Kat Von D Liquid Lipstick in Damned. Because damn, I’m damned after that last comment about my shoes being made from baby cows. Terrible.

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