Erika S. outfits, teaching

so funny

Its a new year, and we were back in school on the 2nd.  In SF, we usually got a full 2 weeks off for winter holiday.  Here in NY, it’s a “measly” but well enjoyed week and a half.  Woe is me.  I was ready to be back with my kids, and more than ready to flex my humor bone.  B laughs at me my jokes all the time usually.  The only time I ever hear crickets in my class is when I make a silly science pun.   It’s a good thing that I like poop and fart jokes too otherwise I’d never get a reaction out of them.  So I decided to end the first week back with a bang of a t-shirt.  I was breaking the unspoken “teacher professional” dress code at my school by wearing a t-shirt.  gasp!  with jeans.  double gasp!  None of my professionally dressed colleagues said anything, and I got many chuckles from the kids, so whateves.
so funny

This t-shirt is pretty old.  So is the cardigan which is now half the size it used to be thanks to many rounds of washing (everything shrinks for me, even when washed strictly in cold water and air dried).  What is new are the rain booties.  We all know I have a thing for booties, and with the harsh Brooklyn weather combined with my daily trek to/from school, I figured I could justify adding a pair of weather proof booties to my collection.  Also, LL Bean had a 30% off Bean boots promotion one of the days leading up to Christmas, so I jumped on it.  So cute and so New England-ish, no?

so funny

so funny

cardigan: super old from therapy in SF – tshirt: loyal army – high waisted jeans: bdg – boots: ll bean – necklace: unicorn crafts – lipstick: coral colours #867, send from australia by B’s mom (it’s pretty awesome)

Last bit – I’m a bread making machine lately since B got me a cast iron dutch oven for christmas.  The easiest classic recipe ever, though I’m on the lookout for flavor tinkering changes (hello sourdough starter!!!).  It’s my cheat day today so I plan on eating this entire loaf.

MMmmmm Breeeead

Erika S. seriousness, teaching

I had been searching for some words for the Sandy Hook tragedy for some time. Monday rolled around and I still had no words about it, I had gone the entire weekend avoiding reading anything on the news. At our grade team meeting that morning, Sara (English) asked how were were going to address it with our crews (homerooms). I replied that I wasn’t. By the time I walked out of the meeting and on to my first class of the day, I felt empty and unable to empathize with other teachers who were touched and struck to their core by the events in Connecticut. I told myself that maybe I should stop avoiding it and just read up on it and allow myself to process the emotions, as a human being and as a teacher. I went home that night and read about how a teacher tried to shield her students from bullets, how another teacher hid her students in a cabinet and told the shooter they were in the library. I read about how the first responders to the commotion in the hallway – the principal and vice principal – were the first ones down. I read all about it and started choking up.

As I read, I pictured myself frantically shoving my students – 15 year olds – into the closets in the back to my classroom to hide them. I thought about how I keep the door to my classroom locked all the time and how that would probably be a good thing. There is no doubt in my mind that I will do my best to protect my students – even the ones that call me names.

Today is Wednesday, and until today, I still had no words for the horrific actions of one man with access to ridiculous guns. But now I do – part of what I love (and sometimes hate) about my job is how emotionally invested I am in my students. So faced with a similar situation, I would also try my best to shield them.

This blog post by a fellow teacher helps fill out the rest of my words relating to the recent media coverage of teachers like me, both before and after Sandy Hook.

Lisa Myers's avatarlisamyers.org

Please see the follow-up to this letter at http://lisamyers.org/2012/12/31/a-follow-up-to-dear-america-from-a-teacher/.

Dear America,

It feels strange to hear your voice praising teachers for their selflessness, dedication, and love for their students. We’re listening to what you’re saying, but we must admit that we are listening with tilted head and quizzical eye. Why? Because we’ve become accustomed to hearing a very different voice from you.

For the past few years, you’ve been certain that most of society’s problems stem from our schools, more specifically the teachers in those schools. We are lazy and useless, we are only in it for the money, we only teach for the vacation time, we don’t possess the intelligence to teach anyone much of anything, our demands for a respectable wage are selfish, we don’t teach students respect, we are leeches sucking the blood from State coffers, we don’t even work a full day like everyone else, and…

View original post 596 more words

Erika S. teaching

Due Dates

Today was a big day in my class – our first full lab report was due.  Remember those?  All those sections: introduction, materials and methods, data and results and conclusion.

Lab reports are not easy for 15 year olds, so I built in a lot of hand-holding and supports for my little young adults. I assigned it 2 weeks ago and had daily “check for understandings” for the due date.  I gave them an instruction sheet, an outline, and an example lab report to look at. I gave them a lab report template where all they had to do was complete the sentences. I gave them time in class (2 class days) to work on it and I made myself available every day after school and via email to help them.

Today was the big day.  I hold in my hand 10 complete lab reports…out of 85 students.  FAIL.

I did gather a few NOT AMUSING excuses though. Real gems:

“I didn’t know it was due today!”   FACE PALM

“Lab report?  What Lab report?”   DOUBLE FACE PALM

“I need help on it!  can I come after school to get help?”  YOU’RE WAITING UNTIL THE DAY IT’S DUE TO ASK FOR HELP!?!?!?

“Oh, I didn’t get it.  I don’t understand it.”  FOR REAL?!?!

“Oops.”  FACE PALM

“Can I give it you you tomorrow?”  YES

“Can I email it to you tonight?”  YES

Erika S. teaching

losing it.

Remember this post?  Today was a repeat, the second time this year.  The worst part about it?  I should have seen it coming — there were a mountain of warnings as to how badly my day was going to go today.

Hint #1:  I was getting emotional and almost shed tears over how amazing these kids are when watching the ballet documentary First Position last night while doing my nails.  hormonally triggered emotions.

Hint #2: I’m set to be officially observed tomorrow and today’s classes were supposed to be “rehearsal” on how my lesson will go for tomorrow’s class.  pressure.

Hint #3: I’m feeling especially stressed lately with our school’s student-led conferences coming up where my crew kids have to prepare for and present to their parents and other adults in the community what they have learned over the course of the semester; presentations that some of my crew kids need major help with – and they are a reflection of me.  pressure.

Hint #4: I had accidentally ground too many coffee beans that morning and instead of just leaving the grounds for tomorrow, I just added it to today’s pot.  Tooo much coffeeeeee by the time lunch rolled around.  jitters.

Hint #5: I spent all morning in meetings, parts of which were helpful and I find value in, others not so much (just a time suckage).  frustration.

Hint $6: I haven’t been able to really eat lunch since school started. But today I did, an apple which jacked up my blood sugar level right in time for my first class.  jitters.  nausea.

Hint #7: That familiar lump started forming in my throat within the first 5 minutes of class, when not a single kid would shut the hell up, get settled into class and start writing their do-now.  frustration.

Hint #8: This first class of the day has a handful of boys that just love to push buttons.  anger and frustration.

Again, I should have seen it coming and I didn’t.  I lost my shit.  

I went on a tirade about “if you want to play games, there’s the door.” and “what was that?  you want to repeat what you just said again louder to me?” — The kid has just whispered “fucking bitch” under his breath.

So one kid getting kicked out led to a second kid talking about how I’m doing too much. Second kid gets kicked out too — but then refuses to leave.  This kid then goes on his own tirade about how it’s illegal for me to kick him out of class and how he’s not going anywhere.  Which (of course, I shoulda known), led to yet a third kid to mouth off and get kicked out because “he doesn’t care anyway”.  So two kids in the hall (first and third), one of them yelling out “Cunt!” as he walks out.  The second one kid had to get escorted out by the principal.

I held it together for the next 2 hours or so, tried my best not to let the first class sour the second.  Allowed myself to cry for 5 min, wiped off my face and went to yet another meeting for 45 min.

The worst part?  I should have seen it coming.  I should not have yelled, I should not have kicked those boys out, I should not have let them get to me.  They’re teenagers with no sense of how their words and actions may affect others.  I should have controlled my anger, frustration and emotions a bit better.  Instead, I let myself get into a situation, which then set these boys up to fail.  So in the end, I’m more disappointed in myself than I am upset with the boys.

Lessons learned:

1) don’t make coffee extra strong anymore.

2) when I feel that lump of anger/tears coming up my throat, it’s time to take a breather – someone can always cover for 5 min.

3) don’t threaten kids with consequences with getting kicked out, it will only set them off to be even more defiant, which then leads to being called a “cunt”.

Erika S. outfits, teaching

mad easy.

In effort to avoid looking like I was attending a funeral today, I threw in some reddish/maroonish/berryish colored tights.  The tights just happened to match my maroonish booties – a happy coincidence.  To complete this berry theme, the boots and tights also matched my not-so-new-anymore-since-I-wear-it-all-the-time-now Rimmel ‘bordeaux’ lipstick.   Some kid today said that I actually looked a bit “teacher-ish” except for the red tights and boots that elicit a “omg I love your shoes” type response.  So….the trick to looking like a teacher is: bun, glasses, black dress, black cardigan.  Thanks, kid for the fashion advice.  I’ll remember it, because unlike you (for now), I am good at listening (most of the time).

glasses: warby parker – circle scarf and necklace: h&m (I think, it’s hella old) – cardigan: j.crew – dress and tights: uniqlo (last year) – booties: ecote via uo

By the way, my lesson today was on graphing.  As in what is a graph, which is the X axis, how to graph using a table and identifying the independent vs. dependent variable.

Kid: Miss, this is maaad easy!  Why are we doing this?

Thinking to myself: Yeah, it should be ‘mad easy’, considering they’re in the 10th grade.

Me: If you think it’s so ‘maaaad easy’, then why was your graph hella wrong on the cellular respiration lab?

Kid: What’s ‘hella’, miss?

Mental note: replace ‘hella’ with ‘mad’ from now on.

Erika S. teaching

Pan Fan or Pun Faan

This is how I felt after a kid asked me today if he could get all his missing work for the quarter that just ended yesterday.

Happened again when a kid asked, “Ms. Schenck, have you graded our essays yet?”  The essays were due that period.

Happened again when a kid emailed me his essay, then emailed me again to say, “it’s not done yet”.

Seriously though, I love these kids and I’m glad I even get to experience these insane reactions at my job.  Much better than experiencing one emotion (bordom) over and over and over everyday.    Thanks kids, for keeping it real and making it interesting.

In the same humor vein, please, please check out this blog, Singing Pigs by a teacher in somewhere, USA.  In particular, check out this amazingly hilarious post as well as this one.

Erika S. outfits, teaching

Hey, Miss! What can I do to raise my grade?

“So..Miss? What can I do to raise my grade?”
“Ummm….you can do your work for once because right now it’s too little too late buddy, you’re shit out of luck let’s see what you are missing and hopefully you can complete it by the end of today, which is when I have to turn in grades.”

It never fails: on the day grades are due, a full 3 days since my deadline for turning in late work, I always get some kid who tries to complete all their missing work in one fell swoop. It’s not going to happen buddy. What is going to happen now is bi-weekly progress reports.

This is me leaving school late in the evening, but not even close to being the last one out– head cut off because no one is ever cute after such a long day with teenagers.

necklace: unicorn crafts – scarf: who knows anymore, it’s hella old and actually pretty boring – dress: old madewell that is finally on sale (never mind, they’re sold out) – cardigan: j.crew – coats (that’s right, I’m wearing 2 now since it’s so cold): marmot and h&m (old)- tights and hidden heat tech shorts underneath: uniqlo – boots: boutique 9 – same old same old bag: freitag

Erika S. outfits, parties

Going Out

B and I actually “went out” friday night, meaning went out to a place that didn’t involve our couch. Amazing really, considering that for the past few months we’ve spent just about every weekend on our couch, drinking wine and watching movies.  All domestic and shit.  This domestic and shit phenomenon is a common thing among teachers – in bed by 10pm, awake by 6am and forced to be perky by 8am when the kiddos walk in your classroom door.  So by the time the weekend rolls around, all you want to do is marinate on the couch hugging a bottle of wine.  If anything, you might head out to the local bar with your other teacher buddies, drops some cash on beer and unhealthy bar food while you discuss dropping knowledge on shared students.  This Friday night however, B and I had a plan – we had an invite to a Punch Party at B’s friend Darren’s house in the Lower East Side.

After 30 min of rifling through my closet, B hassling me to hurry up and 5 outfit changes, I resigned myself to the going out basics.  Skinny black pants, a basic t-shirt, black boots and red lipstick.  There is still a whole bunch of exciting things going on, while still being basic enough to not feel like you’re out on a sartorial limb.  This is my new go-to fashion philosophy:  Basic, reliable and comfy but with a few interesting details.  My two details for the night were my new hard-ass studded booties and a new lipstick, Red Square by Nars.  All together exciting enough for this increasingly fashionably lazy teacher out on a Friday night.  Didn’t even bother putting in contacts or changing my ever present teacher-bun-hair!

glasses: warby parker beckett – jacket: two year old madewell, but similar one here – flannel: uniqlo – t-shirt (which I looove, btw) & booties: zara – belt and pants (got mine on super sale): j.crew – necklace: f21 

Erika S. teaching, trips

Crew Camping

As some of you may already know, I spent all of last week on a camping/backpacking trip with my crew.  That’s right, 5 whole days with 12 teenagers.  Our school is an Expeditionary Learning network school (we are not a charter school, though I think a few others are), and we are also an NYC Outward Bound school.  These are two overlapping programs here in NYC that are pretty intertwined, one setting the tone for curriculum and management of the school while the other offers outdoor opportunities to help develop character in our students.  This week-long camping trip to Sharpe Reservation (part of the Fresh Air Fund) is taken by all 9th graders with their crews (their homeroom for the next 4 years) and focuses on outdoors skills, leadership, communication and teamwork simultaneously.

New York couldn’t have been any more gorgeous for our trip.  In 5 days, my crew and I backpacked for 2 nights (in the rain), completed 2 high ropes elements, 3 low ropes elements and hiked about 6 miles.  In between, we sang songs, played games, settled differences, mediated drama (teenage hormones), learned how to properly poop out in the woods, laughed and cried (me – once, out of frustration).  We couldn’t have done it all without our two incredibly patient guides, Bill and Julia.  I owe them my gratitude for keeping me sane.  I love the outdoors/camping and I love my crew.  Those are two things that were completely mutually exclusive for me…’til last week. I survived!

Check out the Outward Bound blog for more on our trip and for photos with student faces.

Erika S. outfits

home work = домашняя работа

I have a good number of Eastern European/Cental Asian students this year, coming from countires such as Uzbekistan, Ukraine and Tajikistan.  Many of them speak limited/survival English at best, but they all speak Russian.  So it’s been a struggle teaching them biology…in English.  I rely on using pictures to illustrate concepts, using vocabulary charts and other students to fill in the blanks.  Today, I learned a new Russian word, which I have been using probably all too often to describe everything.  домашняя работа (domashnyaya rabota), which means homework, as in “Unless you can tell me right now what the ‘Z-scheme’ is in photosynthesis, I can tell you straight copied your domashnyaya rabota from the internet.”  That’s right.  Do your domashnyaya rabota!!

This corduroy pea coat has been a staple in my closet for the past 6 years at least.  I got it ages and ages ago from the Gap, way back when my old roommate Lori worked there.  Its the best cut ever – boxy in the body but slim in the arms.  So you have room to move and layer underneath, but you don’t end up looking like Popeye the Sailor Man with huge arms.

coat: hella old gap – cardigan: hella old therapy – dress: gap – tights: uniqlo – high socks: asos – booties: steven by steve madden