uniqlo – Page 4 – Teachers Have Lives Too!

10/03/201410/03/2014 Erika S. outfits

Zipping up

It’s been slow on the blog front, because you know…”students first” right? Students trump sleep, lunch, bathroom breaks, alone time, relationship time, sanity and your emotional stability. I got this sweater on super sale right before I left New York in the dead of summer. Denver is getting properly cold finally. I wore the boots I’ve dubbed my alien boots because they remind me of something Sigourney Weaver would have worn in the movie Aliens. They make me feel bad ass. Up until I get an angry mis-informed voicemail forwarded to me by my principal from the mom of one of my mean girls who have been tormenting me. FUN. Sorry for the negativity guys, I’m just not feeling it today. Since I really have nothing good to say about teaching in Denver so far, I’m just going to zip my trap before it gets out of hand.

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glasses: warby parker – sweater: nordstrom rack – jeans: uniqlo – boots: deena & ozzy/urban outfitters

09/18/201409/18/2014 Erika S. outfits

Backpackin’

The days have been long and hard lately. I’ve taught 12th graders before, but the batch I have this year for Physics are just too cool for school. I started the year off thinking I could give them a lot of freedom and personal responsibility, only to realize that they just can’t handle the truth – they need some hand holding. Cell phones out left and right just to “check the time” and independent practice time spent chatting it up about homecoming (yup, it’s a thing here and I’m really weirded out by this new-to-me Americana type tradition). I’m working on it – slowly but surely. I gave a stern behavioral expectations lecture today about how “you’re young adults now, that means I shouldn’t have to mother you”. sigh. I’m not the motherly type.

I bought a backpack to lug my papers and laptop back and forth to school. My back feels better (though I have a car now – my back never gets a chance to complain anymore!), I like the organization, and I like the color. Also, I was really tired of the plastic tarp smell that never really goes away with the Freitag bags and a purse just wasn’t cutting it – too small.

I just realized how many times I typed “I” in such a short post. Feeling very self centered and narcissistic now. On to the photos!

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glasses: warby parker – cardigan: uniqlo – dress and belt: f21 – shoes: saltwater sandals – backpack: jansport – charm: ugly dolls

08/29/2014 Erika S. outfits

One Two

First day of school with students was this past Monday and Tuesday. Both days – 9th graders only on Monday and all the rest on Tuesday. So I had in effect 2 first days of school. This is what I wore on day one and day two of the first day(s) of school. For me teaching is like childbirth (or so I hear). It’s agony sometimes, but then your mind seems to block all that stuff away after a break from the agony. The summer must have given my brain time to block a lot of the agony away, because I. Am. Exhausted. It’s been 11-13 hour days all this week and lots of mental strain trying to get organized and learn 110 names and faces. Much of it has to do with the fact that I’m starting a new school and teaching one (physics) and a half new courses. The half is because 2 of my 4 sections are Honors Biology, and I’ve only ever taught at non-tracking schools in the past. I’m generally not a fan of tracking students, but I’ll admit it’s going to challenge me more as I now have to up the bio game.

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day one – dress: thrift store find – belt: h&m – shoes: madewell – glasses: warby parker – day two – tshirt and belt: jcrew – skirt: anthropologie – sweater: uniqlo – shoes: sweedish hasbeens

08/28/2014 Erika S. outfits

The chop

I chopped my hair for my birthday this past month – more than 6 inches off. It felt great, though I still just tie it up in a bun most days. This day though, I wore it down. It felt weird. Also, it was back to school night, so that meant I was at school actively teaching/planning/talking to parents from 7am to 8pm. In addition, my outfit turned out really matchy-matchy. fun.

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shirt: anthropologie – belt: urban outfitters (old) – jeans: uniqlo – boots: madewell (old)

11/27/2013 Erika S. outfits

Nice Photos

Today, one of my crew kids O told me, “you take nice pictures, miss.” It took me a full minute to process what she had said. “oh, so you’ve seen my blog”, I said finally. My initial feeling was one of fear – a ridiculous feeling considering how open I was about my blog when I taught my week long blogging intensive. What ever students discover about me through my blog has already been out for a long time. I’ve been running this blog for 2 years!
Another comment struck fear in my heart today. A student, H, told me it looked like I was wearing a crop top with this sweater. He then rushed on to explain that the colors are deceiving with the tan bottom, and “you know. . .it looks like you’re naked.” OMG, kid. it’s practically a grandma sweater! right?!?
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glasses: warby parker – sweater and boots: madewell – jeans: uniqlo – belt: banana republic

11/20/2013 Erika S. outfits

growing old, growing pains

My neck. My back. My knee. My neck, and my back and my knee. All three have been paining me for the past month. It all started back in 2006 or so when I pulled a muscle or something moving boxes at home. Ever since then, my back has been shit. Usually my back just decides at random times to lock up for a week, then it goes away. Lately though, it been just a dull frustrating nagging ache with twinges of acute pain. Sometimes it feels like body aches from a fever, other times like my kidneys are crying. Oh the pains of getting older and a body breaking down.

My back has been nagging me for long enough that the kids know what’s going on when I start doing my grandma moves in the middle of the class period. They’ve seen me lie on the floor, hobble around and stretch. They used to act concerned, but those days are long gone. Secretly, I know they still care.

Also, new boxy Madewell top, another new addition from my weekend shopping trip.

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shirt: madewell – belt: super old gap – jeans: uniqlo – boots: super old boutique 9

11/19/2013 Erika S. outfits

Pumpkin

I miss the pumpkin ice cream from Mitchell’s in SF. In it’s place, I’ve been making loads of pumpkin muffins, pumpkin-lentil soups and I’m wearing pumpkin. It’s my favorite fall color, next to my bordeaux cheap-o lipstick. Since B is away at a meet-up in Denver (I’m going for a quick weekend visit this friday!), I went shopping this past weekend and I did some damage at Madewell. I swear I was just there to pop in to see what was new (yeah, right) till I saw the extra-30%-off-sales sign. I’d just finished wasting brain cells watching “Sister Wives” on Netflix (I know, I know), and this top just screamed Mormon-chic. Naturally, I had to have it. By the way, everything seems to be a lot more online than in the shops – this shirt cost me $28, while online it is listed at $80 without any extra sale! Ridiculous.

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glasses: warby parker – shirt and boots: madewell – skirt: j.crew – cardigan and tights: uniqlo

11/15/2013 Erika S. outfits, teaching

Q1 in the bag

Today is the last day of the first grading quarter at school. One in the bag, three more to go. The end of the quarter also means it’s “final product” time for the kids – the one major “assessment for learning” project to demonstrate their “mastery” of the unit’s “learning targets”. A bit of teacher speak for big assignments in every class. For me, final product time means I’m spend a lot of time “scaffolding” the project I’ve assigned and giving lunchtime and after school help with writing lab reports, graphing, and making sense of experimental data. This year, I’ve decided to get two birds with one stone and assigned the kids a state mandated lab report as their final product. It’s been a 2 week process so far, with a lot of hand holding along the way. It’s looking good though and I’m optimistic about the quality of work I’ll be getting come Monday. I can’t even count how many brain cells I’ve devoted to making this learning process as painless and accessible as possible. I’m feeling a lot of coulda-shoulda-wouldas for last year’s curriculum.

In the meantime, if you come here to check out outfits, you’ve probably been disappointed this past month. I’ve been MIA, mainly because I’ve been sticking to this teacher uniform, and I’ve been on a shopping ban. Also, it’s been pretty crisply cold here in Brooklyn – winter is here. This morning, I figured I’d splash out some bit of color and warmth with an old summer skirt. I swear it looked better in my head this morning while I spent 5 precious minutes staring blankly into my closet. In real life, I’m actually not a big fan – an experiment gone bad. You win some, you lose some, right?

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glasses: warby parker – scarf: topman – t-shirt: everlane – belt: gap – skirt: anthropologie – tights & cardigan: uniqlo – boots: steve madden

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

09/04/2013 Erika S. outfits

Joyful Learning

Some sociology PhD candidate should do a study on working in education and the use of buzz words. I swear there must be a correlation between the use (or over use) of buzz words and the administration ladder. The kicker is that every district has their own set of buzz words. I’m imagining with every new chancellor/superintendent, the buzz words change. In SF, the buzz words were data, accountability, informed instruction, and joyful learners. Today’s theme was joy. As in my joy Division shirt, joy in iced coffee, and joy in getting my classroom set up and ready for the first day of school. Also, joyful in the fact that my jeans were still white at the end of the day.

My two favorite things lately: A birthday lipstick from B’s mum, sent all the way from Perth & a mini-Darwin figurine from my co-teacher Pam. He’s the shit and the lipstick is bright and joyful.