vintage – Teachers Have Lives Too!

02/17/2016 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

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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onetwo3

onetwo2

onetwo

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

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.
to a tee2

to a tee3

to a tee4

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

03/11/2013 Erika S. outfits, teaching

Vintage, Take two

So what’s the difference between ‘vintage’ and ‘thrift’? Can someone do a venn diagram comparison? Cuz IDK.

I picked this dress up the last time I went thrifting (is that even a word?) along with this one. It was $5, but it also had some horrible bell sleeves (that matched the hem) along with that old polyester smell that all vintage shops are perfumed with. I bought it anyway, because, hey, FIVE BUCKS! I knew right away that the sleeves had to come off, so I brought the dress down to DC where my super talented sewer mom took them straight off. I should have kept the sleeves to show you here, but I like to travel light and chucked them out promptly. This morning I checked the weather, which was above freezing so I made a beeline for this dress. har har.

vintage take two2

vintage take two3

vintage take two4

glasses: warby parker – dress: vintage/thrifted – cardigan: j.crew – tights: uniqlo – boots: bp (super old)

Update: For those of you who are interested, I’ve had an improvement on grades this past week. After giving out progress reports, I added a few super easy low level assignments as classwork and I got a ton of late work turned in. I think the progress reports lit some fires under their butts in terms of completing work. Also, I now have standing tutoring appointments with a few kiddos, which helps with HW completion. I still plan on having a “make-up work day” near the end of the quarter though. I’m seeing progress – YAY!!

02/07/201302/08/2013 Erika S. outfits

school marm

I’m not normally a fan of vintage shopping. I’m not that “vintage is character” type of person, I’m more of a modern lines and stark colors type. A couple weekends ago, I found myself with nothing to do and spent hours browsing through this blog, Bleubird Vintage, written by a woman with a love for all things vintage. Her blog and aesthetic is so captivating and gorgeous, I started to feel like maybe I should give ‘vintageing’ another shot. Plus, my niece will be here (as in born) soon and I wanted to find some cute little girl dresses from the 60’s (just like little Bird wears- warning, this video may make your ovaries twitch a bit). So went out and hit up a couple shops in my ‘hood. After a couple hours, I walked away with 2 dresses and a pair of black boots, $40 lighter. I wore one of the dresses today along with the boots.

vintage

vintage4

This dress takes me out of my comfort zone. I don’t normally wear full skirts, or dresses/skirts this long. Even though this dress got lots of compliments, I vacillated between feeling like a school marm and feeling like a halo-ed über religious chick. So I struck the innocent I-baked-cookies-to-bring-to-church pose. Is it close? =D

vintage2

vintage3

cardigan & belt: j.crew – dress & boots: vintage – tights: uniqlo – necklace: f21 – watch: fossil via nordstrom rack

02/11/201202/09/2012 Erika S. fun stuffs

Alameda Flea

Last weekend, we took a trip across the bay to the alameda flea for the first time. I don’t usually gravitate towards vintage clothes or things. I’m not a “thrifter”, the rifling through racks and racks of stuff just turns me off. As well as that certain vintage smell that all second hand clothes come with. Not a fan. I know by saying that I’m anti-vintage, I’m going against what every fashion loving person claims to be the best source of awesomeness. Oh well.

When it comes to furniture though, I’m all about mid-century modern style vintage type things. I saw much of that at the Alameda Flea, but nothing I couldn’t do without. We did have some lucky finds though. B’s friend Ray who has a baby on the way bought an awesome tricycle that B rode around the rest of the day.