Erika S. outfits, teaching

First Week

The first week of school is done! It was a rough week trying to get my body to physically adjust back to being in the classroom with students. I wasn’t hungry when I actually had time to eat, and I was starving during 5th period when I don’t have any breathing time till around 2:30. My restroom break schedule still needs tweaking around my teaching schedule. To help that, I’ve been forgetting to drink any “not coffee” type liquids. By the time next Friday rolls around, I will have whipped my body back into teaching shape with the bladder made of iron.

This year I’ve decided to document my entire “first week back” wardrobe. This is a fashion blog, after all, and there is no more important sartorial week in a teachers year than the first week back. Am I right? This week’s wardrobe is pretty typical for me – I start off with a few nice (read: dress or skirt) and casual it up for the rest of the days, ending with a bang of super dress-down on Fridays.

Monday: 9th grade only (I do not have classes, as I teach 10th and 12th graders this year). I forgot to take photos that day in the classroom, so B helped me snap a couple on my phone when I got home. Giant forehead alert!

first day of school2

first day of school

glasses: warby parker – cardigan: american apparel – dress: j.crew – shoes: saltwater sandals

Tuesday: My actual first day of school. I don’t know what I was thinking putting this outfit together the night before, because I hated it all day at school. I think the shoes have got to go to a friend who has a desk job, because they were not comfortable at all for making laps in the hallways. The skirt was too tight in the waist (summer pleasures brought on a fall squeeze) and kept climbing upwards when I walked. It’s a old skirt, and I used to love it, but I think it’s passed it’s peak. The shirt on the other hand, I love.

jcrew ruffle hem silk top

jcrew ruffle hem silk tank

glasses: warby parker – top: j.crew – skirt: dkny jeans – shoes: h&m

Wednesday: the short day. We have block schedule at my school on Wednesdays and Thursdays. This means I have prep periods all morning, teach only one 1.5 hr class, and then we have early release for grade team and all staff meetings. I love Wednesdays, obvi

3x1 channel jeans

anthropologie leather trim tank

shirt: anthropologie – belt: banana republic – jeans: 3×1 – shoes: mia

Thursday: OMG save me type of a day. Thursdays is the opposite of Wednesdays this year. I teach straight through for 5.5 hrs before I get a real break. By the end of Thursday I could barely remember my own name.

beastie boys shirt

beastie boys shirt2

glasses: warby parker – shirt: target – skirt: banana republic – shoes: mia

Friday: Thank god the weekend is here, I survived! This Friday, I busted out a slam dunk of a first week of school t-shirt, a real gem for this science teacher. B’s mum sent over a super stuffed birthday package for me this year, full of gummy candies, gorgeous smelling soaps, gardening gloves, and an awesome science shirt! It is seriously the best, and the kids definitely liked it. The shirt is from a small Perth based Etsy shop called ScienceStitch. I think mum found the shirt in Perth, so I’m sorry if you’re looking for the same shirt online.

i do science tshirt

science stitch

i do science

t-shirt: science stitch – belt: gap – jeans: 3×1 – shoes: nike (omg, like walking on clouds!)

Erika S. outfits

Comfort and Style

Teacher appreciation week came and went recently at my school. I got a few hand made cards, churros for breakfast, and a pasta lunch! It was a sweet week, especially once I threw in a BOGO beer for teachers at Factorum Brewery here in Denver along with a BOGO burrito at Chipotle right after.

Teacher perks are pretty awesome and always make me feel like a special unicorn. Normally though, teachers don’t look like special, sparkly unicorns. Usually, we stick to teacher outfit staples such as button downs, pencil skirts, and cardigans with large tote bags. At least, that’s how most people think teachers dress, or should dress. I have my fair share of cardigans and button downs, but the frumpy teacher look is not for me at all.

kit and ace4

kit and ace3

kit and ace2

kit and ace

glasses: warby parker – necklaces and blazer: madewell – top: kit and ace – belt: gap – jeans: mother denim – boots: cole hahn

Last week, NEA Member Benefits contacted me to help promote their NEA Member Appreciation Month. As part of this promotion, they gave dramatic style makeover to 3 teachers, and put out videos with fashion tips specific for teachers. Many of these tips are kind of no-brainers though, such as “blend comfort and style” with dark stretchy jeans and soft leather ankle boots. The last tip I checked out was to”look polished and professional” by making sure your blazer can button across the front. Check, check, and check. In my head, I have the perfect emoji for this moment, but I’m going to just let your imagination run with it.

I blended style and comfort with a stupid expensive but I super love it because it’s really warm and comfy Kit and Ace sweater B bought me for the holidays this past year, with the stretchiest pair of dark skinny jeans I have that were on super sale at Anthropologie. My ankle boots were a steal, as they literally cost me a penny. Seriously. There must have been a glitch in the tagging that day at Nordstrom Rack, because when I got home and looked at the receipt (I’m horrible and never pay attention at the actual register), they were listed for a penny. The blazer is an old faithful that I will wear the crap out of forever. All in all, this was a super comfortable outfit.

Sooooo, NEA Member Benefits is offering registered NEA members a chance to win up to a $1000 shopping spree with a Visa reward card (25 $100 gift cards are also being given away). Click here for for information on how to enter.

Disclosure: In case you haven’t figured this out by now, I’m getting paid a small sum (for the first time!) for this blog post. My learning community class will be getting treats next week because of this.

Erika S. fun stuffs, outfits

Bag Raiders

I can hardly believe I’ve been away from the blog for a whole month! As I sat down to write today, I thought “Gee, it’s been a couple of weeks since my last post!” I guess time really does fly.

8 long short weeks left till final exams and sum-sum-summmer time!

The past month has been busy with B’s birthday, a few concerts, a bout with the flu, a trip back east to see the family for my mom’s birthday, and a girls’ weekend with my BFFs from San Francisco. Teachers really do have lives outside of teaching, I swear. The proof is in Instagram!

As part of B’s birthday week, we went to see one of my favorite Aussie-Indie-Dance bands play. I have fond memories of the Bag Raiders – my first ever teacher partner in crime Ann Zhao introduced me to them mid way through our first year teaching (she named our instant friendship trauma bonding). The Bag Raiders aren’t as well followed here in Denver like they are in SF and NY, so we got to see them at my favorite music venue here in Denver, Larimer Lounge. There is nothing much better than getting to see one of your favorite bands play a small bar. Obviously, I had to buy a t-shirt and obviously, I had to wear said t-shirt the very next day to school.

bag raiders2

bag raiders3

bag raiders

glasses: warby parker – tshirt: bag raiders – jeans: f21 – shoes: anthropologie – belt: gap

I can’t resist – aren’t my mom and niece just the cutest? My mom takes care of Jojo while my sister and brother in law work, so naturally Popo (grandma in chinese) is Jojo’s favorite person ever.

mommy and jojo

Erika S. outfits

Super Tuesday!

I just got back from my first ever caucus. A weird experience all around since I’m used to a primary system in California and New York. Both B and I were in a perpetual state of amazement while there.

co caucus

I wore my voting shirt today to school under my sweater and reviews were mixed. I got a lot of “that’s a sick shirt miss” along with advice on who to vote for (mostly for Bernie due to his free-college tuition stance). Some students were confused though and thought ‘sucka’ was ‘suck a’ (2 words).  They all wanted to know what the rest of my shirt said.  Hmmmm.  Does this make my shirt inappropriate?

super tuesday2

mnkr

super tuesday

mnkr2

glasses: warby parker – sweater: banana republic – tshirt: mnkr – belt: gap – skirt: j.crew – tights: h&m – shoes: franco sarto

Erika S. outfits

Existential Crisis?

I just finished a 3 day Science as Thinking institute through PEBC. It was amazing and I learned oh so much about inquiry and how to foster real, valuable, scientific thinking in students. Actual learning through teaching for understanding. We were given this brilliant book and I’m in the process of devouring it. The institute was all Expeditionary Learning stuff without actually calling it Expeditionary Learning. That ‘rigor’ that was so elusive and confusing to me before? I totally get it now! That ‘discourse’ that was so forced before? I know how to make it more authentic and natural now!  If you’re in a school that values quality professional development and a budget exists for PD, I would recommend checking out PEBC – they run institutes for all the core subjects.

I’m in my 7th year of teaching science. I learned how to teach through an intern program. It was trial by fire (literally – some kids lit a fire in my room one day). I developed some very bad ‘survival’ habits to lesson planning those first 2 years. In my credentialing program, I learned that ‘inquiry’ meant doing labs (science teachers, you know what I’m talking about) and having students predict and explain through modeling real word phenomena. Lastly, I make my kids take notes, and my assessments this year are unit tests. Shock horror. All joking aside though, I am very seriously reconsidering what I am doing as a science teacher. What are my kids actually learning?

I’m feeling the need to scrap everything I do and start from scratch. This past week has been somewhat soul shaking (a little dramatic, maybe?) for me. I may be in the midst of a yet another teacher existential crisis.

New additions to my closet and a glass of wine are helping me weather this crisis tonight. I have a new coat! This Madewell City Grid Coat was on super sale and I justified the purchase by rationalizing away the fact that I have my favorite Arcteryx and another similar coat (but none of them are warm and black!) already hanging in my closet.

3x1denim4

3x1denim2

3x1denim3

3x1denim

glasses: warby parker – coat: madewell – cardigan and blouse: uniqlo – jeans: 3×1 – boots: franco sarto

Erika S. outfits

Take It Easy

I have a new Friday sweatshirt and motto:  Take it easy. The kids loved it – “I see you miss” while giving me a head nod, the kind where your chin leads the rest of the head upward knowingly. All day I had that Eagles song stuck in my head and I was constantly humming the tune to myself.

This phrase reminds of my dad.  It was his automatic goodbye phrase when guests left. Our house in San Francisco is on a huge hill and there are three flights of steep stairs that lead up to the front door. People would always grip the hand rail in fear of those stairs while my sister and I would go up and down regularly in roller skates. We would all say just “bye” or something in Chinese and my dad would always just jump in with “takeiteasy”,so fast and all as one word. As a kid I was so confused by it, and it didn’t even click in my mind what he was saying until I was about 10. English was not my first language, and American idioms were not common at home. Now I know – take it easy!

This sweatshirt is actually supposed to be a dress. A dress for whom, I’m not sure. Granted, most dresses on me are automatically too short. But this doesn’t even come close. Forever 21 mini-dresses = shirts (with pockets!) on me.

take it easy2

take it easy4

take it easy3

take it easy

glasses: warby parker – sweatshirt (dress) and jeans: f21 – shoes: vans – necklace: my mom’s – watch: pebble

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

Erika S. outfits

Crowd Sourcing?

Today many of my kids discovered the wonders of a shared document with editing rights. Many of them have never used that feature in Google Docs before, and it seemed to be especially fun when it’s projected for the whole class to see.  My biology class is in the midst of writing a lab report for the first time.  When I took an informal poll, only a hand full of students in my honors sections knew what a lab report was.  So I created a template for each section and shared it with all of them.  As I was showing each period how they needed to create a copy of the template, the edits started rolling in.  Without fail, it happened every single period.  What else could I expect?

Someone replaced the heading of “introduction” with “hola my hombre”

Someone else typed in the name of his friend sitting in front of him and tried blaming it on the friend.

Some one else added in rows and rows of random letters.

Then some one threw in the word “bitches”.  I felt my eyes grow big and my blood pressure rise.  That kid promptly got a stern talking to with time to reflect on her behavior.

I pointed out that we could all see a cursor with their NAME as they type, and the edits still kept coming.  I showed them how I can see who wrote what, and revert back to a previous version, and the edits still rolled in paired with hysterical laughing.  Teenagers.

madewell boy shirt 3 This is a new shirt from Madewell.  It was on super sale in the store, and the only size they had was XS. So fingers crossed it doesn’t shrink in the wash!  It’s double layered, warm, and with interesting details.  I feel a little bit like a cowgirl farmer in it because of the buffalo checks.  madewell boy shirt 5

madewell boy shirt 4

madewell boy shirt 2

madewell boy shirt

glasses: warby parker -cardigan: uniqlo – shirt: madewell – belt: gap – jeans: f21 – boots: steve madden

Erika S. outfits

Zen

I’m determined to “zen it out” this semester.  How?  By doing fun stuff (and not stressing over the details)!  This past weekend was a three day weekend.  I went snowboarding.  I cleaned the house (boring!).  I had brunch with an amazing group of friends.  I went climbing at a new gym.  I cooked a kick-ass sunday night dinner type meal, on a Monday. It was a good day weekend.

I even broke myself out of the jeans + sweater rut I’ve been in at school all this month and broke out an *actual* skirt to wear.  Amazing.  This skirt has been collecting dust in my closet for close to 5 years now. I think it’s been reborn as a winter staple and I’m going to wear it all the time, starting now.  I’ve seen at least 2 other colleagues with the same J.Crew “city mini” in different colors this past month, and that inspired me to go rooting around for mine.  I’m happy to shop my own closet.

jcrew wool skirtjcrew city mini skirtjcrew city mini skirt2

glasses: warby parker – cardigan: uniqlo – t-shirt and tights: h&m – belt: gap – skirt: j.crew – boots: franco sarto

Erika S. outfits

Wannabe French Cool Girl

I have a super fashion crush on French girls (women) such as Emmanuelle Alt, Lou Doillon and Capucine Safyurtlu.  Their look is functional, sleek, irreverent, and a bit bad ass.  They are also blazer people, meaning a blazer is as natural on them as a pair of jeans. I am not a blazer person.  A quick Google image search for “5 piece french wardrobe” will bring up all the cliche frenchie pieces – a striped shirt, jeans, blazers, boots.  All the things I chose for my wannabe french cool girl outfit.  I wish I were a cool french girl.  I guess I’ll just have to settle for being a poseur.
Frenchies3

Frenchies2

Frenchies4

Frenchies5

Frenchies

glasses: warby parker – blazer and top: madewell – cardigan: uniqlo – belt: gap –  jeans: j.brand via nordstrom rack – boots: cole haan via nordstrom rack