I’m not much of a hat person, but during spelling yesterday, I donned an empty kleenex box. You see, I was finger spelling. Now, I find finger spelling engrossing, because a)it makes me feel like I’m flashing gang signs, and b)I have to do it backwards so that my students can see it left-to-right. I’m [...]
Archive for the ‘Occupational Hazards’ Category
This spring’s eye-grabbing acceossory
Posted in Occupational Hazards, teaching on January 12, 2011 | 2 Comments »
New Year #6: Swing dancing
Posted in New Year, Occupational Hazards on August 7, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I don’t really dance much, but since my hometown had a band and free swing dance lesson at our not-so- “Great Park” last night, I decided to try. It was a short, really basic lesson (maybe 30 minutes). I danced with at least a dozen guys, which left me longing for some Purell (some parts [...]
Total nerd post
Posted in Occupational Hazards, teaching on July 26, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I like teaching, learning, learning about teaching, and learning new things to teach, so summer is no break from learning, and I wouldn’t change that. This summer, I’m studying Latin, Medieval history, Greek, phonographs, spelling rules, and literary analysis. In Latin, adjectives are the flavor of the day, and plenum (-a, -us), which means full, [...]
One downside to learning Latin:
Posted in Occupational Hazards on June 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I’ll never think of Necco wafers the same way again.
Teaching messes with your head
Posted in Occupational Hazards, teaching on May 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Exhibit 1: I find myself mentally tacking “ly” onto people’s adjectives when they ought to be using adverbs. “No one was taking it serious.” [Here's where my mind says,"ly."] How obnoxious is that? Fortunately, I haven’t said it aloud. Yet. Exhibit 2: I use plural pronouns when directing only one person. I guess this has [...]
Occupational risk: grossness
Posted in Occupational Hazards, overheard, teaching on March 4, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Potty humor is not tolerated in my classroom, and carries the stiff penalty of apologizing to the class. Potty talk however, is occasionally necessary, and completely acceptable. Monday, not long before lunch time, I had to explain why eating lots of soap water isn’t a good idea: “It’ll give you diarrhea.” (I actually have no [...]
I usually love it when my students are curious. . .
Posted in Occupational Hazards, overheard, teaching on February 11, 2010 | 1 Comment »
M: Why was her name Puss? Me: Well, it probably was a nickname. I can probably find out what her real name was. (Little foreseeing where this might lead, I googled it.) Oh, see, her real name was Virginia. M: Virginia? Why did they name her Virginia? What kind of name is that? Me: Well, [...]
Teaching will do that to one
Posted in Occupational Hazards, Overthought on September 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Children often try to find the patterns and rules in the world. When something doesn’t fit with the pattern they’re learning, they ask me about it. Maybe because of that, I find myself thinking these sorts of things: How come disappointed isn’t the opposite of appointed? Why don’t we say sitted? If we do that, [...]
The stuff dreams are made of
Posted in Occupational Hazards, teaching on June 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I dreamed a few nights ago that I was teaching a teen whom I mentor in real life, and mentoring students I teach in real life. The teen wrote with approximately the skill of eight-year-old who has stopped caring, and this was not acceptable, even in slumber. I reminded her that her letters needed to [...]
Teacher phobias
Posted in Occupational Hazards on May 5, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Aside from the occasional paper cut, teaching isn’t risky. I still manage to feel stress about it from time to time. Besides having nightmares in which I’ve been at school for hours without getting anything accomplished (students keep wandering off, nobody can find their supplies, etc.), I have a deep-seated fear of misspelling a word [...]
