I'm teaching a grad school class again. Definitely better the second time around! My rubrics are more clear (still not quite just right) and I already have all the presentations done from the first round, so it's much more efficient. But I still have the same old teacher problems that every other teacher has. Like grading. I teach an eight week course. Over that time, I prepare students to write two big papers, two papers that are classic assignments for a class like mine: a case study and a thematic unit. This time, I broke the papers down into five parts each and assigned one part each week. I told my students that if they did them on time each week, they could submit them for feedback prior to getting the final grade. Like 4 people consistently asked for feedback. #mindblown So last Tuesday was week 7 and I'm now at home with 40 papers to grade (I've done like 15) and most of them I'm seeing for the first time. 15 minutes a paper, that's about 4 papers per hour. (Except when you regrade a paper you already graded, and you're sitting there thinking, "This sounds so familiar." Yes, #thathappened.) So I'm pretty much trapped here with all these papers and that's it. Except I also need to do laundry (but I have no quarters) and go grocery shopping.
I totally remember when I was teaching 4 sections of middle school writing and I'd have 80 five paragraph essays to do on a weekend. That's what I'm living this weekend. Luckily I 'found' time to blog about it, right?
Yeah, it's Saturday, but it just doesn't have the same ring to it, right? It has been a good week - no work, not really much to do, and now spring is in the air and summer is right around the corner. Here are a few of my favorites from the last week!
Okay well lets just start with the weather. The sun is out! Seriously it finally came out after days and days of stupid rain! Spring is here friends...I was woken by birds chirping today!
I learned to crochet this week, thanks to Laurie! As she said the other day, "Baby blanket, I'm going to make you my B@$*%!" Me too, baby blanket, me too. (Sister: Hoping to finish one for your Baby Boy!) and then I want to make this:
Let's see....what else?
Mom and Rob - thank you for our Christmas Gift! I just got awesome seats this week for two weeks from Tuesday. Two more sessions of grad school to teach and then celebrations on the 28th!
Modern Family is still hilarious. I'm currently in the middle of a very long binge watch session. Phil Dunphy - funniest character ever and here's a whole blog post all about funny shit he says.
Oh, and here's more. You're welcome!
And the best? I won vintage scratch and sniff stickers!!!!!!!
I don't get it. Last night as I was watching the coverage of the election, I saw a promo for Fox News this morning saying they were going to interview a guy who was saying that marriage is dead. Since one of my besties is a Marriage and Family Therapist, and because I'm on spring break, I thought this was something I should definitely tune in and see. So there we were this morning, me, my laptop and coffee, and the news. I'm patiently waiting for this segment, and finally it comes on and the guy is being interviewed via Skype. As I'm listening, I'm wondering what his credentials are - oh, he's divorced and dating? Well that sounds like someone qualified to be ON THE NEWS. Anita has her own therapy practice in Chicago and she has yet to be on the news. (I'm sure she's well on her way, but not yet!) But this guy who has no background in Marriage and Family Therapy is being interviewed. Which got me to thinking - how concerned is the news with reporting real news and research vs. getting ratings? I mean, I tuned in for the same reason I'm sure many people did - for the shock value of the story. But then I hopped right onto Antia's facebook page to get her input:
See, I'm just so used to her preaching marriage and loving relationships and getting the knowledge we need to live those amazing relationships that I was just not feeling this guy and his blog post.
But, shout out to him for tweeting back to both Anita and I, and opening up the conversation.
If you want to read his blog, you can find it here. And, he's on twitter here.
And you definitely need to follow Anita! Here's her website, and here's her Twitter.
Umm... I'm sure you know. I'm not a fan of Rahm. They just called the election and he won.
Here's what's not cool about this election: The dollar has spoken. Rahm had millions and was able to control the narrative that was going on. He had the ability to post tons of attack ads on Chuy that were all over the media for the past four weeks. This is not democracy. What's it going to take to limit the donations to election campaigns? Same thing with our upcoming presidential race. How much of it is democracy and how much of it is the rich controlling our leaders to have their interests met? Here's what is cool about what happened: Chuy Garcia, who doesn't have the financial resources that Rahm does worked so hard and garnered 46% of the vote with his limited resources. He forced our first runoff election in our city's history! He forced Rahm to get out and knock on doors and talk to people, and tone down his attitude. Hopefully, he's taught Rahm that he should listen to more people than just his friends making campaign donations. He showed all of us that grassroots organizing can be done, and we can really have an election that reflects a true voice of the people. And, if you ask my dad, here's what he'd tell you about this election:
And so there you have it - another four years of Rahm dealing favors to his buddies...
I do better with my weight loss goals when I make them public, so here you all go. That was the original reason I started blogging and it totally helps and works, so I guess I'm back to my roots here on GGL. We had a Biggest Loser in January until just now and I did not win. I did not win extra lbs either, but I didn't really try too hard. It was still cold out and I don't currently have a gym membership, so you can see how I really went no where. The only consistent change I made was that I started prepping chicken salads for lunch - and did that every day for three months. It's a lot of work on Sundays, but it's a good habit, and I always get veggies with this habit. I love my salads so it's not a big deal, but one friend at work feels like this about them:
Except you guys want to hear about my diet, right? :-) I started using My Fitness Pal again - they've really up-ed their game! It syncs with my Jawbone and Runkeeper, so all my movements are tracked and it makes adjustments for my activity. Plus, it has this handy equation at the top of the home page:
So I can see how many calories I get for the day, less the food I've eaten (and it's so easy to enter - just scan the barcodes!) + extra calories from working out and then you want to end up in the green. One thing I don't understand is how it says I get 2,060 calories a day. My two friends who share my diary with are only eating 1,200 a day, so not really sure how that all works out. Anyone know? So you enter in all your food and track your steps and activity and then you always know how much you have to go. Anyways, back to my goals - I'm hoping to lose 20 lbs. I know, it's a big goal. It's going to take awhile, I have to stick with it, and I have to be accountable with my friends (that's why I'm glad Jamie and Katie are looking at my diary on My Fitness Pal!) But, then, when I reach my goal, I get this:
Actually there's another one that just came out on Friday, but I can't find it online yet, but if the fitness is going to get real, so is my purse collection :-) So friends, cheer me on, ask me how I'm doing, help keep me going. After all, bathing suit season is upon us...
It's Easter, Lent is over, and I'm finally back on Facebook. Let me tell you, giving up fb for Lent...not easy! Almost every other day I was getting emails from Facebook telling me I'm missing everything, and I totally did miss a few things:
Kristy planned a boat cruise for St. Patty's day - I had no idea about this, and then at her birthday party she was all, "How come you're not going? That seems like something you'd want to do?" Yeah, it was!
The bloggers I collaborate with share a group on Facebook and they're planning a super fun poetry blog hop - and I missed all the planning of that. I don't know if I can still get in, but maybe. Crossing my fingers!
I have a few invites to parties - luckily some of my friends knew about me being gone, so they also emailed or told me things, so all is well there, too!
It's interesting not being on facebook. I can't tell you how many times teachers would be in the lounge at lunch laughing about something - oh, like that stupid dress (is it white and gold or blue and black?) and I had no idea. "Oh yeah, you're not on facebook," they would say.
But, what did I get from this? A lot of my time back. For awhile there, I didn't even think about it, which makes me really believe you can make a habit form in 30 days. (Currently: working on running habit. Day one down.) So I think the compromise will be no facebook on my phone...that way I can check it but not live on it all the time! I was still on Instagram and Twitter, which I use professionally more than anything so I wasn't void of all social media. What if I tried to give it all up? I couldn't imagine!
So some March catch-up...I got this blog redesigned! I love it - mostly everything but I think I want to switch my picture, but other than that, it's all pretty good. I am hoping to write here once a week and then at least once a week at BigTime Literacy, too!
St. Patty's day was super fun! We went to see the river...
And then met up with friends. I sang Karaoke to gold digger - but I will spare you those pics and videos!
I went to Louder than a Bomb last weekend with Alexa, a friend from work and it was amazing. Spoken word poetry for high school kids. Here is one of my favorite pieces, Parking Dispute:
I also started teaching the grad school class again - I've been completely exhausted, but it's so much better the second time around and it ends in two weeks. I'm so excited for that to be over!
Anyways, glad to be back! Hope you have an amazing Easter Sunday! What else did I miss? Leave me a comment and tell me what is buried deep on the facebook feed!
I know I'm late to this par-tay, but I have had no time to even think about doing a Currently until this moment! Work is so crazy busy right now...well was, because I'm on Spring Break! I totally need this, too. Not going anywhere, and I'm happy today to just do whatever I want to do! So let's get to it - what am I up to Currently? Check it out!
Listening to....Ed Sheeran's whole album The whole thing is great. I love all the songs on that album.... Thanks Holls for the recommendation! Currently I love Afire Love. I don't know, just love it. Check it out -->
Loving that I'm not at work! I am sitting here, listening to Ed Sheeran, watching Live with Kelly and Michael, and writing a blog. Cup of coffee right next to me and no where to be and no where to go. A cruise would be nice, but I'm also fine just staying home, relaxing, catching up, and cleaning my apartment. I do have lots to do for work - it will only put me ahead going forward, but I want to work on a product for Book Clubs for my TpT store and I need to get ready for our Family Writing Project which begins the week I get back. Be sure to check out BigTime Literacy for deets about that school stuff! Thinking...Scientology is nuts I didn't really know much about scientology until last night, but I watched this HBO special on it and it's crazy. I mean, it isn't even a religion but they pressed the IRS and basically filed all these lawsuits against them - inundated the IRS with lawsuits so the government would declare them a religious group and exempt them from the $1million + that they owed the government. And the Scientology "church" won! Again, I have about an hour and a half worth of knowledge about this, but it's crazy! Wanting a new mayor in Chicago I don't think Chuy is going to be able to pull it off, but it would be awesome if he became mayor. He wants an elected school board, he wants to collaborate with the people of this city, and it doesn't seem like he has quite the agenda that Rahm does. It's a crazy time to be a teacher right now - Pearson is ruling our profession and the state departments are bullying us into taking standardized tests (by telling us they will withhold our funding if we don't administer them). It's even gotten to the point where it's being proposed that Colleges of Education will be judged on the test scores of the children who are sitting in the classrooms of their alumni. Read that again. Colleges of Education will be judged on the test scores of the children who are sitting in the classrooms of their alumni. Ridiculous. I know I'm getting slightly off topic here, but it's just insane that our profession is being run over by money (Pearson and whomever else is profitting on our students and their data) and and as a collective whole, teachers aren't speaking up. Having Chuy as a mayor in Chicago would at least be one step in the right direction to do what is right by teachers and students.
Needing to fix my car Last saturday I smashed my car into the posts of the El Tracks. My car is a hot mess - cracked windshield, smashed back bumper, and my front bumper also has some issues. Plus it's a mess inside. So embarrassing....this is one thing I have to get attended to over this break. EGGS-plain your name This was actually my first blog - before BigTime Literacy. I named it after that song Good, Good Life by One Republic. I do have such a good life and wanted to keep a record of all the awesome things that this life has to offer me. Some personal stuff goes on my literacy blog, it's most of that stuff will be here. Now that the March Slice of Life Story Challenge is over, I'm hoping to write on this blog at least once a week, in addition to the writing I do over on my other one!
Alright well that's all for today. If you like what you've read here, be sure to follow me! and Happy Easter! I hope you have a great weekend (and that it's a long weekend!) and thank you to Farley for hosting us once again!
