|
tomatina
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: Christine
Country: United States
State: Illinois
Metro: Chicago
Birthday: 5/6/1980
Gender: Female
Interests: Running, rollerblading, crossword puzzles, boggle, reading, skiing, knitting, and...
Expertise: learning how to teach and teaching for learning
Occupation: Student
Industry: Education/Research
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
1/19/2003
|
|
| BahhhWas ist das?! The Chicago Marathon, which is 6 months away has already reached full capacity and registration is now closed. Soon it's going to be like NYC on a lottery system. Though I won't be running for the AIDS Marathon this year, there are secret ways to still get in and register...let's hope it's not too late...dum dum dummmmm
| | |
| Release those endorphinsRunning really does release endorphins. I was annoyed and frustrated today...went running for a half hour...annoyance gone and ability to confront the source of my annoyance was done with ease and sensitivity...weird. Endorphins are your friends.
| | |
| I went to a live "This American Life" show at the Chicago Theatre...<sigh>...it was great. NPR geeks unite!!!
| | |
| I like slurpees in the summertime...all different kinds and flavors...cherry, Coke, pina colada...but the giant, muddy slurpee that's right outside my doorstep, I think I can do without. I wore the wrong shoes today and my pants were soaked to the knee by the time I got home. Hey, maybe it'll snow like 7 feet by tomorrow and school will be closed! yeah right.
For this time of Lent, I have decided to give up coffee and chips...an odd combination, but one that has become too much of a habit for me in the past few months (few months...eek!) I was never much of a coffee drinker until I started teaching and then it was spending a buck fitty at the local 7-11 every morning before school. Chips? I started replacing a hearty lunch with a bag of chips because I barely had enough time or energy to sit down let alone eat a full meal during break. Thus, my body was slowly becoming polluted and poisoned with things God never intended and I could feel it. I have to start taking better care of my body and this lame excuse of "busy"ness no longer suffices.
I have been dreaming about running for a while now, but these dreams have just been floating around in my head and I've done nothing about it. I don't know what's wrong with me...I feel good when I run, I like running in the winter (crazy as that sounds) and running allots time for reflection and peace, yet when I do have some time or energy, all I can do is sprawl out on the couch like a rotting vegetable and just act like that...a vegetable...brainless and immobile. I'm even starting to look like a vegetable...kind of orange with green trimmings...just kidding. Anyway, this must end.
Apart from my vegetable transformation, this is a serious time for me to reflect on the idea of worship. I still don't think I quite understand what it means to really worship God. I think that a lot of terms and ideas get thrown around a lot in Christian conversation and things like worship, God's glory, grace, etc. begin to lose some of its deeper meanings. My understanding of God and of myself continue to be challenged, and I hope that this time would offer me some level of peace.
| | |
| Lincoln's BirthdayIn commemoration of dear Abe Lincoln's Birfday, I decided it was about time to update...not that there is much to update, but for any of you who are wondering what this girl has been up to for the past several months, read on.
I have been in the thick of teaching for several months now, but am very seriously feeling the burdens of this thing they call the No Child Left Behind Act. Who thought that it would be a good idea to have little 8 year old children take high-stakes standardized tests? My students are still struggling with figuring out how to fill in the damn bubbles properly and I feel like the joy of teaching has temporarily left the building. If I hear or have to say the words "extended response" and "use information from the story to answer the question" or "show your work and write in words what you did and why you did it" one more time, I may just have to check myself into an institution for teachers who have gone insane. 16 days are left, however, until the ISATs, so we all just have to suck it up until then.
On a positive note, I have been extremely productive today, and aside from this Xanga blahblahblahging, I have slowly worked my way through grading a pile of papers. And let me tell you...it feels so dang good! I'm like on a little bit of a grading high. Teaching has been such a rollercoaster for me my first year (Come on, aren't there any other analogies available besides the oh-so-cliche rollercoaster one? Let me know if you can think of any others...appreciate it) and I've realized that how my days go are completely independent from the students and from my own preparation (or lack thereof). The effectiveness of my teaching and the atmosphere of the classroom rests almost solely upon my attitude and my ability to smile and persevere. Seriously...if I'm able to smile at the end of the day, it is a good day.
Now I'm jumping subjects (subject jumping...it's risky), but the other day on the radio, the DJs were asking callers to call in to tell about when they transitioned from girlhood to womanhood. I still feel like a kid most of the time despite my age and occupation, but on Friday last, I think I did it. Yes, that's right. I became a woman. I became a woman when I signed up to become a member of Costco. It was such an adult, mom thing to do for me that it has taken me this long to do it and now that I have, I ask myself why I didn't do it sooner. I guess I just wasn't ready.
| | |
|
|
