First Day of School

I have officially made it through my first day of school as a high school teacher!

After talking, walking, smiling, and sweating all day long, I am exhausted.

Exhausted, but so happy.

I could not have asked for a better first day. (well, some milder temperatures would have been nice)

Everything went according to plan, and I had no problems with students. I didn't mess up too badly. I didn't trip. And, I don't think I messed up any of the administrative, first-day duties.

I did have some unexpected time with first period, but I just filled it with a pronunciation song that I used all day in my Spanish 2 classes.

I am letting myself take it easy for tonight with a scheduled rest day and not putting too much pressure on myself to plan for next week. I have an idea where we are going, and I will really sit down and do it tomorrow/Thursday.

I didn't want to put too much pressure on myself the first week. I tend to hold myself to these impossibly high expectations, and I am always overly critical with myself. I don't want to burn myself out. I love this job, and I want to be happy in it for a long time.

I guess this first day in my career really means that I am a full blown adult and I can no longer consider myself a child at all. Weird. Sad. Terrifying. But, Exciting!

Like I said, I'm exhausted, but I'll do a more extensive recap over the weekend.

I'll leave you with my first day of school outfit! Professional, young, cool-ish. Loved it. But the shoes... my feet hated my by 5th period. Not happening again any time soon.

Here's to a great rest of the week!

~Rach

Busy Day Ahead

This morning I woke up a full hour and fifteen minutes before my alarm.

I had been dreaming about the Abstract Algebra project that I have been working on all week. It's haunting me- in real life and in my dreams! The same one that, last night, I realized I had done backwards. D@mn you, non-commutative multiplication!

Some of my work. Yea, those are letters. Remember when math actually included numbers? Yea, me either. 

It's been on my mind since then. I waiver between being confident I did it right this time and second guessing myself again. If I did it wrong the first time, who's to say I didn't do it wrong again?

So, I have decided to skip my workout (again, oh the horror!) to go to my professor's office hours and have him look at it. He likes that I participate in class, and he's a native Spanish-speaker, so we bond over that too. I think he will be happy to check over my work... At least, that's what I'm hoping.

Along with a skipped trip to the gym, this means that I am jam-packed busy from 10am-9pm. From class to meetings to clubs, I have a lot on my metaphorical plate today. I really want to make sure that my actual plate is full also. I need to make sure that I am eating enough at the right times to get me through everything today without a growling stomach. I'm not going to restrict just because I'm not working out today. It's also a goal to eat right throughout the day so that the insatiable nighttime snacking that has been occurring lately doesn't hit me when I finally do make it home tonight. I guess I'm turning today into a little nutritional experiment. I'll report on my findings. Should be fun!

Starting the day of right with some breakfast:

Oats and coffee (and water) on top of some more of those Group Theory notes. I think a little food spillage would add a nice quality to my work, don't you?

Here's to making decisions and giving my body what it needs!
- Rach

Single-girl Style

Happy Wednesday, everyone! We can all move on now from the maudlin overkill of yesterday. Let's call it "Single Awareness Day".

During the past four months or so, I feel like I have been dedicating all of my time and emotional energy picking myself from the awful breakup that I went through in September. I surprised myself, actually, with how well I handled the reminder that Valentine's Day threw in my face that I am no longer in that relationship. More than anything, I was maybe a little overly-cynical and easily-annoyed today, but I didn't get emotional or upset, or sad. And for that, I give myself a pat on the back! Yay me! Maybe Definitely a sign that I am really getting over this. I really do feel like I am. Gosh, it takes a long time!

But, onto some fun stuff...

It's WIAW over at Peas and Crayons!! Luckily for me, it always falls on my mini-weekend in the middle of the week.

This is Tuesday's eats, and a look into how I celebrated V's Day, Single-girl Style! I actually did a really good job recording everything I ate today, which looks like a lot. Because it is. I told you, I'm a grazer.


Breakfast (8:30)

The usze (like short for usual): oats-in-a-mug with black berries, chopped apple and cinnamon, topped with peanut butter.

 Off to the library to study, study, study for my Abstract Algebra midterm at 2:00.

My Valentine for the day.

 Lunch (veg wrap, carrots, a couple clementines) went unpictured because I was studying with a group and didn't want to come off weird.

But, after hopefully kicking some Abstract Algebra a$$, I cam home to the best Vday present ever... from myself!

My iHerb package arrived! Some snacky essentials.

 Naturally, some more grazing ensued:

I apologize for the blurry picture that looks like barf. But, this was delicious! Chopped apple, PB2, a little bit of oats. Yep, second time today I had oats.

Carrots and spicy brown mustard has become one of my fave, random combos.

 A real meal! Dinner

A bunch of roasties: cabbage, sweet potatoes, tofu, broccoli, cauliflower, and asparagus. Obviously, with sriracha-spiked ketchup.

 And some necessary Vday Chocolate.

Cocoa oats topped with PB. Third time today having oats. Third time having PB. Food rut maybe?  Sorry, I'm not sorry.

 And, the remnants of a late night snack

Cheerios + TJ's fiber cereal + Abreezy + cinnamon = perfection.

Yep, it was a lot today.
Much served in mugs (because everything is better that way).

Oats x 3. 

PB x 3.

Happy belly.

Here's to revelling in the freedom that being single provides, and doing what I need to love myself everyday!
~ Rach

The Perfect Friday

Today started out a little rough. By rough, I mean my alarm didn't go off, I spilled a huge cup of water all over the floor in my room, and backed into a pole trying to pull out of the impossible parking lot outside my apartment building.

Yet, somehow, it turned itself around, and I am sitting here laughing with my roommate, thinking about how utterly perfect today has been. 

First, I taught my fourth graders this morning. As part of FLES (Foreign Language in Elementary Schools), I have been paired with a fourth grade class at a local elementary school. I go every Friday morning to teach a 30 minute lesson on basic Spanish vocabulary and grammar.

They always make my day! It's almost painful to roll out of bed and get myself there on a Friday morning, but I always leave feeling energized and fulfilled. The kids are always so excited to see me, and they respond so well to my lessons. I am always blown away by the amount the retain from week to week. This week I had them speaking complete Spanish sentences about what kinds of foods they like to eat.

As a reward for being so AWESOME, I brought them in some little treats.

Spanish Valentines for El Día de San Valentín! They were so excited and took turns reading the Spanish phrases out loud.

I got a treat as I was leaving too. My cooperating teacher (so the fourth grade teacher I work with) gave me a little note thanking me for doing such a great job and taking them above the basics. It was such a nice surprise. I feel like teachers don't always get the gratitude that they deserve for how hard they work everyday. My heart soared to hear such nice things from a fellow teacher so early in my career. I can't wait to see them next week. We're doing weather expressions, I think!

FLES was followed by class (where I kicked my quiz's a$$), a sweaty gym sesh (including my friend Brit's awesome Zumba class), and another class (which is an impossibly-hard math class that I actually enjoy? What's that about?).

I went home to create this masterpeice:

My latest, favorite monstruo de ensalada: spinach, tomatoes, carrots, half an avocado, marinated artichoke hearts, Italian seasoning, balsamic, and nooch. So delicious!

Tonight should be great. My friends and I are going to get fancy beers at one of my favorite bars down here, Jackie O's, to celebrate my passing the Praxis!! It will definitely be a good time.

Here's to celebrating the small things that makes everyday a great one!
~ Rach

2 Down, 2 To Go

This week has been jam-packed full of teacher-y happenings. Mostly, in the form of studying for the Math Content Praxis II that I took yesterday morning.

The Praxis tests are a series of tests that teacher candidates have to pass in order to get their teacher licenses. So, basically, they determine whether or not I will have a future career in education. I took the Principles of Learning and Teaching (basically a test that shows that you know how to be a good teacher) last fall, and I passed easily. I mean, I would hope so. I have been teaching in some form since I was 14.

But the Math Content... that was a whole different story.
This test covers all math material from the 7th grade level to the math that I am taking now as a senior in college. No joke. I bought a review book and have been slowly plugging away at it since mid-December. Last Sunday night, I got down to serious studying, and completely freaked out. I attempted the first of the practice tests, and it was ridiculous! It was as if the more I was studying, the dumber and dumber I felt. Cue minor panic attack.

I talked to my roommates, my parents, and my brother, and they calmed me down enough for me to look at the material seriously again. I decided that I would study for a few hours every night leading up to the test, and that was all I could do. You can only cram so much into one little brain in a week.

My life this week was spent a prisoner my desk. With my space heater by my feet (my apartment is always outrageously cold), and my nose in this book. Over 300 pages of torture.

source

It's amazing how the pressure of the test combined with the frustration and lack of self-confidence could make me hate studying something that I usually really enjoy. There may have been a few incidents in which the book ended up thrown on the floor in frustration.

Friday night came around, and I just couldn't do it any more. So, I quit the studying for the night, painted my nails, watched a movie with my roommate, and went to bed early. I woke up early enough to give myself enough time to wake up, eat a good breakfast, and take my time getting ready.

Breakfast. The same as every morning. Oat bran, blueberries, apple, topped with peanut butter. The true breakfast of champions.

 
At this point, my mental health was more important than staring at the same math problems over again.

I made it to the test building with perfect timing to get settled and hit the bathroom before the test (which I did again during the test and right after. I have no idea what is with my teeny weeny bladder. TMI? Sorry, I'm not sorry).

It went better than expected! I really do think my studying helped, and even more than that, giving myself the time to relax the night before made a huge difference. I will never be one of those crazies who pulls all-nighters right before exams. Girl's gotta get her beauty rest!

The day wrapped up in an equally delightful way. Lunch and coffee with a bestie. Zumba and a cardio workout at the gym. Relaxing dinner. A night out with some great friends.

It's just amazing to me that a week that started out so full of anxiety could do such a 180 and end with an awesome weekend! I think this is only a foreshadowing of how awesome the rest of this quarter is going to be. I have a good feeling about this one!