Chucks Make Me Happy

Warning: there's a little bit of bad language in this post.

Let's be honest, teaching freshmen is no joke. I'm tired of their BS. You know, acting like they had no idea that they can't eat in the classroom or use their phones. I'm tired of telling them to stop talking over me and then them arguing that they weren't talking. So to combat that, I have to do stuff that just makes me really stupidly happy.

This means that I spent a large part of my 3-day weekend watching Bleach (I restarted from the first episode and I love it just as much as I did in high school!), playing PokemonGo, and spending some money on frivolous things. I have to live furiously happy when I can! My small frivolous purchase was a bunch of nail wraps. No one should be surprised that I chose a purple sparkly set and a Día de los Muertos set. (If you want to check them out, click here) My bigger frivolous purchase must have been designed just for me. They are just way too perfect. So first, a bit of back story.

If you knew me in high school or early college, you probably saw me wearing Chuck Taylor Converse All Stars (aka Chucks). My first pair were red high-tops and I wore them to the point that I was fixing them with duct tape. With the help of my multi-lengual TAMS friends, I wrote "I love you" in about a dozen language on their sides. I then decided on green high-tops to help me every St. Paddy's day. My last pair were gray low-tops. I can't tell you anything about any other shoes I have worn (except my first pair of cowboy boots) because none of them were special . . . except the Chucks.

I think my love of Chucks started with my sister, Monica. Being the stereotypical little sister, I had a tendency to like what my older siblings liked. I feel like Monica was always wearing Chucks so, of course, little kid Clare wanted Chucks as well. (My love of the color purple probably started with the fact that Monica's room was purple) I ended up liking them for the style and being able to easily find my size. No one wants to carry women's size 10.5 but men's size 8 is easy!

Fast forward to a about a week ago. I found out that Journey's had a special pair of Chucks. I needed them. On Sunday, I ordered them. Today, they arrived. I'M FUCKING ECSTATIC WITH THESE SHOES!

THEY ARE PURPLE AND THEY SPARKLE AND I AM SO STUPIDLY HAPPY WITH THESE DAMN SHOES. I WANT TO WEAR THEM EVERY DAMN DAY.

No joke, it put a smile on my face when I first put them on. Every single one of my students and co-workers can laugh at me for wearing these shoes and I will not care. This little thing makes me happy and that's what counts. So remember, every now and then do something that makes you stupidly happy. If possible, then find someone who shares your excitement about it. (Hi, Jo and Monica!)

-Clare G. S.

Just a Check In

Wow! How has it been 2 weeks since I last posted?! I guess life gets busy. Looking at my parent contact log, I've called/emailed/texted over 75 times to parents of my students. That's in just over a month. Yeah, that will definitely take up time. In fact, I've noticed that I spend 30 - 90 minutes each school night making sure I've done all of my parent contacts for disruptive students or students who are not following directions/school rules. It eats my time but it's required by the district. Luckily some of the parents have told me that they prefer text messages or emails so that saves time and allows me to send those messages later than I would call someone.

I've also been working on my flipped classroom. In a nutshell, I record the lesson for the day on a video and put it on a website called EdPuzzle. The students then watch the video, write the notes, and answer questions about it during class. I love it because it means students can always rewatch a video if they don't understand a concept and they can pause and ask questions without feeling like they are stopping the whole class. If they miss a day they aren't just copying a friend's notes; they are getting the same lesson that everyone else got. It's pretty sweet. It also frees me up to help students individually more often.

Outside of school I feel like my social life has blown up! Recently I spent a Friday night hanging out with some of my math department friends. We got a little bit of work done and spent a lot of time chatting and having a few drinks. It was really nice. I've also spent more time with friends just playing card games or board games. I actually planned my time really well this past weekend and got to go to a friend's kid's birthday party on Saturday afternoon, play cards with friends on Saturday night, and then spend Sunday at Wizard World  (it's a convention) in Austin. I went to bed just before midnight on Sunday so I think that was pretty good timing!

I really need to finish up some schoolwork before bed so I'm going to cut this short. Let's end with a photo, shall we? Here's my big purchase from yesterday's Wizard World:

It's a wand! It's purple and sparkly and it's so perfect. :D I now know exactly what I'll dress up as for Halloween. I hope you all are having a magical week!

-Clare G. S.

P.S. - I forgot something important! Today was the first Anime Club meeting with me (and my husband) as the advisor. The previous teacher is having some health issues and cannot teach right now. Her students told her that I like anime and here I am! I'm excited to get to know these kiddos. <3

Let's Talk Cake!

It was another rough day. Well, really the day was going alright until my last class period. There are about four students in there who do not know how to stop talking/singing/dancing/banging on their desks/etc. I've done all of my documentation for that and I've called a few parents. Hopefully they will decide to change their behavior before it causes them to fail my class and fail the state test. I will no longer be supplying glue sticks to that class because someone threw their glue stick onto the ceiling and someone glued another student's paper to his desk. Yup. These are 15 year olds. I "self-medicated" with a Five Guys burger and fries and a large piece of homemade carrot cake. Let me tell you about that cake.

As I mentioned in the last post, I baked my husband's birthday cake. He loves carrot cake so that's what he got. It is a bit odd to put fondant on carrot cake but I did it. The carrot cake sponge was a new recipe and it is awesome! The buttercream frosting was also new and just as great! I didn't make my own fondant but rather ordered some Wilton pre-made fondant. As far as fondant goes, it was pretty good. I didn't like it paired with the carrot cake but I think it would be pretty good with a different sponge. Do you want to see a photo? Of course you do!

I even made a little Erlenmeyer flask since Matthew teaches Chemistry

I'm so happy with how it came out! I WAAAAAAAAY overestimated how much fondant I would need but that's better than underestimating. I have carefully wrapped-up the unused fondant so it should be good for another cake. I'm going to be a bit obnoxious and show you a video of the cake. Again, I'm really proud of that fondant. There is one sizable place where I have wrinkles but I think that's pretty fantastic for my first time!

(Please excuse the background conversation; I was obsessing over my cake while my husband was talking to his sister and her husband.)

The BCCC party on Sunday was really fun but I didn't think to take any photos. I do have a photo of the caricature that we had made during the party.

I think Matthew is pretty darn good. I feel like mine looks a bit like my sister, Phyllis, when she was a teenager. Monday we got to play cards with our friends, Jo and Liz. That was a great way to start the day. We then spent the rest of the day working on school stuff. :(

As my mom would say, life keeps chugging along. If I remember to really stick to my discipline routine I think I can greatly help my classes. It will also be nice to go back to a flipped classroom but I need to wait until next week when all of the students should have their Chromebook. I'm sure many of you don't know what a flipped classroom is so I'll try to remember to write about it sometime soon. Tonight, I need to take a breather. My goal for the school year was to take care of myself and I think that means a long shower and a tasty drink for now. :D

-Clare G. S.

Crappy Day with a Silver Lining

Well, today wasn't the greatest. My students had their first quiz and many of them spent a lot of class complaining about the quiz, whispering to each other during the quiz, shouting at me from across the room, using their phone, etc. Mind you, this is only 2-4 students per class period but it is exhausting to deal with. It's especially irksome because they get to use their notes on the quiz! We even did a quick review of a couple of things before the quiz so that everyone had something to help them even if they left their notes at home or never wrote any notes.

Other things that put me in a bad mood: morning hall duty, cramps, hormones, and taking the dog to the vet. For hall duty I had to keep going down the stairs  to tell students to not sit on the stairs. One of my friends hung out with me while I had duty so it wasn't too bad today.

As for the vet, it's for our super-cute but not super-friendly dog, Freyja.

Look at that pretty girl! I think she might be giving me her annoyed look but that's ok.

Freyja has had some trouble with her hips for a couple of years. We have heard so many different things but it seems like most vets thought it was probably hip dysplasia. We have been giving her some supplements and everything was going ok; She was sometimes stiff but could walk it off. In the past 2 or 3 weeks she was suddenly stiff all the time and sometimes yelped when she had to stand up. So, we took her to the vet and this vet said it is arthritis in her hips and legs as well as hip dysplasia. At the very least we now have anti-inflammatory meds that should help with the pain. We will see how well those work and we might have to go back in a week or two to discuss other options. Although we did not get awful news, it is stressful and I really hate seeing my "puppy" in pain. (Side note: I can't believe our little pup is 8.5 years old and we've had her for 7! Where does the time go?!)

Let's get to the silver lining.

In the past, I have eaten lunch alone. This school year I have been eating lunch with a few of my friends in the math department. Today I was tempted to skip (I only had about 10 minutes left in lunch after doing some basic documentation of the poor student behavior) but I decided to go say hi. They helped lift my mood so much! (Thanks Brianna, Lacy, and Will!) Lacy even gave me some candy. :D

Also, I have an awesome weekend to look forward to. Tomorrow Matthew, myself, and a couple of friends are taking a super quick trip to Austin and I've been promised that we will stop for boba tea. I haven't had boba tea in over a year! Saturday is Matthew's birthday and I get to bake him a cake. (I really love baking!) Sunday is our party for everyone who volunteered at Bell County Comic Con. Finally, Monday we will be hanging out with a couple of our friends (Hi Jo and Liz!) and playing board games.

A helpful tip to keep you from getting in a negative rut: start each day by writing down three things for which you are grateful. It will help you start your day on the right foot, even if the day ends up kind of blah like mine. Make sure to look at the list when you feel down. It might help put things into perspective.

-Clare G. S.

First Day of School, 2018

Good evening!
Today I finished my seventh "first day of school" as a high school teacher. It was exhausting but for the first time I still have my voice at the end of the day! I'm trying to focus on the positives of this school year:

• The math team in general and the Algebra 1 team in specific are awesome
• No, seriously, I'm so blessed to be working with people who are not only coworkers but also friends!
• I have ONE prep
• This is my third year teaching Algebra 1 so I feel pretty good about it. I don't have to stay up late figuring out what the crud to do the next day.

First day of school photo!

To help with accountability, the big buzzword this year at THS, I'm posting my two goals for the school year here.

Goal 1 - Take care of myself. I definitely have a tendency to want everything to be just so and I end up sacrificing my health and well being. It is not a healthy habit.

Goal 2 - Classroom Management. Freshman have a certain notoriety. I really want to stick to my discipline procedures. I like to give the students extra chances but it ends up causing a mess with students complaining that another student got a warning when the other student didn't and such.

I think I'm off to a good start. It's just after 10pm and I am ready to go to bed which means I'm at least taking care of myself when it comes to my sleep schedule!

Oh, before I go, you all should definitely watch this video that John Green posted back in 2012. I showed it to my students this year and I think it's just awesome.

-Clare G. S.