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Category Archives: BlogHer

NaBloPoMo 2012– November 30th: Blogging Daily

Friday, November 30, 2012
What has been the hardest part about blogging daily?

This month has been weird.

It started off with me quoting Lily Briscoe, Dumbledore, and Bon Jovi. It snowed a week after a hurricane, and I discovered that my dog is probably an alien. I tried to get #Bacon2012 to trend on Election Night, and I happily discovered just how much the POTUS Election results meant to me. I also talked about bacon, ghosts, and just how important it was that I found my voice again by going to poetry open mics. I cut my hair, took silly webcam pics, and thought about my future. I ended my first NaBloPoMo experience by being grateful for stickers, and really having peace in knowing that I’m on the right track for what I want to do with my life.

NaBloPoMo was a crazy month.

Most nights I’d get home from school, make the mistake of sitting on my couch, bitch about not wanting to get up from my couch, maybe go to work, get home again, shower, be too tired to cook dinner or pack a lunch, and moan and groan to myself about having to post for NaBloPoMo. In fact, most nights I ended up looking like this:

This was taken at work. I literally laid down on the office floor and contemplated going to sleep until my boss arrived for our meeting.

Writing every day has been difficult mainly because I have so many other things to do or worry about. There are lesson plans to write, worksheets to create, papers to grade, lunches to make, eggs to hardboil, and, if I’m feeling REALLY adventurous, my legs to shave. Sometimes I even have hair (on my head) to straighten. I’m literally exhausted all the time, and I have no freaking clue why I would to choose to partake in an entire month of feeling guilted into writing daily during my student teaching internship.

But you know what? At the end of the month, I feel both energized and exhausted.

Live and in person (or screen), it’s MEEEE! Notice the bags under my eyes.

I’m really glad that I took part in NaBloPoMo this month. Despite my complete and utter exhaustion most of the month, partaking in the challenge reconnected me with my blog, my blogging friends, and, most importantly, myself. It reminded me how much I love writing, and how important it is for me to do something I love. November has helped me realize how much I love both teaching in an urban school AND writing, and I hope to be able to continue to do both for the rest of my life.

Happy NaBloPoMo, folks. It’s been a lot of fun. <3

NaBloPoMo 2012– November 29th: Blogger Lovin’

Thursday, November 29, 2012
Tell us about three new blogs you found this year.

Okay, so I only got back on the blogging bandwagon in March, and I suck at following blogs. Going to BlogHer changed this for me, and it’s helped me be less terrified of RSS feed, following blogs, and feeling like I have blogging homework. It’s really hard for me to select only three blogs, but I’ll share the 3 latest blogs to show up in my inbox.

1. Life With Roozle

Life With Roozle is a wonderful blog run by Casey, who is pretty damn awesome. The blog chronicles her adventures with her ADORABLE daughter Roozle, her wife, MCB, and life in general. This is a totally sappy thing for me to say, but she’s living the life I want to live one day. I don’t think I’ve ever even told her this, but her blog gives me hope for my future, and that one day I’ll live a life filled with my own little family and love.  Plus, Roozle makes awesome plates of food.

2. The Brokins

So I discovered Jasmine and her blog AFTER BlogHer12. I’m really glad I did because she’s pretty awesome, hilarious, and probably my best Arkansas-ian friend ever. (Try to ignore the fact that she’s the only person I know in Arkansas.) I’m really looking forward to seeing her at BlogHer13 this summer, and I really look forward to her posts.

3. Up Popped A Fox

Vikki is hilarious. Most of her posts are slightly, dare I say it, random, but they always make me laugh. We met at BlogHer12. I introduced myself to her after she was tweeting about Laurie‘s boobs during a session Laurie was leading. She said she sometimes forgets other people can see her tweets, we made awkward small talk, and then I left to go get a 9,000th cup of coffee. (True story.) (Well, minus the 9,000 cups of coffee.) The bottomline is Vikki rocks, and you should check out her blog.

I’d list all the other blogs I love but, frankly, I’m exhausted. I need to sleep, as I have to get up in a few hours. You all rock.

NaBloPoMo 2012– November 28th: Heartbreakingly beautiful

(I’m forgoing today’s prompt because I don’t want to think about the worst trip I ever took.)

I’m currently sitting in my school’s cafeteria. This week was Common Assessment Week, which means all of the students in every grade level were taking the same assessment on the same topic on the same days. My students are frequently absent, and I told them I would be staying after school today for anyone who needs to make the Common Assessment up. Almost all of my students showed up, and one student in particular blew me away.

This student attends a vocational program in the afternoon. This student leaves halfway through my class everyday, and I haven’t really had the opportunity to bond with this student as a result. Today, this student showed up after school, out of breath, apologetic, and with a young child, a younger sibling, in tow.The younger sibling can’t be more than 5 or 6 years old. After 15 minutes of watching the sibling try to behave as my student worked on an essay, I dug into my bag and offered the sibling a half used sheet of robot stickers, some highlighters, and a piece of lined paper. The kid’s face lit up, and in between excitement it was explained their family doesn’t have stickers at home, that they only play with stickers “once in awhile.” My student bashfully explained that they only get stickers on the sibling’s birthday, and that stickers are a treat.

After the student finished the assignment, the younger sibling started to hand me the stickers back. I said to keep them, and you would’ve thought I was Santa Claus. There was so much excitement in that child’s eyes, and it truly warmed my heart. My heart also broke a little to realize that stickers are considered a rare treat to some. My childhood was covered with stickers… I can’t imagine being a little kid without them.

I was having a rough afternoon today. I was feeling pretty down after growing frustrated with one of my classes, and this interaction made me feel incredibly grateful for the opportunities I have had in life. Student teaching in the district I’m in has been a huge blessing, and, sometimes, the littlest interactions are validations that I’m doing what I should be doing with my life. Making a difference makes a difference, no matter how small the difference may be.

Plus, ya know, robot stickers are pretty freakin’ awesome.

Be jealous of Robbie the Robot, my new friend on my Macbook shell.

NaBloPoMo 2012– November 27th: Spanglish.

Today’s prompt reads

Tuesday, November 27, 2012
If you could instantly know any language in the world, which one would it be?

It’s funny that this is today’s prompt. I actually was discussing this with my cooperating teacher today. One of my biggest regrets so far is not learning Spanish. Although I enjoyed my 8 years of French, in retrospect, I realize that Spanish would have been a more practical choice…especially in my student teaching experience. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m student teaching in an urban district and loving it. However, the majority of my students (and their parents/guardians) speak Spanish as a first language. Michael Bloomberg speaks better Spanish than me.

I received an email from Amazon stating I could “save big” on Rosetta Stone this week. It would only cost me $300+ dollars to learn Spanish through their discount. I looked on Craigslist, and prices ranged from cheap scams to $500. There was also an offer for a complete Rosetta Stone set in exchange for a snow mobile. Ha.

I’m still looking for ways to learn Spanish, and I regret not spending time with Muzzy when I was younger.

Until then, I’ll share with you some of the few Spanish phrases I know… most of which are a) not school appropriate and b) I learned from students at school.

-pendejo (I learned this from my Dad when I was younger.)

-puta

-chichis

-concha

-mierda (I knew this one as well! French for shit is “merde.”)

Oh, and tying it back to the title of this post, I think “Spanglish” is Adam Sandler’s best movie ever. It makes me cry every time…and it totally made me want to learn Spanish even more. I think the film has an interesting way of depicting cultural divides in America….and is totally a beautiful love story.

NaBloPoMo 2012– November 26th: Je parle un peu de français.

Today’s prompt reads

Monday, November 26, 2012
Do you speak more than one language?  How did you learn the additional languages?

Once upon a time, about 12 (!!!) years ago, I wanted to be exotic, sophisticated, and cool. I signed up to take French for all 3 years of middle school, and I ended up parle-ing français my way through middle school, high school, and even my freshman year of college, for a grande totale of 8 years. By some sick joke, I ended up as an officer in my high school’s chapter of the Société Honoraire de Français. (L’homme qui sait deux langues en vaut deux!!!!!)

My French speaking skills are a joke.

I can read and understand a lot of French, but, as they (whoever “they” may be) say, if you don’t use it you lose it. Eight years of French have basically gone to waste, although I have been known to incorporate French phrases, words, and titles into my poetry when I don’t want anyone to know what I’m actually saying. (Or, on the contrary, if I want to make something really simple and lame seem exotic.) I really miss la langue de français, and I really hope to be able to speak it more in the future. I think I’m going to resurrect my French textbooks and even my French book of poetry…. I need some more French in my life.

Oh, and because ya’ll deserve this:

God help me, this is how I celebrated Mercredi Gras in high school. We could only stay after school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays so we arranged to have the annual French Club/ French Society celebration of Mardi Gras on Mercredi (Wednesday.)

Do you speak a second language?